My shoulders stay tight. I roll them once, twice. They don’t loosen.
“You said the eastern perimeter showed anomalies,” he says finally, crouching to examine a moss-covered rock with the ward sigil carved into its base. “But your wolves are looking in the wrong place.”
I stop, fold my arms. “And you know the right place?”
“I know the signs.” He straightens, eyes clear and cool. “The breach isn’t in the land. It’s in the pack.”
A spark of irritation flares under my ribs. “My pack is solid.”
Rafe just watches me, unblinking. The corner of his mouth quirks up, not a smile. A recognition.
“You never told me what happened to yours,” I say bluntly. “Not really.”
He looks past me toward the treeline. I expect him to deflect again. He doesn’t.
“My pack is gone,” he says simply. Not grief in his voice. Just fact. “Not dead. Gone. There’s a difference.”
He keeps walking. I follow, irritated at the position.
“You want to know what Faelan does?” Rafe asks quietly. “He doesn’t need magic to break wolves. He just needs cracks. Your Beta watches that girl from Shadow Peak like she’s the air he can’t breathe. Your Gamma paces circuits when he thinks no one sees. Your scouts check the same boundaries over and over, expecting different results.”
My jaw tightens. “I know my pack’s pressure points. I don’t need an outsider cataloging them.”
“Knowing them and protecting them are different things.” Rafe pauses at another marker, checks it with methodical attention. “My second thought her mate was Faelan. Killed her with his teeth in her throat before anyone could stop him. My fastest scout walked into the Fade believing it was home. Never came back.”
The words land cold in my gut. I think of Eli and Tomas this morning. The near violence over nothing.
“We’re not there,” I say, but my voice comes out harsher than intended.
“Not yet,” Rafe concedes. “But I’ve seen this before. First the tempers. Then the paranoia. Then the gaps in memory. Small at first. Where did I leave my knife? What order did Alpha give?” He pauses. “Why does my Beta flinch every time Harper walks by?”
I stop walking. “That’s pack business. Not yours.”
Rafe’s eyes narrow slightly, assessing. My defensive reaction told him exactly how deep that wound runs. My teeth grind together.
He glances toward the compound, then back to me. “Your wolves aren’t the only ones changing. Nova’s different since the Fade. You’ve noticed.”
“She’s healing,” I say flatly.
Rafe looks at me for a long, uncomfortable moment. Then he turns, continues walking the perimeter. His voice drifts back, quiet but clear.
“The moment you start fighting Nova instead of the thing inside her, you’ve already lost.”
I stand still. Jaw locked. Pulse loud in my ears.
Rafe walks ahead, leaving me behind. Not as a follower, but as someone forced to think.
Chapter 31
Nova
Istand at the far edge of the compound, watching Dane and Rafe emerge from the trees. Dane’s shoulders are rigid, his stride tight with restrained tension. Rafe walks beside him with that unnerving stillness, face unreadable.
This is my moment.
I turn away without hesitation, my boots striking the packed dirt with deliberate force as I head straight for Lyanna’s cabin. The sound announces my presence to anyone watching. I don’t look back.
The air shifts as I cross the invisible boundary of Lyanna’s wards. A subtle pressure against my skin, then release. The magic recognizes me now. Knows my frequency.
