Chapter 1
Callum
Ben hits the ground like a stone, and for a heartbeat, I think he’s fucking with me.
“Very funny.” I scan the tree line, weapon half-drawn. “Get the fuck up.”
He doesn’t move. Doesn’t even twitch.
That’s when I catch the scent—metallic and sharp, like copper pennies heated over a flame.
I drop to one knee beside him, fingers checking for a pulse at his throat. Strong and steady, but his skin is burning hot. His eyes are open but vacant, staring at nothing.
“Ben.” I shake his shoulder. Hard. “Ben, what the fuck—“
Nothing. Complete shutdown, like someone flipped a switch.
My wolf surges, hunting for threats. No scent markers. No footprints in the snow except ours. No signs of attack, magical or otherwise. Just Ben, unconscious and radiating heat like he’s fighting off some fucked-up infection.
Thirty seconds ago, everything was normal.
We’d been patrolling the eastern boundary, discussing Derek’s new security grid and the pack’s latest additions. Ben had been animated—well, animated for Ben, which meant he’d strung together more than five words at a time—talking about how well the new couples were settling in. Amara and Gabriel Bronson from the old Cascade Pack, finding their place after their earth magic had made them outcasts. Mariel and Connor McBride, the lone wolves who’d been rejected everywhere else for their plant communication abilities.
And of course, Cassie and Kieran Shaw—Cassie, one of our best scouts and trackers who’d come from Shadow Peak, and Kieran, whose work building bridges between packs had proven invaluable. They’d been the first mated pair from Ash Hollow, proof that the pack’s acceptance of the different and dangerous wasn’t just talk.
“They want to belong here,” Ben had said, satisfaction clear in his voice.
That’s the difference, I’d thought.They chose this place. Chose us.
Two months since the battle in the Fade, and Ash Hollow had finally started feeling like home instead of a battlefield. Pack members who’d arrived broken and displaced had found purpose. The territory that once felt like borrowed space pulsed with genuine belonging.
Ben had glanced at me, expression unreadable. “They staying?” he’d asked.
I’d been certain in my answer: “They’re not just staying. They’re home.”
Now Ben is lying sprawled and unconscious in the snow, and my certainty crumbles.
Dane.I push the thought through the pack bond, sharp with urgency.Medical emergency on the eastern perimeter. Ben’s down.
The response comes back fractured, distorted like a radio cutting through static. Pain. Confusion. Then Dane’s voice, tight with something I can’t identify:Can’t respond. Nova—
The bond goes silent.
Ice slides down my spine.
I haul Ben up, slinging his dead weight over my shoulders. Whatever’s happening, it’s not isolated to one pack member.
The peaceful morning I’d been savoring transforms into a nightmare as I run.
Ben’s weight grows heavier with every step, his body heat radiating through my jacket like a furnace. His head lolls against my shoulder, breath shallow but steady. At least he’s breathing.
“Hold on,” I mutter, adjusting my grip as I navigate the eastern ridge trail. What should be a twenty-minute run feels like it’s taking hours with his dead weight across my shoulders.
The pack bond remains disturbingly silent. I push again, harder this time.Dane. Nova. Anyone copy?Nothing but static—like a radio scanning through dead channels.
Something is very fucking wrong.
I choose the faster route through Devil’s Pass—a narrow trail with exposed roots and loose rocks. Dangerous under normal circumstances, suicidal while carrying an unconscious Beta.
