Lies in her lips

8

The Alpha’s parting words—that arrogant, half-amused challenge to follow him if we wanted to see how a real pack guards its borders—hung in the air like a lingering spark.

I leaned back against the cool masonry, crossing my arms over my chest and watching Alexandra. Her jaw was set so tight a tiny muscle twitched in her cheek, though the subtle wisps of chill mist pooling around her boots were already starting to melt away into nothing.

"Well," Denise drawled, tossing her dark hair over her shoulder and leaning heavily against the wall. "'If you want to see how a real pack guards its borders, keep up.' He really knows how to lay on the charm, doesn't he?"

"He's pushing your buttons, Alex," Aurora chimed in, a sharp, teasing glint in her eyes as she swirled a microscopic fleck of ice between her fingers. "He wants to see if we're going to stay up here sipping herbal tea, or if the divine princesses actually know how to walk a perimeter line."

"I don't care about his games," Alexandra shot back, her cheeks flushing a faint, betraying pink as she faced us.

"But Andrei and Leona were right in the council. If we're going to merge our magic with their frontline defenses against Marcus, we need to know how their physical security functions. We can't weave defensive light or mist warded runes over a patrol pattern we don't understand." Alexandra said in a serious tone.

"So we're actually going out there?" Denise asked, raising an eyebrow. "Because I was personally leaning toward a second round in the kitchen."

I stepped forward, letting my own radiant energy hum softly beneath my skin as I glanced out the tall arched window.

In the central courtyard below, wolf warriors were already buckling on silver-lined leather armor, checking longbows, and testing the weight of heavy broadswords.

"Alex is right," I said, bringing my sisters' focus back to me.

"Demeter's posturing aside, inspecting their northern tree line is the smartest move we can make. Marcus’s scouts are actively fanning out through the forest. If we check their boundary stones, I can weave hidden light runes into their perimeter markers to mask the entire pack's magic from Sanguine scrying spells." I said.

"And," Aurora added, giving Alexandra a sharp nudge with her elbow, "you get a front-row seat to watch your Alpha in action. For research, of course."

"He is not my Alpha," Alexandra insisted, a tiny puff of freezing air bursting off her lips as she glared at Aurora.

"This is about strategy. If their outer line breaks, Marcus marches straight to the keep."

"Right, purely strategic," Denise snorted, though she reached down to double-check the dagger strapped to her thigh.

"Fine. Let's go see how these wolves run their perimeter. But if any vampire scouts show up in the brush, I get first crack at them."

"Deal," I said with a faint smirk, tightening the rune-engraved leather cuffs around my forearms. "We have ten minutes before the unit rides out. Grab your cloaks. We go out there as allies, but we observe as goddesses."

I glanced back down at the courtyard one last time. Demeter was mounting a massive black warhorse, his sharp golden eyes flashing up toward our window for a fraction of a second before he pulled his dark cloak over his shoulders.

"Goddesses first," I reminded them quietly, turning back toward the stairs.

"Always," my sisters answered together.

(At the boarder of silvermoon pack)

Cold wind swept off the northern pines as we stood along the ridge overlooking the outer border.

Down in the tree line, Demeter was a force of nature—his golden eyes gleamed as he barked commands, leading the Silvermoon frontline guards through high-speed patrol maneuvers to intercept any encroaching Sanguine scouts.

Beside me, Aurora drew back her sleeves, her hands glowing with soft radiant light.

"Keep your eyes on the trees, Glaznia," she murmured, a faint smirk touching her lips.

"The Alpha’s got the muscle covered, but we need these markers hidden.” She remaineded me.

"Working on it," I replied, kneeling on the cold earth beside a massive perimeter rock.

While Demeter and his wolf units drew the attention of the surrounding woods, Aurora and I quietly went to work along the border stones.

I focused my radiant magic into my fingertips, pressing delicate, glowing spatial runes deep into the ancient granite to mask the territory's signature from blood-tracking scrying pools.

Beside me, Aurora wove threads of light through my marks, sealing the runes into the rock so they would remain completely invisible to the naked eye.

A few paces behind us, Alexandra and Denise were handling the heavy offensive layer.

