Bella’s P.O.V.
The world outside had gone quiet.
It was just past midnight. The kind of hour when everything stood still—not with peace, but with anticipation. The sky outside the pack house was cloaked in heavy clouds, casting no moonlight, as if the heavens themselves were holding their breath with us.
The war room was lit only by the soft blue glow of the laptop screen and a single desk lamp, its light pooled over the keyboard where Blake sat hunched, eyes locked on the data streaming in.
We were all gathered. Matt and Ryan stood behind him, tense and unblinking. Aiden sat to Blake’s left, fingers drumming rapidly on the table. Rachel hovered close to the monitor, her wolf senses primed for anything out of place. Rose was beside me again, calm but focused.
And me? I was trying to k
