Chapter 28 — Cassia Loses Control

Rain lashed against the packhouse windows, a relentless drumming that matched the storm inside Cassia’s chest.

She stood in the upper hall with Maera and Elder Corvin, waiting for a report that should have been hers by right.

The border patrol had returned, yet no one had come to her first.

She was the future Luna. She should stand beside Darius when danger touched their territory. Instead, whispers reached her before official words ever could.

Mira warned them.

Mira saw the attack first.

Fen protected her.

Cassia’s fingers tightened around the polished banister until her knuckles turned white.

She was not merely jealous. She was terrified. Mira was becoming useful before the pack could properly dismiss her, and usefulness was a currency Cassia could not afford to lose.

A warrior passed below, his voice carrying up the stairwell. He murmured to a companion that Fen had nearly surfaced when someone accused Mira of treachery.

The name Fen hit Cassia like a physical blow.

Sera surged beneath her skin, violent and desperate.

Cassia’s vision flashed silver. For one blinding moment, she did not see the hallway. She saw through a stolen memory: rain on Mira’s face, Darius standing as a shield, and Fen’s dark presence guarding a broken bond.

She felt Mira’s scar burning like an open door.

Cassia gripped the banister harder. Wood cracked beneath her enhanced strength, the sound sharp in the quiet hall.

Maera noticed instantly, her gaze sharpening with calculation.

The wolf inside Cassia did not envy Mira’s humiliation. It wanted to run to her. It wanted to tear out of Cassia’s ribcage and return to the only heart it recognized.

Elder Corvin broke the silence, his tone grim as he reviewed the patrol report Tovan had sent ahead.

Tovan had confirmed Mira’s warnings saved lives, but Corvin focused only on the anomalies. Marked rogues. Crescent scars. Mira hearing a retreat command no human should have perceived.

“She may be connected to the attackers,” Corvin said, his voice heavy with suspicion. “Or worse, she may be a conduit for something we do not understand.”

Cassia seized the opening instantly. The fear in her gut twisted into political opportunity.

“Then the pack should not praise her,” she said softly, her voice steady despite the chaos inside her. “It should fear her.”

Maera watched Cassia with cold approval, nodding once.

Mira had returned from the border with proof of her value. But Cassia was already preparing to turn that proof into an accusation that would bury her forever.

---

Mira was led toward the infirmary corridor so her exhaustion could be assessed away from prying eyes.

Nia waited anxiously outside the door while Galen stood guard nearby. Farther down the hall, Tovan spoke in low tones with Darius.

Cassia appeared before Mira could cross the threshold.

Her smile was perfectly arranged, but her eyes were too bright, feverish with suppressed panic. She congratulated Mira on surviving the border skirmish, the words tasting like ash.

Then she stepped closer, invading Mira’s personal space.

“How strange that the marked rogues knew you,” Cassia whispered, weaponizing the very miracle that had saved the patrol.

The air between them tightened, thick with unspoken violence.

Mira did not answer. She was too bone-deep tired to fear Cassia properly, and that exhaustion stripped away her usual careful deference.

Cassia leaned in, her voice dropping to a venomous hiss. “Stop reaching for things that do not belong to you.”

For once, Mira did not lower her gaze.

She looked directly into Cassia’s frantic eyes and spoke quietly. “If she is yours, why does she cry when I am hurt?”

Cassia’s perfect smile vanished.

Mira should have stopped there. But the border, the pain, the dreams, and Fen’s protective shadow all rose inside her at once.

She whispered a single name.

“Sera.”

Cassia’s body locked rigid. Silver flooded her eyes, drowning out the human pretense.

Cassia lunged forward.

For a heartbeat, everyone in the corridor thought she would strike Mira. Galen moved to intercept. Nia gasped. At the end of the hall, Darius turned sharply, his Alpha senses snapping to attention.

But Cassia’s hand did not close around Mira’s throat.

It reached tremblingly for the scar beneath Mira’s collar. Her fingers stopped mere inches from the mark, hovering as if touching a sacred relic.

When she spoke, the voice was broken. It was not Cassia’s voice.

“Home.”

The corridor froze in stunned silence.

Then Maera materialized behind Cassia and slammed a black ritual charm against her spine.

Cassia collapsed instantly. The silver vanished from her eyes, replaced by vacant unconsciousness.

Maera looked at Mira, her expression glacial. “You see? The girl provokes instability wherever she goes.”

Darius stepped forward, his eyes dark and unreadable as he stared at Cassia’s crumpled form.

Cassia had lost control for only one breath.

But in that breath, the false Luna’s wolf had reached for Mira like a child reaching for its mother.