*Chapter 23: The Messenger*
Seven years after the moot, the first sign of trouble didn’t come with claws or blood.
It came on horseback.
I was in the schoolhouse when the alarm bell rang. Not the fire bell. The border bell. Three slow rings. Unfamiliar pack.
The kids went quiet instantly. Lena had them under the desks in ten seconds. Old habit, new purpose.
“Stay here,” I told her. “I’ll check.”
Kade met me at the gate.
The messenger was young, maybe twenty. Human-looking enough that I almost missed the scent. Wolf. Lean, dusty, with a wound on his shoulder that had been stitched badly and was starting to fester. He didn’t look at Kade. He looked at me.
“Luna Vance?” he said.
“That’s me.”
“My Alpha sent me. He says you’ll want to hear this before the others do.”
Kade’s j
