*Chapter 24: The Decision*
The morning after Blackfang left, the pack didn’t cheer.
They cleaned blood off the ridge road, rebuilt the splintered gate post, and spoke the names of the three we lost at breakfast instead of lunch. That was how you knew they were really back. Grief came first. Celebration came later.
I spent the morning in the clinic. Two of the seven wounded would walk again. One wouldn’t. A kid from the east side, nineteen, with a leg that wouldn’t hold weight. He didn’t blame me. He blamed Blackfang.
“Good,” I said when he told me. “Hold onto that. Use it.”
Kade found me washing blood off my hands an hour later.
“Renn’s got the patrols doubled,” he said. “No one’s going near the ridge without backup.”
“Good,” I said.
He leaned against the doorframe, watchi
