Chapter 43
993 Words
Elara’s POV
Something was wrong with the Citadel, but I couldn’t name what.
It started small. Warriors I’d seen every day for weeks suddenly transferred to the perimeter. New faces in the tower corridors. Conversations stopping the moment I entered a room.
The kitchens used to be loud. Noisy.Greta had run them with efficiency but also with laughter. With ease. Now Greta was exiled after the poisoning,the new head cook was a woman named Marta who gave orders in clipped tones and watched everyone like they were threats.
“You’re slow today,” Marta said to me as I prepared vegetables. “The Alpha’s mate will need fresh food. Make it faster.”
No one spoke about Vivian by name anymore. Just “the Alpha’s mate.” Like she was a thing instead of a person.
I’d only interacted with her a few times since she’d come to the tower, but Vivian seemed kind. Uncertain, yes. Uncomfortable with the hostility. But kind.
Yet the kitchen staff treated her arrival as if it was a plague.
By the second week, the changes were more obvious.
Warriors began leaving openly. Not in secret. Just walking out of the tower with their belongings, refusing to give reasons. When I asked one, a warrior named Thorne who’d been friendly before, he just said, “I’m done here.”
Done with what? The pack?The Alpha? The girl?
He wouldn’t say.
The barracks were half-empty by day’s end. The training grounds went silent. Warriors who usually sparred now stood in small groups, talking quietly, their body language aggressive.
Mira came to help in the kitchens that evening. She was one of the younger servants, always friendly. Always listening.
“What’s happening?” I asked her quietly while we worked.
“The pack is dividing,” she said simply. “Some warriors think the Alpha’s choice to bond with the Solari girl is a mistake. They’re leaving.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because they think she’s dangerous,” Mira said. “Because they think she’ll get them killed. Because they think the Alpha should have married a Shadow Clan female instead of bringing a Solari into the heart of the pack.”
I’d heard these arguments before. But hearing them in whispers while we worked made them feel more real. More dangerous.
The supply movements started on the third week.
I first noticed it when I went to the grain stores to request flour for bread. The stores were almost empty. Entire sections that should have been full were depleted.
“Where are the supplies?” I asked the supply keeper, an old man named Corvic.
“Moved,” he said. Not looking at me. “Orders from above.”
“What orders?” I asked.
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to,” he said.
Which meant he didn’t know either. Or didn’t want to say.
But supplies didn’t move without reason. Food. Weapons. Armor. All of it being relocated somewhere. To the perimeter, I assumed. For defense against the Solari threat everyone whispered about.
Except no one was saying it was a threat anymore. They were just saying it was inevitable.
I started watching Kael.
Not investigating. Just… noticing. The same way I noticed when the soup was too salty or when a warrior was depressed.
Kael moved through the tower with complete calm. Completely unaffected by the divisions spreading through the pack. He would meet with warriors privately. Give orders. Adjust positions. And then move on like nothing was wrong.
Vivian had asked me once if I trusted him.
I’d said yes. He was the Alpha’s mentor. Of course I trusted him.
Now I wasn’t sure.
But I had no reason to distrust him either. He was just doing his job. Managing the pack. Preparing for threats.
Wasn’t he?
In the next hours, the atmosphere in the tower had changed completely.
Fear had replaced the initial hostility. Warriors moved like they were waiting for something. Kitchen staff worked in silence. Even the younger servants seemed subdued.
I was returning to my quarters that evening when I saw something that made my blood go cold.
Kael was in the war room. Late at night. Again. And he wasn’t alone.
A warrior I didn’t recognize was with him. They were looking at maps. The defensive maps of the Citadel.
The warrior had a sigil I’d never seen before. Not Shadow Clan. Something else.
My mind raced through the possibilities.
Solari?
No. That was impossible. The Solari were enemies. They wouldn’t be in the Citadel. They wouldn’t be meeting with Kael in the war room.
Unless.
Unless they were already inside.
I didn’t wait to see more. I walked past the war room like I’d seen nothing and went straight to find Silas.
He was in his quarters. When I knocked, Silas opened the door immediately. Like he’d been expecting someone.
“There’s a warrior in the war room with Kael,” I said without preamble. “Someone with a sigil I didn’t recognize. Not Shadow Clan.”
Silas was very still.
“Did anyone see you?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “I don’t think so.”
“Good,” Silas said. “Don’t tell anyone else what you saw. Don’t ask questions. Don’t investigate. Just… forget you saw it.”
“But…” I started.
“Elara,” Silas said, looking directly at me. “I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Then forget this,” he said. “And keep the other servants away from anything important. Keep them in the kitchens. Keep them safe.”
“Safe from what?” I asked.
Silas pulled me close but didn’t answer.
And the fear in his silence confirmed what I’d been suspecting.
Something terrible was coming.
And the people running the pack either didn’t know about it or couldn’t stop it.
- Writer
