REJECTED BY ONE ALPHA, CLAIMED BY HIS DEADLIEST RIVAL

THE MARCH

The war horn rolled through the night a second time, closer now, and Ariana felt the sound settle into her bones like a verdict already passed.

"How many," she asked.

"Enough that they wanted us to hear them coming." Lucien was already moving, shouting orders down the corridor before she'd finished the question. "Grier, full muster. Every warrior on the wall within five minutes."

"Yes, Alpha."

"Mira, get the healers ready. And find out if this is Kael's doing or someone acting without him."

Mira didn't wait for more instructions, disappearing down a side passage at a dead run. Ariana stood frozen in the corridor, the weight of everything Lucien had just admitted still pressing against her chest, now tangled up with the sound of an approaching army.

"You should be safe in the deep chambers," Lucien said, turning back to her.

"I'm not hiding while you go stand on a wall and possibly die."

"Ariana, this isn't the moment to argue with me."

"Then don't argue. Let me help."

"You don't even know how to properly hold a sword yet."

"Then give me something else to do." Her voice cracked with frustration and fear tangled together. "I'm not going to sit in a locked room wondering if you're dead while a war I apparently caused happens outside these walls."

Something in his expression softened despite the urgency around them. "You didn't cause this."

"Feels like I did."

"Kael proposed a choice. Someone attacked my walls tonight. None of that is because of anything you did. It's because of what other people decided to do with what you are." He reached out, gripping her shoulder briefly. "Stay near Mira. She'll keep you safer than any locked room could."

Before she could respond, Grier appeared at the end of the corridor, already armored, expression tight.

"Alpha. You need to see the wall yourself."

They moved fast through the stronghold, warriors streaming past them in every direction, torches lighting the courtyard in flickering gold as the entire pack scrambled into formation. By the time they reached the outer wall and climbed to the ramparts, Ariana's breath caught in her throat.

Torches lined the horizon, dozens of them, maybe hundreds, stretching along the tree line like a river of fire. And at the front of it, unmistakable even from this distance, rode a familiar figure.

"That's Kael," she said.

"It is." Lucien's jaw was tight as stone.

"He said he'd give me seven days."

"Apparently he changed his mind."

Grier leaned over the wall, studying the approaching force with a warrior's calculation. "That's not a full Silverfang muster, Alpha. Maybe a third of their strength."

"Meaning."

"Meaning either this is a show of force, not an actual assault. Or he's moving fast, without full council approval."

"Or both," Lucien said grimly.

The riders slowed as they approached the tree line's edge, stopping just outside the range of Blackthorn's outer defenses. Kael dismounted alone, walking forward until he stood close enough to be heard without shouting.

"Lucien," he called. "I need to speak with her. Now."

"You have a strange way of requesting a conversation," Lucien shouted back. "Marching an army to my gates in the middle of the night."

"I didn't march an army. I came with an escort large enough to make sure nobody interferes with what I have to say." Kael's eyes lifted, finding Ariana on the wall above him. "Ariana. Something happened tonight. Something you need to know before this goes any further."

"I'm not coming down there," Ariana called back.

"I'm not asking you to." Kael's voice carried an urgency she hadn't heard from him before, something stripped of the pride and posturing from the council chamber. "The traitor on our council. I know who it is."

Silence spread across the wall.

"How," Lucien demanded.

"Because they came to me tonight," Kael said. "Tried to convince me to move against Blackthorn immediately, before the seven days were up. Tried to convince me the Moonblood needed to be secured before anyone else could claim her."

"And you refused," Ariana said.

"I refused." Kael's gaze didn't waver from hers. "Which is why I'm standing outside your walls right now instead of leading an actual assault. I came to warn you, not attack you."

"Convenient timing," Lucien said, voice edged with suspicion. "Right after we discover a Silverfang ring on a dead assassin."

"I know about the ring." Kael's expression darkened. "Because the elder who ordered tonight's attack is the same one who tried to convince me to march on you an hour ago."

Ariana's stomach dropped.

"Who," she demanded.

Kael's jaw tightened, something raw and furious moving behind his eyes as he said the name that would change everything.

"Elder Corvin," he said. "My own father's oldest advisor. The man who's been shaping Silverfang policy since before I was born."

The wind shifted across the wall, carrying smoke from the torches below, and Ariana felt the ground tilt slightly beneath her feet.

"Why would he want me," she asked. "What does he actually gain from any of this?"

Kael's eyes lifted to hers, and for the first time all night, real fear flickered behind them.

"Because Corvin isn't loyal to Silverfang," he said. "He never was. He's been working for someone else this entire time. Someone neither of us has ever met."