Alpha’s office, carved from dark wood, felt too small for the tension within.
“She should be back by now,” he said, his voice cutting through the heavy silence, strained and fraying at the edges. “It’s been too long.” Togi turned sharply, frustration finally breaking through the thin restraint he had been clinging to. “What if they’ve already figured it out?” he demanded, the words spilling faster now, edged with something dangerously close to panic. “What if they know we’re here, that we’re working together, that she’s not theirs anymore?”
At that, Aoni’s gaze found his.
“Togi,” Aleksei said irritated, “stop.”
Togi let out a sharp breath, dragging a hand through his hair as he turned away. “Don’t tell me to stop,” he snapped. “You think I’m making this worse? She’s surrounded by them, playing a game where one mistake gets her killed, and you want me to stand here and pretend everything is under control?”
“You’re not helping her by losing control out here,” Aleksei shot back, pushing himself off the wall. “You’re helping them.”
Togi stilled for a fraction of a second, the words sinking in whether he wanted them to or not, before he resumed pacing, slower now.
“If they suspected her,” Rylan finally spoke, “we wouldn’t still be waiting.”
Togi stopped again, turning toward his father. “And how exactly are you so sure?”
Rylan met his gaze without hesitation. “Because they would want to surprise us,” he replied.
Aoni straightened slightly, though something beneath it betrayed a flicker of unease. “He’s right,” he said. “If the Inner Circle doubted her, they wouldn’t keep her close long enough for us to question it.”
“Or worse,” Rolak muttered, his voice low, almost to himself.
Togi let out a humorless breath. “That’s supposed to reassure me?”
“No,” Alpha said.
All eyes turned to him. He stepped forward. “You are not meant to feel reassured,” he continued, his gaze moving from Togi to Rylan, then to Aleksei, weighing each of them in turn. “You are meant to stay focused.”
Aoni exhaled quietly, rubbing the back of his neck as he spoke again, softer this time. “She knew what she was walking into,” he said. “And she chose it.”
Aoni’s phone buzzed.
He froze for a fraction of a second before pulling it from his pocket, his eyes scanning the screen.
“What is it?” Togi asked.
Aoni didn’t answer right away, his thumb hovering for just a second longer than it should have. Then he looked up. “She made contact,” he said.
Aoni’s gaze darkened as he continued reading, the tension returning sharper than before.
“They have a captive,” he added.
Rolak straightened, his voice tightening. “What kind of captive?”
Aoni’s jaw set.
“A she-wolf.”
Alpha’s expression hardened.
Togi went very still. “What does that mean?” he asked quietly.
Aoni met his eyes. “It means,” he said, “the game just changed.”
Alpha’s gaze shifted until it settled on Rylan, as if weighing not just the man but the unseen forces moving behind him.
“Is your wife coming with the backup?” he asked.
Rylan fingers brushed once against the edge of the table that betrayed the storm beneath his composure.
“Yes,” he said at last. “She’s coming.” His voice steadied, though a faint tension lingered beneath it. “She took our strongest.”
Aleksei let out a quiet breath through his nose, arms folding tighter across his chest. “Which means,” he muttered, “she expects this to turn ugly.”
Rylan’s expression didn’t change, but his eyes darkened slightly. “It already has.” He paused, then added, more quietly, “I just hope they arrive in time.”
Aoni shifted his weight. “How many are we expecting?” he asked.
Rylan exhaled slowly measuring the answer before releasing it. “We don’t know exact numbers,” he admitted. “The Inner Circle hides their numbers well.” His gaze flicked briefly toward Alpha. “But if they believe they can crush you in one strike…” He hesitated. “…I’d expect between one or two hundred.”
Even Rolak straightened fully now, the last trace of ease gone from his posture. “A few hundred,” he repeated, low. “That’s definitely a plan for execution.”
“Only if we let it be,” Alpha replied.
He stepped toward the table, where the map lay stretched across the wood.
“The clearing,” Alpha said, placing a hand on the map. “North of the old sawmill. Narrow approach from the east, dense tree line to the west.” His finger traced the perimeter slowly. “We chose it because it limits movement. Forces them inward.”
Rolak leaned in, his shadow falling across the map.
“We’ve layered the scent trails,” Aoni said. “Old, fresh, overlapping. Enough wolf presence to make it believable.”
Rolak’s mouth curved, not quite a smile. “They won’t come as one mass,” he said. “They’ll spread. Flank. Probe the edges before committing.”
“And that’s where the traps come in,” Alpha said.
His finger tapped three points along the clearing’s edge.
“Here,” he continued, “and here, and here.”
Aoni pointed to the tree line. “We’ve set blind corridors that will look like escape routes. Wolves will be waiting in the branches.”
Togi’s eyes flicked up. “Ambush from above.”
“From everywhere,” Rolak corrected.
A silence followed that, thick with the shape of what was coming.
Rylan studied the map a moment longer, then spoke again, quieter now. “And Arina?” he asked.
The question shifted the room.
Aoni’s gaze didn’t leave the map. “She brings them in,” he said. “Makes them believe they’re walking into an advantage.”
Togi’s jaw tightened again. “And if something goes wrong?”
Alpha’s hand stilled on the table. “Then we adapt,” he said simply.
Rylan exhaled slowly, running a hand down his face. “If the numbers are what I think they are,” he said, “this won’t be clean.”
Rolak let out a low, humorless chuckle. “War never is.”
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