Chapter Three
778 Words
I'd forgotten that Silver Ridge had expanded its medical facility two years ago — a project Kaiden's father had funded with great ceremony and even greater self-congratulation. Now the building felt different. The pack insignia above the entrance had been replaced. A new seal, darker and more severe, carved into stone above the door.
I didn't stop to study it.
Bex met me at the entrance.
My little sister had always been the prettier one — softer features, warmer coloring, the kind of face that made people instinctively trust her. Right now she looked like she hadn't slept in four days, which was probably accurate.
She grabbed me before I could speak and held on.
I let her. I pressed my face into her hair and breathed.
"He's stable," she murmured. "But he keeps asking for you. Every time he wakes up."
"I'm here now." I pulled back and studied her face. "What aren't you telling me?"
Bex hesitated — half a second too long.
"Later," she said. "See Dad first."
Our father, Callum Vane, had always been a large man. Strong-shouldered, deliberate in movement, the kind of quiet that wasn't emptiness but density. Seeing him diminished against a hospital bed did something violent to my chest.
He looked smaller. That was the thing that wrecked me.
"Sera-bird." His voice was rough but his eyes cleared the moment I walked in.
Sera-bird. He hadn't called me that since I was ten years old and terrified of thunderstorms.
I sat beside him and took his hand. His grip was still firm. I held onto that.
"I'm sorry I wasn't here," I said.
"You're here now." He squeezed my fingers. "That's what matters."
We sat quietly for a while. I told him about Petra, about the mountains, about learning to fight properly. He listened with his eyes closed and a faint smile that told me he was filing every detail away.
Then his smile faded.
"You've felt it, haven't you?" he said. "The pack. Something's different."
"The perimeter guards are new. The seal above the medical wing." I watched his face. "Where's Alpha Darek?"
A muscle in Dad's jaw moved. "Gone. All of them. Kaiden, his father, the whole inner circle."
My breath steadied deliberately. "Gone how?"
"Abandoned." The word came out hard and bitter. "The Ashveil pack declared war six months after you left. Darek tried to negotiate from a position of weakness — gave away territory, resources, loyalty. When it became clear the pack would actually have to fight, he made a private deal. Surrendered Silver Ridge's independence to protect himself and his bloodline."
The air in the room felt thicker suddenly.
"He surrendered the pack."
"Handed our borders over to the Ironveil and ran." Dad's eyes opened and found mine. "The Ironveil Alpha absorbed us. His name is Riven Cole."
That name.
I'd heard it exactly once — a cautionary reference in one of Petra's lessons about dominant bloodlines. She'd said it the way experienced wolves said anything about the Ironveil: carefully, without embellishment.
"How bad is it?" I asked.
"Depends who you ask." Dad turned his head slightly. "The pack is alive. Nobody starved. Nobody got slaughtered. Cole ended the Ashveil threat in eleven days."
"Eleven days."
"Eleven." Dad let that settle. "But he's not Darek. He doesn't perform warmth he doesn't feel. He expects absolute function from everyone. Patrol schedules, training rotations, hierarchy assessments — it runs like a military operation."
Nova stirred inside me, something unreadable moving through her.
"And everyone just accepted that?" I asked.
"What choice did they have, Sera? Darek left us to bleed." Dad's voice roughened. "Cole bled with us instead. There's a difference."
I sat with that for a long moment.
Then Bex appeared in the doorway. "He wants to see you."
I turned. "Who?"
Her expression was carefully neutral in the way that meant she was actively suppressing something. "Alpha Cole. He had you flagged when you entered pack territory. He's requested your presence at the main house. Tonight."
The back of my neck prickled again — the same sensation I'd felt in the car at the border.
He was already watching.
Dad's grip tightened briefly on my fingers before he released them.
"Chin up, Sera-bird," he said quietly. "Don't let him see anything you're not ready to show."
I stood. Smoothed my jacket. Felt Nova press forward like a shadow leaning into light.
"When have I ever shown anyone everything?" I said.
But walking out of that hospital room, I had the unsettling feeling that whatever was waiting for me at the main house —
It already knew more than I'd given it the right to know.
- Writer
