(Remi’s POV)

The forest was too quiet.

Too still.

Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.

I could feel it,the tremor in the air, the prickling unease crawling across my skin. My wolf stirred beneath the surface, restless and on edge. Every instinct screamed the same warning.

Something was coming.

I gripped the dagger at my thigh and scanned the ridge. The moonlight spilled over the trees, painting everything in cold silver. Soldiers patrolled the barricade, their movements sharp, disciplined. But beneath that calm rhythm was tension. Fear.

And I could taste it.

Then, a single sound shattered the stillness.

Whsssh!

An arrow, lit with fire, arced through the night sky and buried itself in the outer wall. For one long heartbeat, no one moved. Then a second arrow came. And a third.

By the time the fifth one hit, the ridge was chaos.

“Positions!” Atlas’ voice rolled across the grounds like thunder.

Even in the chaos, that voice commanded obedience. Every warrior snapped to attention as if the sound alone could anchor them. I wasn’t sure if I hated him or envied him for that kind of control.

But I didn’t have time to think about it.

The rogues came like shadows,feral, fast, and full of hate. I leapt from the wall, meeting one head-on. My blade found his ribs, slicing clean through, and his snarl turned to a gurgled gasp. Before he hit the ground, I’d already pivoted toward the next.

Claws flashed. Teeth snapped. The air reeked of smoke and blood.

I lost count of how many I cut down. It didn’t matter. The ridge was burning. The sky was screaming.

And through it all, I felt him.

Atlas.

I didn’t even have to look to know where he was,the air shifted differently around him, heavier, charged. When I finally caught sight of him, my breath stalled.

He moved like something otherworldly.

Half-shifted, his claws glinted under the moonlight, his hair matted with blood, his eyes glowing that unnatural silver that made him look more beast than man. Every strike was precise. Every kill, deliberate.

But what unsettled me wasn’t his power,it was how instinctively I matched his rhythm.

When he stepped forward, I fell back. When he turned, I covered his flank. We moved like we’d fought together all our lives, like our wolves knew something we didn’t.

He noticed it too. I saw the flicker in his gaze when we locked eyes between blows. But neither of us said a word. We didn’t have to.

Then, in the middle of the battle, I saw it,smoke rising from the eastern tents. The healers’ wing.

Moon.

My heart dropped. “Atlas!” I shouted over the noise. “The healers,”

“I see it!” he barked, cutting down a rogue.

“I’m going!”

“Remi,”

But I was already running.

I leapt over fallen bodies, ducked under collapsing beams, and sprinted through the flames. The heat scorched my lungs, but I didn’t stop until I reached the medical tents.

They were in ruins. Healers were screaming, dragging the wounded away as the fires consumed everything. And in the center of it all,Moon.

Her pale hair was streaked with ash, her hands glowing faintly as she pressed them against a soldier’s bleeding chest. “Stay with me,” she whispered to him, voice shaking. “Just stay with me,”

“Moon!” I called, skidding to her side.

She looked up, relief flooding her face. “Remi,thank the gods. I can’t hold the barrier much longer,”

Before she could finish, a rogue crashed through the flames behind her, all teeth and claws. I shoved Moon aside and raised my dagger, but he was too fast. His claws caught my arm, ripping through skin.

Pain flared hot and sharp.

I barely registered the snarl behind me before the rogue was yanked backward,lifted clean off the ground by the throat. Atlas slammed him into the wall so hard I heard bones crack. The creature hit the floor and didn’t rise again.

“You disobeyed me,” Atlas growled, turning toward me.

His face was smeared with soot and blood, his chest heaving.

I pressed a hand against my bleeding arm and glared at him. “And I saved your healer.”

For a moment, his expression was unreadable,half anger, half something else entirely. Then he stepped closer, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating off him.

“You’re bleeding,” he said quietly.

“I’ll live.”

He caught my wrist before I could pull away, his thumb brushing against the edge of the wound. The contact was electric, jarring. His hand was rough, but his touch was careful,too careful for a man like him.

“Don’t make me doubt that,” he murmured, voice low.

Something in my chest stuttered. I forced myself to look away. “You have more important things to worry about, Alpha.”

“Apparently, you’re one of them.”

Before I could respond, Moon gasped, her hands glowing weakly. “The barrier,it’s gone!”

The ground shook as another wave of rogues descended on the camp. Atlas turned toward the sound, his eyes blazing.

“Kieran!” he barked through the mind-link.

We’re surrounded, Alpha! Kieran’s voice came through the link, strained. They’re coming from the west.

Atlas cursed. “We hold here.”

I glanced at the flames, at the chaos surrounding us. “We can’t fight them all.”

He looked at me, his expression grim but steady. “We just need to survive until dawn.”

I drew a deep breath, wiped the blood from my face, and took my stance beside him. My body ached, but my spirit didn’t falter.

“Remi,” he said suddenly, his tone quieter.

“What?”

“If something happens,”

I cut him off. “Don’t. We’re both walking out of this alive.”

His lips curved into a ghost of a smile. “Stubborn woman.”

I smirked despite myself. “Alpha.”

And then the rogues came.

It wasn’t a battle anymore,it was survival.

Atlas charged into the fray first, his claws slashing through anything that moved. I followed close behind, every muscle burning, every breath ragged.

He was power.

I was precision.

Together, we were chaos.

When I stumbled, his hand found my waist, steadying me without hesitation. When he faltered, I covered him, cutting down anyone who dared approach. We fought until our bodies screamed for rest and our lungs burned from smoke, but neither of us stopped.

Because somewhere between the blood and the fire, something had shifted.

I wasn’t just fighting beside my Alpha.

I was fighting with him.

And it terrified me how right it felt.

When the first light of dawn finally bled into the sky, the rogues began to retreat. Their leader,a massive wolf with one blind eye,gave a guttural growl before disappearing into the woods. The rest followed like shadows melting into mist.

The silence that followed was deafening.

I stood there, chest heaving, blood on my hands that wasn’t all mine. Around us, the ridge was unrecognizable,burned tents, broken walls, too many dead.

Atlas turned slowly, scanning the destruction. When his gaze found me, his expression softened.

“You’re hurt.”

I looked down at my torn arm and shrugged. “Nothing fatal.”

He stepped closer, brushing a streak of soot from my cheek with his thumb. The gesture caught me off guard,it was gentle, unguarded. His touch lingered a second too long before he dropped his hand.

“We held,” I said quietly.

He nodded. “We did.”

For a moment, neither of us spoke. The sun rose behind him, casting light through the smoke, and I saw something raw in his eyes,fear, maybe, or relief.

Then Moon stumbled out of the healer’s tent, her eyes wide with horror.

“Atlas,” she whispered, voice trembling. “That wasn’t a random attack. They weren’t after the camp.”

Atlas’s jaw tightened. “Then what were they after?”

Moon’s gaze flicked to me. “Her.”

The world tilted.

For a heartbeat, I forgot how to breathe.

Atlas turned to me slowly, his expression darkening. “What did you do, Remi?”

I swallowed hard, the sound of my heartbeat drowning everything else out.

“I think,” I said softly, “someone finally found me.”