His eyes shone with determination. “Then you’d better get ready. Because whatever they’re planning…it’s bigger than rogue attacks. Bigger than councils. Bigger than any alpha alive. I know it, I just don’t know what it is.”
Diesel grinned ferally. “Then we’ll find out. Sitting doing nothing, I was getting bored.”
Killian moved before anyone else could speak. He pushed away from the table, stalked over to the map pinnedon the wall, and tore it down so forcefully that the nails squealed against the wood. Then, he slammed it flat across the table between us, his palms braced on either side.
“Look,” he snapped. No one breathed. Killian jabbed a finger at the southern territories. “Rogue attacks start here. Conveniently small packs. Quiet. No one with allies worth a damn.” He dragged his finger higher. “Then here. Bigger packs, but still isolated. Close enough to lose help before it arrives.” His finger moved again, tracing a jagged, unmistakable path—each point a wound carved into the land. “And now here.” He tapped the Hollow’s border with a harsh finality. “Not random. Not scattered. A fucking map of intent.” He looked up at me. “And we didn’t fucking see it!”
And for the first time since I’d known him, Killian looked…betrayed.
“How long?” he asked the room, voice hard and trembling. “How long were they planning this? How many packs have they sacrificed just to tighten the noose around the throats of shifters? People they are meant toprotect?”
Jaxson swallowed. “Years.”
Killian slammed his fist onto the map. “And no one stopped them?”
“I think they made it so no one could,” Tariq said quietly. “They silenced anyone who questioned the patterns.”
“Silenced,” Killian echoed, eyes narrowing. “You mean eliminated.” Killian cursed, pushed off the table, paced once, twice, then ran both hands over his hair, his frustration evident. “They’re not just erasing packs,” he growled. “They’re erasing the entire structure of shifter law. Territory.Hierarchy. Magic. Everything. All of it is being pulled into this…this collapse.” His chest rose sharply. “And now we’re at the very fucking center.”
I met his gaze. “We know.”
“You should be angrier,” Killian snapped. “All of you.”
Rowen stood, calm and controlled, but fire burned behind her eyes. “Weareangry,” she said softly. “But anger doesn’t win wars.”
Killian huffed. “No. But it sure as hell fuels them.” He returned to the table, palms flat on the surface, head lowered as he stared at the map again. “This is so much fucking bigger than they didn’t want the Hollow to have an alpha at its head. It’s bigger thanexpansion. This is extinction-level shit.”
Silence once again filled the hall—thick, alert, vibrant.
Killian’s voice dropped to a harsh whisper. “And we stepped right into it when we came here.” His eyes lifted to mine. “You made this personal for them, for becoming alpha, for being Rowen’s true mate. For defying them. They’re coming for you first, Wolfe.”
I felt it then—deep in my bones, in my wolf, and in the land itself, humming at the edge of awareness.
He was right.
They were coming. Not to negotiate, not to intimidate.
To erase.
And I’d be waiting.
Chapter 25
Wolfe
The attack didn’t happenat dawn.
It arrived earlier—in a kind of darkness that felt chosen.
Cold. Breathless. Expectant.
I sensed it before the alarms went up—the shift in the wind, the drag in my wolf’s gut, the land tightening like a held breath beneath my feet.
They’re here.
Killian’s voice erupted through the link a second later. “North ridge. Movement. Fast.”
I was already running. Diesel caught up beside me, his boots pounding the ground, and his wolf snapping at the edges of his skin as if it wanted to break free and kill something.
