Chapter 103 – The Calm Before the Blood
Sunlight filtered through the canopy, casting golden spears of light across the forest floor. The air was thick with summer heat and the scent of pine sap and sweat. Birds chirped in the distance, but even they seemed to quiet when Rowan and his warriors moved through the trees like shadows preparing for war.
They were hours from sunset.
And when the sun dipped below the trees, the blood would follow.
“Keep your spacing tight,” Rowan called low, his voice hard but calm. “If they have scouts watching, we can’t afford to look chaotic.”
Kalen, Liam, and Luther flanked him, each of them directing small squads of elite warriors as they worked quickly—but discreetly—through the territory surrounding the pack’s southern and eastern borders.
Their goal was clear: make the battlefield their own before the rogues ever stepped onto it.
Rowan knelt beside a patch of disturbed earth, dragging his fingers through the soil. “Here,” he murmured, “place the pressure ward here. If they come through this bottleneck, we’ll have them boxed in.”
A young wolf dropped beside him with a leather-wrapped bundle. He unrolled it, revealing a carved rune stone with a crescent moon etched deep in its surface.
A little farther up the ridge, Liam stood among a thicket of young pines, weaving silvered wire between trunks. It gleamed in the sun before he smeared it with clay to dull the shine.
“Visibility’s too good,” he called softly to Kalen. “If they get close, they’ll see the lines.”
“Then mask it,” Kalen said. “Rowan, we’ve got a full set of illusions from Avella’s niece. Should we put them to use?”
Rowan nodded. “Just on the traps themselves. Let them think we’ve left the flanks exposed. I want them confident when they charge in.”
Kalen let out a short breath. “Overconfident enemies make stupid mistakes.”
“And we’ll be there waiting,” Rowan said. He glanced up at the sun’s position. “Five hours until sunset. I want everything in place before then.”
They moved like ghosts—he, Kalen, Liam, and Luther—four wolves trained to stalk and kill in silence. Around them, a dozen elite warriors spread out in a wide arc, placing trip lines, digging shallow pits lined with sharpened stakes, and marking hidden rune stones in the moss-covered earth.
Rowan rose slightly and signaled Kalen with two fingers. The Beta moved forward, dragging a coil of silver-tinted wire across a low stretch between two trees. Silver was risky—it could injure their own if they weren’t careful—but it would slow rogue wolves if they charged blindly.
“These’ll snap ankles and cut legs if they hit them at speed,” Kalen muttered under his breath, looping the final length. “Won’t kill, but it’ll give us time to surround them.”
Rowan gave a sharp nod. “Make sure the traps don’t cross into the patrol zones. If our own wolves stumble into them—”
“I’ve already mapped the lines,” Liam said from Rowan’s right, emerging from a crouch. His hands were coated in dirt, and the sleeves of his dark shirt were rolled to the elbows. “Each squad has a route memorized. They’ll stay clear.”
Further out, Luther drove a carved wooden spike into the earth with a flat stone. When it was deep enough, he whispered something under his breath and pressed his palm to it. A faint shimmer flickered across the runes carved into the wood before vanishing entirely.
“That one’s bloodbound,” Luther said as he stood. “It’ll burst the moment a rogue crosses within five feet.”
Rowan’s brow rose. “How many of those did Avella give us?”
“Seven.” Luther’s mouth curved slightly. “She called them her ‘gifts of chaos.’ Told me to aim for painful, not fatal.”
Rowan gave a grim smile. “She knows us too well.”
They moved again, quieter than the wind, covering the forest floor in layers of traps both seen and unseen. Rowan’s mind buzzed as they worked. The rogues would expect a direct assault, not an ambush within the safety of a home territory. Seren’s vision had changed everything—they would let the rogues come, then gut them where they thought they were strongest.
At a glance, the forest looked untouched. But beneath the leaves, death waited.
As they laid the last perimeter rune, a sharp whistle caught Rowan’s ear.
He straightened, scenting the air just as a young warrior sprinted toward them, panting, shirt clinging to his chest.
“Alpha!” the boy called, nearly breathless. “Alpha, I’ve just returned from the western ridge—”
Rowan met him halfway. “Easy. Catch your breath, Korran.”
The boy—barely older than nineteen—bent at the waist, hands on his knees as he sucked in lungfuls of air.
“They’ve moved,” he rasped. “The rogue camp is shifting east. I followed the trail to their new position... and I saw Rhea,” Korran said grimly, straightening. “I got too close and got stuck behind a broken wall for most of the morning.”
Luther stepped forward. “And?”
“They’re planning to meet with the Bonecaster’s wolves tonight,” Korran continued. “Then they’ll attack—by morning. They want to strike while everyone’s sleeping.”
Silence settled across the warriors like a blade waiting to fall.
“Rowan,” Kalen called softly from ahead. “You’re going to want to see this.”
He approached quickly, careful to step over the tripwire Kalen had just reset. His Beta stood beside a low rise near the streambed that curved just before the main clearing. Kalen pointed to the shallow earth.
“Tracks,” he said. “Fresh. Too fresh.”
Rowan dropped to one knee and brushed away the top layer of leaves. His fingers touched a clear pawprint—bigger than most, and slightly elongated. Not one of theirs.
“They’re already watching,” he muttered.
“Think they know about the traps?” Liam asked behind him.
Rowan stared down the dark path leading deeper into the forest. “No. If they did, they would’ve triggered some by now. But they’re close. Too close.”
“We accelerate the last line of defense,” Luther said. “Ward the southern flank. And double the patrols tonight.”
Rowan nodded. “We give them just enough to think we’re unprepared. Let them walk right into the trap.”
“And if they don’t?” Liam asked, voice low.
Rowan’s eyes gleamed. “Then we hunt them anyway.”
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
