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“Long enough to map them,” I confirm. Every head in the room turns toward me. I keep my voice even, measured. “My scouts picked up tracks last night and followed them back to a staging area roughly twelve miles northeast. Abandoned by the time we got there but recently used. Fires, supply lines, enough space for…” I glance at Marcus.

“Sixty wolves minimum,” Marcus says. First words he’s spoken. Everyone clocks him briefly, assesses him and his intel.

“Sixty,” Dutch repeats. “How does a guy who was just locked in a cell up until two weeks ago have sixty wolves under his command?”

“He’s been building up to this for longer than we realized,” Mia says, and there’s a tightness in her jaw that tells me she’s already been turning this over. And wrestling with the rage and betrayal that comes with this kind of truth. “Our scouts reported another camp a few hours’ drive from here.”

“That’s pretty far outside the boundary line,” Dutch says. “How do you know it was his?”

“Because they found Violet’s ID,” Mia says quietly.

Lexi goes pale.

Mia shakes her head. “To have built a camp and abducted Violet, not to mention the recon it would have taken to identify her in the first place… Ramsey didn’t just decide to do this after the leadership change. This was already in motion.”

“From a cell?” Dutch challenges.

“Before that, I think,” Mia says carefully. She looks at her alphas. “He used Lexi as a double agent. Was a double agent himself for years.” Lexi looks away guiltily. I frown, wondering about that part of the story, but then Mia looks at me. “You said he approached you. What did he have to offer?”

“Four days ago.” I hold her gaze for exactly one second longer than necessary. “He had funding, infrastructure, and a recruitment pitch that was too polished to be improvised.”

“Someone helped him build this,” Andy says.

“Behind our fucking backs the entire time,” Dutch says darkly.

“Remember when Franco took out Ramsey’s old man?” Razor says. “The asshole was so devastated. Reckless even. Dug himself a hole with the alphas. Really screwed himself.”

“Maybe it was all part of his plan,” Mia says.

“He’s smarter than we gave him credit for,” Lexi says quietly.

“He’s still a fucking idiot to challenge us,” Dutch grumbles.

“Both can be true,” Mia tells him.

For a moment, the room is quiet as they all exchange murderous looks. Razor has stopped eating. That, more than anything, tells me the mood has shifted to war.

“What about the recruitment angle?” Grey says, leaning forward. “Do we know who else he’s targeting? Anyone else he approached that we can warn—or bring in as allies, like Nash?”

Camila straightens slightly. Something in her expression shifts—careful, deliberate, the look of someone who has been sitting on information and choosing their moment. She glances once at Donahue, who gives her a small nod.

“I don’t know about recruiting to our side, but I think we’re losing more than we think,” she says.

“What do you mean?” Grey asks.

“Two of our newer patrols didn’t report for their shifts yesterday,” she says. “We assumed illness at first. But their quarters are cleared out.” She pauses. “Personal items. Gone.”

The temperature in the room drops.

“Defection,” Dutch says flatly. “Those assholes.”

“Possible,” Camila says. Her gaze flicks to Mia’s. “Or coercion. I knew both of them. They weren’t unhappy here. That’s what I can’t reconcile.”

“Who was it?” Mia asks.

Camila hands her a report. Mia scans it quickly, then looks back at her team leader. “You think Ramsey knew they were on our patrol teams,” Mia says quietly. “Targeted them on purpose.”

Camila looks at her and shrugs. “It’s what I would have done.”