Chapter 32

Kade

The rest of that night passed without incident, though incident, Kade was beginning to suspect, was simply taking its time.

Ezra called a council at first light, the whole expedition gathered around the cold remains of the previous night's fire, exhaustion and unease sitting heavy over every face in the circle.

"We have two choices," Ezra said, without preamble. "Push further into the ruins, see what else that vault might tell us, or pull back now with what we've already learned and regroup somewhere safer to plan our next move. I won't pretend either option is obviously right."

"Wren needs rest," Kade said, before he could stop himself, aware of how it sounded even as he said it — proprietary, protective, more than his actual authority in this expedition technically justified.

"Wren can speak for herself," Wren said, though without real heat in it, more tired amusement than actual annoyance. "And Wren agrees, mostly, though not for the reasons you're implying. Whatever's out there knows we're here now. That vault didn't just show me the past — I think it registered my presence, actively, the second I touched it. If something's coming, I'd rather meet it somewhere we've chosen than somewhere it catches us still stumbling through unfamiliar ruins."

The debate that followed was shorter than Kade expected, the whole expedition apparently arriving at similar conclusions independently: retreat to the rendezvous clearing at Ashenmoor's border, defensible ground they'd already secured once, and regroup there before deciding on a longer-term plan.

They broke camp within the hour, and it was perhaps three hours into the return journey, the ruins finally fading behind them into the twisted, silent trees, that Torren's low warning cut through the column's quiet march.

"Movement. Northeast ridge."

Kade's hand found his blade before his mind had fully processed the warning, old instinct from a lifetime of border patrols taking over faster than conscious thought. Around him, the expedition tightened formation with the same practiced speed, five packs' worth of wolves who might not fully trust each other yet but clearly, entirely trusted the value of not dying stupidly.

"How many?" he called back to Torren.

"Can't tell yet. Moving careful. Could be scouts."

They didn't have to wait long to find out. Three wolves broke from the tree line ahead, low and fast, and Kade's stomach dropped at the sight of the marks burned into leather at their throats — the same inverted crescent moon that had started this entire expedition, worn openly now instead of hidden, like whoever sent them wanted to be recognized.

"Ashenmoor's brand," Rurik confirmed, already moving to intercept, sword drawn. "They're not hiding anymore."

The fight that followed was fast and ugly, three brand-marked wolves fighting with a coordinated ferocity that told Kade immediately these weren't simple rogues — trained, disciplined, moving like soldiers rather than desperate scavengers. He took the first one down hard, blade finding its mark before the wolf had fully registered the attack, but the other two pressed toward the center of the formation with unsettling precision, and Kade understood, with cold clarity, exactly what they were actually after.

They weren't attacking the expedition. They were trying to reach Wren.

"Wren!" He was already moving, cutting through the chaos toward her, and found her already fighting, power flickering at the edges of her movements, a brand-marked wolf lunging for her throat and finding empty air the same way the rogue had six years ago, her vanishing trick buying her the half-second she needed to turn the attack aside.

But the wolf recovered faster than the rogues from six years ago ever had, twisting mid-stride to correct for her disappearance with unnatural speed, and Wren, still recovering from a night with almost no sleep and a vision that had hollowed something out of her, wasn't quite fast enough to avoid the second strike entirely. Claws caught her shoulder, tearing through leather and skin both, and her cry of pain was the only thing Kade needed to hear to close the last of the distance between them at a dead run.

He put himself between her and the brand-marked wolf without a single conscious thought involved in the decision, blade meeting claws with a force that staggered them both, and finished it two strikes later with the kind of brutal efficiency five years of quiet, grinding discipline had built into him without his ever particularly wanting it there.

The third wolf broke and ran the moment the other two went down, vanishing back into the twisted trees before anyone could pursue, and the ambush ended as fast as it had begun — brutal, brief, and considerably more informative than anyone wanted it to be.

"Let me see it." Kade was at her shoulder before the adrenaline had even fully cleared, hands careful despite the urgency, pulling her torn leather aside to check the damage. The wound was ugly but shallow, already beginning to knit at the edges the way pack healing generally allowed for injuries that weren't immediately life-threatening. "You're going to be fine. It's not deep."

"I know it's not deep." Wren's voice came out steadier than her hands, which were shaking now that the fight had ended and her body had caught up to what it had just survived. "That's not what's frightening me."

"What is."

"They came for me specifically. Not the expedition. Not intelligence, not territory — me." She looked up at him, something raw and afraid beneath the composure she usually wore like armor. "The vault said waiting, Kade. I thought that meant patient. I didn't think it meant they already knew exactly where to find me the second I got close enough to look."

Kade didn't have an easy answer for that, and didn't try to manufacture one. He simply stayed close, one hand steady against her uninjured shoulder, while Ezra and the others checked the fallen brand-marked wolves for anything useful — weapons, supplies, any hint of where they'd come from — and the rest of the expedition regrouped around them with the particular grim efficiency of people who now understood, beyond any doubt, exactly how real this threat actually was.

"We need everything we can learn from these two," Ezra said finally, straightening from his examination of the bodies. "And we need to get Wren somewhere properly secure, fast. Whatever's organizing this, it knows enough to send trained fighters specifically after her. That's not a threat we handle by wandering around unfamiliar ruins anymore."

Wren nodded, some of her usual composure reasserting itself even through the lingering shake in her hands, and Kade found himself watching her rebuild that armor piece by piece with a mixture of relief and quiet ache — relief that she still could, ache at how much it clearly cost her every single time she had to.

"Back to the rendezvous point," she said. "Then home. Whatever comes next, I'd rather face it from Nightshade ground, with my whole pack behind me, than out here where they clearly have the advantage."

Nobody argued with her. Kade, riding close beside her for the rest of that tense, watchful day, found he wouldn't have wanted to even if he could.