The smoke had barely cleared when the scouts arrived.
Celeste was leaning against a charred tree, sipping water from a scorched canteen while healers moved through the wounded. Her skin still buzzed with residual adrenaline, the ache of half-shifted limbs echoing through her bones. She hadn’t sat down since they extinguished the last of the corrupted nest.
Hunter stood a few feet away, speaking quietly with Logan and Lis about perimeter expansions and firebreaks. His knuckles were stained with blood, some theirs, most not. His shirt was long gone, his torso a patchwork of bruises and claw marks. He looked like war incarnate.
The first scout came from the eastern ridge, sweat-drenched and winded, with panic etched into every line of his face. “Alpha!” he called. “We found something!”
Ce
