Dawn was breaking as I arrived, painting the eastern sky in bruised shades of purple and grey. The old, wrought-iron gates of the Blackwood Pack territory loomed before me, the same snarling dire wolf sigil carved into the metal, its silent roar a welcome I no longer deserved.

My truck rumbled to a stop. Two young warriors, no older than twenty, stepped out of the guardhouse. They didn't recognize me. Their stances were rigid, their eyes filled with the cold, impersonal suspicion reserved for intruders.

One of them rapped his knuckles sharply on my window. "This is private property. You need to leave. Now." His voice was hard, clipped.

I lowered the window, and the crisp morning air, smelling of damp earth and pine, whipped my hair across my face. I could smell the warriors, too-the scent of fresh grass and wary hostility. Ten years. Ten years ago, they would have been children, and I would have been their future Alpha's daughter. Now, I was just a trespasser.

"I'm Seraphina Blackwood," I said, my voice hoarse from the long night. "I received a summons from Elias. I'm here to see my father."

The name "Blackwood" made the young guard flinch. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second, then narrowed with a look of dawning recognition, quickly followed by contempt. He had heard the stories. Of course, he had.

The other, slightly older guard, approached, his gaze sweeping over me, my face, my old truck, judging every detail. He muttered into a walkie-talkie, his voice too low for me to hear.

The wait was agonizing. I felt unseen eyes on me from the dense woods that bordered the road. The entire territory felt like a living creature, a beast that had woken and recognized an old wound, a foreign body in its midst.

*They don't want us here,* Lyra growled, her unease a low thrum beneath my skin. *This place is full of teeth.*

Finally, with a deep, groaning screech of protesting metal, the massive gates began to swing inward. "Go on," the older guard said, his tone flat, disrespectful. "Packhouse. Medical wing."

I drove through, my hands tight on the wheel. The familiar path was lined with the same ancient oaks, but the faces that turned to watch me pass were cold. Pack members who would have once waved and smiled now stared with open hostility before turning away, herding their children inside as if I were a contagion.

I saw the clearing where my sister, Celeste, and I used to practice our shifts, the big rock we'd jump from into the river. Every landmark was a fresh twist of the knife in my heart.

The Packhouse rose up at the end of the drive, a sprawling fortress of dark stone and timber. It looked bigger than I remembered, colder, its windows like vacant eyes.

I parked the truck in a far corner of the visitor's lot. Not in the family spaces near the entrance. I knew my place.

Stepping out, the air itself felt heavy, thick with a collective miasma of scents. Grief, sharp and bitter. Anxiety, a sour, electric tang. And underneath it all, a scent I had never associated with my home pack: the cold, metallic odor of fear.

I hurried toward the separate entrance of the medical wing, keeping my head down, trying to make myself small. Just as I reached the door, I saw them through the reinforced glass-a flash of my mother, Luna Genevieve, her shoulders slumped, and my brother, Ethan, his face a mask of fury.

My feet felt like they were encased in lead. They were the ones I dreaded seeing most. Ethan, Celeste's staunchest defender, who hated me with a passion that had only grown over the years. And my mother, whose disappointment had been the final seal on my exile.

Taking a shaky breath, I pushed open the heavy oak door.

The sterile smell of antiseptic and the cloying, sweet scent of healing herbs hit me all at once, making my head swim.

The corridor was lined with a few of the pack elders. They saw me, and their faces hardened. A few gave me curt, almost imperceptible nods, their eyes a mixture of pity and judgment.

I kept my gaze fixed on the floor, walking toward the ICU at the end of the hall. Each step felt like I was walking on broken glass.

A door opened ahead of me, and Dr. Elias Vance stepped out. He was the one who had sent the message, a man who had been our family's doctor since I was a child. He looked like he hadn't slept in days, his face etched with exhaustion.

He saw me, and no surprise registered on his tired features. He had expected me.

Pulling down his surgical mask, his voice came out as a dry rasp. "Seraphina. You're here."

My heart leaped into my throat. I could barely force the words out. "My father... How is he?"

Elias's kind, hazel eyes dimmed, and he gave a slow, minute shake of his head.

The small movement sent me plummeting into an abyss of ice.

"The Alpha's condition is... critical," he said, his voice low and heavy. "The attack was precise. They used a rare cocktail of toxins, laced with silver nitrate and wolfsbane. It's completely shredded his healing abilities."

He met my terrified gaze, and his own was filled with a profound, weary sadness.

"We've done everything we can," he said, his voice breaking on the last word. "He doesn't have much time."

Chapter 2

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