Korren did not rush.
That was the first mistake most Alphas made when they believed they had leverage. They mistook possession for victory, urgency for power.
Korren knew better.
He stood at the edge of the stone corridor, listening—not to the sounds within Holly’s cell, but to the silence around it. Wolves breathed. Fire popped softly somewhere above. The mountain settled in its ancient way, unmoved by conflict or blood or fate.
She hadn’t screamed.
That pleased him.
Fear that stayed quiet lasted longer.
“She’s awake,” one of his scouts murmured from behind him.
Korren didn’t turn. “I know.”
He could feel it. Not through any mystical bond—Korren had long since learned to distrust such things—but through pattern, through instinct sharpened by years of breaking packs from the insid
