By the end of the week, my days settled into a grueling rhythm.
Dawn: training with Tiernan and Kellan. Shifts, balance, scent drills, elemental exercises that left my muscles shaking and my brain buzzing.
Midday: rest, healing tonics, endless water, the occasional quiet conversation with Brenna or Nana or Eren in my new room.
Afternoon: strategic sessions in the hall with Elyra and Rian and, sometimes, Rhys—a crash course in pack politics, territory lines, and Summit negotiations. I learned more about border disputes and rogue activity in three days than I had in seventeen years.
Evenings: runs with the trainees, sometimes followed by controlled sparring, always followed by sore muscles and Tiernan stealing me away to practice grounding techniques or to walk the perimeter and listen to the earth’s slow heartbeat.
Nights: lying awake in my new bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling Ashra pace and stretch inside me, listening to the faint hum of Tiernan’s presence two floors up in the alpha guest wing.
I was…tired.
Bone-deep.
But I was also…alive in a way I hadn’t known I could be.
Each day, my wolf grew stronger.
Each day, my resentment of the pack twisted into something more complicated.
Affection. Anger. Pride. Hurt.
And curiosity.
Because while I’d always assumed I knew everything about Redwood Shadow—the way it ran, the way the hierarchy pressed down—I’d only ever seen it from the lowest rung.
Now, in Elyra’s afternoon sessions, I glimpsed the other side.
The maps of patrol routes, marked with little colored pins that tracked rogue sightings over the last five years.
The supply ledgers, showing how much grain we traded with neighboring packs and how much we set aside for hard winters.
The letters from smaller packs requesting aid—medicine, warriors, even just advice.
Elyra’s worry lines made more sense when I saw the numbers.
The first time she spread out the map of the northern border, my stomach clenched.
“You have that many rogue reports near the western ridge?” I asked, tracing the cluster of small black X’s.
“Yes,” she said. “Too many. Some are truly rogue. Some…we’re not sure.”
“What’s ‘not sure’?” I asked.
“Wolves who smell of more than one pack,” Rian said from across the table. “Not marked clearly. Not declaring alliances. Moving in patterns that look like scouting.”
“Spies,” I said.
“Potentially,” he agreed. “We don’t know for whom. Yet.”
Rhys, looming near Elyra’s chair, grunted. “Whoever set that fire,” he said. “I’d bet my rank on it.”
Tiernan leaned back in his chair, arms folded. “Stormwake has seen similar activity,” he said. “Scouts near our old stones. They keep their distance. They’re coordinated. They’re not just hungry rogues.”
“Old stones,” I said. “Like your storm-bind ring?”
His hand rose unconsciously to touch the iron circlet hanging on a leather thong around his neck.
“Similar ancestry,” Rian said. “Different manifestation. Your power likes rivers and the earth beneath. Ours likes mountains and sky.”
Elyra tapped a spot on the map where our territory bled into the gray area between packs.
“We think the ones testing our borders are connected,” she said. “Coordinated. Using old magic. Fire here. Lightning there. Ice further north, if the Frostfang Pack’s reports are accurate.”
“Elementals,” I said quietly.
“Yes,” Rian said. “Which means whoever’s gathering them either has a death wish or thinks they can control what our ancestors barely managed to ride.”
He didn’t look at me when he said it.
He didn’t need to.
I felt the weight of the implication.
*They will come for you,* Ashra said, not unkindly. *For us. They smell what we are.*
My skin crawled.
“Let them try,” Tiernan murmured, his gaze briefly seeking mine.
Rhys cleared his throat. “We’ve reinforced patrols along the western ridge,” he said. “But I won’t leave the Summit unguarded to chase shadows. Not unless I have proof one of our guests is involved.”
“We may have that soon,” Rian said.
All eyes turned to him.
He smoothed out a smaller parchment.
Symbols dotted it—old runes, circles, little marks that made my eyes itch.
“These are from Stormwake archives,” he said. “Patterns of elemental surges recorded during the last War of Brothers. When packs turned on each other, and old magic was weaponized.”
“History lesson later,” Kellan grunted from his spot near the wall. “Get to the point.”
