Beta Luca’s POV
The ride back to Shadowfang territory was longer than usual. Not in distance, but in the weight that clung to my chest with every mile I crossed.
The mountain air was colder tonight. Sharp. Biting. But it wasn’t the wind that left me on edge.
It was the silence, the kind that came after a storm, and before another began.
I’d only been gone for weeks.
And in that time, the cracks I’d tried to seal with blood, bone, and loyalty were already starting to split wide open.
The moment I passed the perimeter guards and caught sight of the packhouse, I knew something was off.
Wolves lingered where they shouldn’t be, clustered near the east wing, murmuring like shadows.
The patrol wolves nodded at me but didn’t meet my gaze. Something was wrong.
I didn’t stop at my quarter