Denise stood tall, her hands surging with dark magic as she manifested dense shadow energy to weave a forward shield directly into the perimeter barrier.

"If any vampire thralls slam into this line, they won't just hit a wall," Denise muttered, her eyes narrowing as she calibrated the ward's impact stats.

"They're going to get hit with enough concentrated force to shatter their vanguard."

"Let me add the finishing touch," Alexandra said softly.

Stepping up beside Denise, Alexandra carved complex spatial runes in midair with precise, sweeping motions. Thick, deathly mist seeped from her palms, flowing straight into Denise's shadow barrier and lacing it with lethal, suffocating power.

Alexandra glanced out toward Demeter, who had just dropped a rogue scout in the brush with brutal efficiency.

She smirked, her fingers making a final sharp motion that locked the deadly mist-trap into the barrier.

"There," Alexandra drawled, flicking a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"Now if anyone tries to touch our barrier, they won't just bounce off—they'll turn into gray ash before they can even scream."

"Not bad, sister," I called back over my shoulder, finishing the last light rune on the border rock.

"The pack holds the front line, but with our magic locked into these borders, Marcus won't even know what hit him."

“Indeed” aurora agreed.

A low, dangerous hum of residual magic rippled through the northern ridge as Alexandra sealed the final thread of lethal mist into the outer barrier.

"Done," Alexandra murmured, lowering her hands as the thick fog melted seamlessly into Denise’s shadow ward.

Down in the rocky valley below, Demeter stood wiping a trace of dark rogue blood from his blade.

His golden eyes suddenly snapped upward, locking directly onto the ridge where the four goddesses stood. Even from a distance, the sharp, magnetic pull between him and Alexandra crackled through the air.

He gave a curt nod of recognition before turning his attention back to the perimeter line.

"Well, the barrier offensive stats are fully maxed," Denise said, dusting off her leather gloves as she stepped back beside Glaznia.

"If Marcus's walk cross this line, they're getting cremated."

Before Aurora could reply, a sudden rustle of dry leaves and the snapping of heavy twigs echoed from the dense pine brush twenty yards behind them.

Glaznia’s hand instinctively dropped to her side-blade as two pack guards burst into the clearing, dragging a heavy, broad-shouldered wolf in iron restraints.

The prisoner’s gray fur was matted with ash, and his jaw was bound shut by a heavy iron muzzle.

"Hold!" Alpha Demeter’s deep voice boomed as he crested the ridge, his heavy boots crunching against the frosty earth.

His charcoal tunic was dusted with snow, and his golden gaze burned with a terrifying heat as he closed the distance between them.

The guards forced the rogue down onto his knees on the cold flagstone trail.

Demeter crossed his broad arms, stepping over the fresh rune line Glaznia and Aurora had just concealed. He looked down at the captive with cold finality.

"I'll make this very simple," Demeter said, his low baritone vibrating off the surrounding trees.

"You were caught skulking right where our barrier wards were freshly anchored. Who sent you? Was it Marcus's blood scouts, or are you acting on your own?"

The rogue wolf glared up at Demeter, his jaw locked tight behind the iron muzzle. He offered no answer, letting out only a contemptuous snort through his nostrils.

Demeter leaned down, bringing his sharp golden eyes level with the intruder's. "You carry the scent of blood-tracking magic on your hide. Speak, or I guarantee you won't like where you spend the rest of this night."

The rogue merely spat a trace of blood onto the snow near Demeter’s boots, his eyes completely dead and unresponsive.

Alexandra stepped up beside Demeter, her chilling mist curling lightly around her fingers. "He won't talk out here, Alpha. His loyalties are bound by darker magic than simple fear."

Demeter’s jaw clenched tightly, his golden eyes flaring before he straightened to his full height.

"He refuses to speak. Take the muzzle off long enough to chain his arms to the back ring, and drag him down to the deepest dungeon in the east wing."

"Yes, Alpha," the guards responded, seizing the rogue's heavy iron chains.

"Throw him in the lower pit," Demeter added cold-heartedly as the guards dragged the silent wolf away toward the keep's underground cells. "Let him rot in the dark until he decides his tongue is worth using."