Two weeks.
That was how long it had been since the missing guards were found.
Two weeks since the truth about the King had crawled out of the shadows and wrapped its cold fingers around Polaris.
Two weeks since Kael had sent word out to every Alpha he knew—and several he didn’t—calling for an urgent meeting.
And yet, nothing.
No date.
No location.
No agreement.
From what I gathered, the Alphas of the surrounding territories loathed one another just enough to make cooperation feel like a personal insult. Old grudges, blood debts, stolen land, broken alliances—centuries of history boiled down to pride and paranoia. No one wanted to set foot into another Alpha’s territory. No one wanted to be the one to lower their guard first.
And so the world hovered on the edge of something terrib