Rian smiled faintly. “The point, Gamma, is that the pattern of fires and storms and freezes we’re seeing now matches one from those records.”
He tapped three points on the map—one near Redwood, one near Stormwake, one far north.
“Three surges. Three packs. All within a moon of each other. Back then, it was a coordinated effort by a splinter faction of alphas who believed the Goddess’s unification diluted their power. They tried to create a separate alliance of elementals. It ended badly.”
“How badly?” I asked.
“Three packs nearly razed,” Rian said. “Two alphas dead. Half a generation of elementals burned out. The survivors went to ground. Swore oaths. Hid their children.”
My parents’ faces flashed behind my eyes.
“And now,” Elyra said quietly, “someone is digging up those old ideas.”
Silence hummed.
“If this is true,” Rhys said slowly, “if someone is gathering elementals again, then Kaia is—”
“An asset,” Rian supplied. “Or a target. Or both.”
I swallowed.
“An asset,” Rhys repeated, tasting the word. “Yes. Which is why she will remain here. Under my protection.”
Tiernan stiffened. “We’ve been over this,” he said. “You don’t own her.”
“She is my pack member,” Rhys said. “Until she comes of age and chooses otherwise.”
“All the more reason to make sure she’s trained properly before someone tries to snatch her,” Tiernan shot back. “Stormwake has more experience with elemental wars. You know that.”
Rhys’s gaze sharpened. “If this turns into war, Voss, I will not send my only elemental away from my lands on the word of a foreign alpha whose father nearly brought down his own mountain.”
Tiernan’s fists clenched. “You do not get to use my father’s sins as a leash on my mate.”
“Stop,” Elyra said sharply, power rippling under her tone. “Both of you. We are not tearing this pack apart over hypotheticals.”
Kellan shifted, restless. “Arguments aside,” he said, “what’s our *plan*? If someone is poking our borders and throwing fire at our hall, we don’t sit and wait for the next surprise.”
Rian tapped the map again. “We watch,” he said. “We listen. We tighten our circles. And we send out a different kind of scout.”
His eyes flicked to me.
My stomach dropped. “No,” I said automatically.
“You haven’t heard the proposal,” he said mildly.
“I’ve heard enough,” I said. “I am not sneaking around the borders like bait.”
Tiernan’s jaw flexed. “She’s not leaving the wards yet,” he said. “Not with her control where it is. Not with saboteurs on both sides.”
Rian held up his hands. “No one is suggesting we throw her into the forest with a target on her back,” he said. “Not yet. My thought was…subtler.”
“That would be a first,” Tiernan muttered.
Rian ignored him. “We know there’s at least one elemental at play,” he said. “Possibly more. They lit that fire and left without getting singed. That suggests training. Discipline. And a motive beyond simple chaos.”
“Revenge,” I said. “Fear. Mistrust of packs. Same as your old rebels.”
“Perhaps,” he said. “But we don’t know. Which is where you come in.”
“No,” I repeated.
He sighed. “Kaia. You are…loud. Magically speaking. Any elemental within a few miles will feel you whether they want to or not.”
“Good,” I said. “Maybe it’ll scare them off.”
“Or draw them out,” he said. “If we know where they are winding, we can intercept. Talk. Question. Stop them before they decide burning another hall is good sport.”
Elyra’s brows drew together. “You’re suggesting…using Kaia’s presence as a…lure,” she said slowly.
“Lure is a harsh word,” Rian said. “Beacon. Anchor. Point of reference. Call it what you like. Elementals seek each other. That’s always been true. They might come closer to catch a sense of her. When they do, Tiernan feels them too. So does she. We track. Safely. Inside the territory.”
“And when they find me?” I asked, trying to keep my voice from cracking. “What then?”
“Then we make sure they understand they don’t need to burn everything to the ground to be seen,” Elyra said quietly. “If they’re willing to talk. If not…” Her eyes hardened. “We stop them.”
Ashra huffed. *We are not prey,* she said. *We are not helpless.*
“I know,” I said. “But I’m also not bait.”
Tiernan’s hand brushed mine under the table again—a quick, grounding touch.
