—Natasha's POV—
The fault line that had been trembling beneath Ashbourne for weeks finally ruptured with a soundless, societal cataclysm. It wasn't a single battle or a declared war; it was the slow, sickening tear of a community rending itself in two along a seam of conflicting ideologies.
The fragile tension, held together by tradition and the looming Full Moon, could no longer contain the pressures of a flawed Bonding and two Alphas at each other's throats.
The Zane Loyalists: They became a bastion of ferocious, traditionalist fervor. Their headquarters was the Black Crest Garage, a cavernous space that now felt less like a workshop and more like a war room. The air reeked of high-octane fuel, testosterone, and a simmering, righteous fury.
They were the wolves who believed in the
