Chapter 213
Sophie walked just ahead of me, her wolf senses attuned, her every step calculated. Fatima flanked my other side, silent, the wind tugging at the ends of her black braid. The path to the cave was well-worn, a secret trail Jake and I had used countless times before—but today it felt different. Tainted. Sophie ,Fatima and I had decided to search for more clue . Maybe something we had missed before because nothing was making clear sense. It is as if things were just getting more and more complicated.
The cave was nothing special at first glance, just a gash in the earth wrapped in overgrowth. But we knew better. This place was ancient. Sacred. Used for rituals, and… secrets.
We stopped when the smell hit us—burnt sage and something sour, like rotting meat masked in lavender. Sophie growled low in her throat.
Fatima stepped back. "That’s not normal, right?"
"Not even close," I murmured, crouching near the entrance. Someone had been here. And recently.
Symbols were etched into the rocks—rushed, jagged strokes smeared with blood. Not human blood. Wolf.
"Someone’s sending a message," Sophie said, her eyes glowing faintly.
"A warning," I corrected, standing slowly. My hand instinctively went to my stomach. The baby stirred, reminding me why this mattered so much. Why this had to be stopped.
Fatima fished out her phone, snapping pictures. "You want this cleaned up?"
"No. We document first, then report to Jake—but only him. Not the rest of the pack. Not yet."
Sophie tilted her head. "You think this was an inside job?"
"I’m starting to think everything is."
The return to the packhouse was slow. I couldn’t shake the weight on my chest. Traitors. Always traitors.
Jake was in the war room when we arrived. Alone. Good. He was spending more and more time in that room as if preparing for any potential war situation which was clever but it scared me we had just experienced war . He got hurt I wanted to avoid it as much as possible which was why I was doing this.
"We found more markings," I told him, tossing Fatima’s phone onto the table. "They were fresh. This wasn’t random, Jake. Someone knows how to mimic magic, or… worse."
He swiped through the photos, jaw tight. “You’re thinking this is also someone from inside the pack?”
"That's the obvious case,"
He nodded slowly. "Who do you trust to help?"
"Just us four. No one else."
Our first step was intel. Every pack member was watched. It felt wrong—spying on our own—but survival demanded it.
Sophie handled the logistics: who patrolled where, who took shifts at the borders, who skipped meetings. Fatima went over records, late-night entries, injuries that didn’t make sense.
Me? I listened. I observed. I lingered near the training grounds, the kitchens, the infirmary. Wolves talk more when they think no one important is around.
It wasn’t until the third day that we found something useful.
"He lied," Fatima said, pushing a notebook toward me. "Eli said he was on border patrol that night—but he wasn’t. Logs show Marcus covered for him."
Sophie narrowed her eyes. "Why would Marcus do that?"
"Because he’s loyal to Eli. Too loyal."
Jake joined us later that night, and we laid it all out. Eli had a history—disciplinary issues, long disappearances, a temper. But nothing solid. Until now.
We decided to follow him. Take turns. Three nights of silence passed, then on the fourth…
Fatima whispered into her mic. "He’s leaving. On foot. South path."
I followed.
The forest swallowed sound, but I kept pace. My heartbeat was loud in my ears, my steps careful. Eli walked like someone with a purpose. He didn’t look back.
He stopped near the river. Dug beneath a pile of rocks.
I stepped closer.
A scroll.
I couldn’t see the symbols, but I recognized the energy pulsing from it. Magic. Not cast by a witch. Acquired.
I took photos and left. Quiet. Invisible.
"He’s storing spellwork. Ancient scrolls," I said as Jake flipped through the images.
Fatima folded her arms. "How the hell does a werewolf get magic scrolls?"
"Unless he’s working with someone. Outside or inside."
"Or both," Sophie added grimly.
Jake stood. "We need to confront him."
I stopped him. "No. We tail him longer. If he’s part of a bigger network, scaring him off could make the others vanish too."
Jake nodded. "Then we keep digging. But be careful, Ayla. You’re carrying our future."
I smiled, cold and determined. "Then I’ll protect it like a wolf should."
The air inside the den was heavier than usual. Whispers floated in the corners of the packhouse like fog creeping beneath a door. Everyone could sense the tension, though no one knew the truth behind it.
We rotated shifts, keeping eyes on Eli, Marcus, and two more wolves who had quietly slipped onto our radar—Nina and Devon. They weren’t as close to Eli, but something about their movements didn’t sit right. Too coordinated. Too clean.
Sophie arranged coded patrol rotations, placing trusted wolves near vulnerable borders without revealing our intentions. Fatima intercepted supply routes and scouted for hidden deliveries. She found a package buried behind the storage barn—black candles, salt laced with ash, and a charm with a rune we didn’t recognize.
"We’re looking at rituals now," she said one night, her eyes rimmed red from lack of sleep. "Someone is trying to pull off sosomething really bad"
"Why not strike fast and loud?" Sophie asked. "If they want to destroy the pack—why the quiet spells, the scrolls, the secrecy?"
"Because they need to stay hidden until it’s too late to stop them," I said. "They’re counting on distraction. Fear. Confusion."
And maybe they weren’t just trying to destroy us. Maybe they wanted to replace us.
We tried confronting Marcus. It didn’t go well.
He denied everything, convincingly. Too convincingly. But when we searched his room afterward, we found a charm under his mattress that matched the one in the supply barn. Still, nothing that would hold up as proof.
Fatima began mapping connections—who trained with who, who shared duties. A web formed, slowly but clearly, with Eli near the center.
"They’re not working alone," she said. "There’s someone above them. Smarter. Hidden."
I nodded. "A puppeteer."
We were being watched.
I felt it in the trees, in the hairs rising on my arms, in the echo of my footsteps that didn’t match. The hunters were becoming the hunted.
The baby kicked harder than usual that night, as if sensing my dread. Jake placed a protective hand over my stomach. "We stop now if it’s too dangerous."
I shook my head. "We’re too close. I can feel it."
We set a trap. A fake meeting between Jake and an outside Alpha we claimed had information about the magical threat. We leaked it—just enough—to see who would take the bait.
Someone did.
An attack. A minor explosion at the northern border. A distraction. But it confirmed something: they had moles in our communication chain. And they were getting bold.
Sophie tracked movement near the supply shed. She and Fatima lay in wait, watching two figures slip inside. But when they emerged, only one returned. The other vanished through a hidden exit in the back we’d never seen.
A tunnel. A passage beneath our territory.
Fatima followed the trail underground while Sophie and I coordinated the pack’s emergency lockdown. The tunnel led to a forgotten chamber beneath the training field. And what she found inside was worse than anything we expected.
A meeting space. Stone floors stained with wax, symbols carved into the walls. Scroll fragments. Names scratched in blood. My name. Jake’s. Our unborn child’s.
"They’re planning to sacrifice something," Fatima said, breathless. "Or someone."
The shadows were no longer creeping—they were closing in.
We needed answers. Fast.
And we needed to unmask the traitor pulling the strings.
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