“I won’t let them throw you into something you’re not ready for,” he said, half to me, half to the table.
Rian rolled his eyes. “I’m not suggesting we shove her through the gates with a sign that says ‘Free Elemental Inside,’” he said. “We start small. Controlled. We bring her to the western watchtower. See if the land hums differently. If she feels any…echoes.”
“Western watchtower,” I repeated. “The one near the ravine.”
“Yes,” Kellan said. “Stones there are…older. Like Stormwake’s, Rian says. Bound to something we haven’t named.”
“Oh good,” I muttered. “More mysterious rocks.”
Tiernan’s mouth twitched. “You like rocks,” he said. “You told me you used to collect river stones as a kid.”
I glared. “If I ever talk in my sleep again, you have my permission to stuff my mouth with socks.”
Rian snorted.
Elyra pinched the bridge of her nose, a faint smile tugging at her lips despite the tension.
“We’re not deciding today,” she said. “But we will need to, soon. Before whoever lit that fire decides their experiment was a failure and ups the stakes.”
Silence fell.
I felt every eye.
Old Kaia—the one who scrubbed pots and ducked towels—would have tried to be invisible.
New Kaia—the one with the wolf pacing inside and the mate staring at her like she held the weather in her hands—straightened her shoulders.
“I’ll go to your stones,” I said, surprising myself as much as everyone else. “To your watchtower. To…listen. To feel. But if I say stop, we stop. I’m not a weapon you point and fire.”
Rian nodded slowly. “Agreed.”
Elyra’s eyes shone, pride and worry warring.
Rhys’s expression was unreadable.
Tiernan’s gaze burned.
“On one condition,” I added.
Rian raised a brow. “Yes?”
“Brenna comes,” I said.
Everyone blinked.
“My omega?” Elyra said.
“Yes,” I said. “She’s more than just an omega. She knows the rhythm of this pack better than half your warriors. She hears gossip before Kellan hears patrol reports. If we’re looking for Elementals hiding in plain sight, we need ears like hers.”
Kellan’s mouth twitched. “She does have a talent for collecting…information.”
“That’s one word for it,” Rian murmured.
“I’m not going without her,” I said stubbornly. “Or without Eren.”
“Two omegas and a trainee,” Rhys said, incredulous. “On top of a half-trained elemental and a foreign alpha. This is not a picnic, girl. It’s a scout.”
“You said we weren’t leaving the territory,” I said. “You said it was *my* pack. My home. If I can’t bring the people who *made* it home to me, then I’m not going.”
Tiernan looked like he wanted to kiss me and shake me at the same time.
“We’ll need more warriors,” Kellan said. “But she has a point. Brenna hears everything. Eren knows the western trails like his own paws. If we’re sniffing out subtle patterns, we need different kinds of senses.”
Rhys glared at him. “You’re siding with her.”
“I’m siding with what works,” Kellan said. “You brought Voss in because our usual methods weren’t catching everything. Use the tools you have.”
Rhys’s jaw ticked.
Elyra laid a hand on his forearm, gaze firm.
“Kaia’s conditions are reasonable,” she said. “They keep her anchored to what she trusts. If we keep trying to wedge her between ranks like a blade in a crack, she will snap. And we *need* her whole.”
He looked between us—Luna, Gamma, Beta of another pack, the elemental girl he’d shoved into the omegas eight years ago.
Then, finally, he exhaled, long and put-upon.
“Fine,” he ground out. “But the *moment* I sense danger beyond what we can handle, I pull you back. I don’t care what Stormwake’s old stories say.”
Rian saluted lazily. “Understood, Alpha.”
Tiernan’s fingers tightened briefly around mine.
“When do we go?” I asked.
Kellan’s eyes flicked to the window, where the sky was already tinged with orange.
“Tomorrow,” he said. “Dawn. Before whoever’s out there realizes we’re sniffing.”
Ashra hummed, excited. *Field trip,* she said. *To old stones. And maybe a fight.*
I sighed.
“Wonderful,” I muttered. “I’ll pack snacks.”
Tiernan smirked. “I’ll bring the storm.”
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