Claimed By Three Rival Alphas

Chapter 44: Next In Line

~RYLAND’S POV~

We felt it before we saw anything.

There’s a particular atmosphere a packhouse carries when something has gone wrong inside it, not panic, not chaos, just a tightening. The way people move changes. The conversations that should be audible from twenty feet away aren’t. Guards who are usually spread out have pulled in.

I noticed it the moment we came through the outer gate. Lyra noticed it about half a second after me, I saw it in the way she straightened, the ease of the afternoon leaving her face.

Cade was inside the main entrance. He was waiting, which meant he’d been watching for us.

"What’s going on?" I said.

He didn’t answer in the corridor. He gestured toward my study and we followed him. He closed the door behind us and turned.

"We just received word," he said. "Shadowfang was attacked."

I looked at him. "Attacked by who?"

"Creatures," Cade said. He said the word with the particular flatness he used when he was presenting information he hadn’t fully processed yet.

"Unearthly ones. That’s the description coming through, multiple sources, all saying the same thing. They emerged from the tree line and moved through the main square."

"Wait," I said. "Creatures."

"That’s what they’re calling them. Nobody has a better word for it."

Lyra had gone very still beside me. "What kind of creatures?"

"The details are incomplete," Cade said.

"What we have is: roughly human-shaped, purple light in their eyes, moving faster than anything natural, and resistant to wolf strength in ways that required coordinated pack response just to hold them back. Some of the pack believes it’s witchcraft."

"Witchcraft," Lyra said quietly. "That would mean..."

"No confirmation," Cade said immediately. "That’s speculation from frightened people. We don’t have anything definitive connecting this to a specific source yet."

The room was quiet for a moment.

"Kael," I said. "Have we heard anything from him?"

Cade shook his head. "Not yet. Nothing direct." freeωebnovēl.c૦m

I stood at my desk and thought about the map Eren had spread across the table. The rogue movement. The territories going dark. Selara’s three stages and what the first one required.

"Tighten everything," I said. "All warriors on elevated watch. Full gate closure from this hour, nothing in or out without direct authorisation. I want a rotating guard presence on every outer wall, not just the entry points."

Cade was already moving before I’d finished. "I’ll have it done within the hour."

"And get word to Eren," I said. "Whatever Moonveil has in their eastern approach, I want it reinforced tonight."

He nodded and left. The door closed.

I looked at Lyra.

She was looking at the window, her expression doing the thing it did when she was thinking several steps ahead but not ready to say any of them out loud yet.

"It could still be unrelated," I said, though I didn’t fully believe it.

She didn’t respond to that. Which told me everything.

—

Kael arrived at first light.

I was already at my desk when the guard announced him, I hadn’t slept well, which was its own kind of confirmation that my instincts and my reason had arrived at the same conclusion overnight. I told them to send him through.

He came in looking like a man who had not slept at all, which for Kael was a significant tell. He sat down across from me without being invited, which told me the news was bad enough that formality felt beside the point.

"You’re here early," I said. "That’s not a good sign."

"No," he said. "It isn’t." He looked at me directly. "We got attacked yesterday. I’m assuming you heard."

"Unearthly creatures," I said. "That was the description reaching us."

"Accurate description." He nodded once.

"Nothing like anything I’ve fought before. Resistant to wolf strength in a way that took three of my best working together just to hold one back. We barely contained them and the damage was significant, people hurt, property destroyed, two warriors who aren’t going to be back on their feet for at least a week."

He paused.

"Twelve of them, Ryland. Twelve, and it nearly went badly."

I sat back. "Why are you here this morning, Kael? Specifically."

"Because Silvercrest was attacked this morning,"

I went still.

"Before dawn," he said. "Ambushed while most of the population was still sleeping. The same creatures, same description, same characteristics, same resistance to wolf strength."

"Silvercrest," I said. "That’s..."

"Two attacks," Kael said. "Two different territories. Same source."

"You think it’s Selara," I said.

"I don’t think it." His voice was flat. "Those creatures aren’t rogues and they aren’t wolves and they aren’t anything that has a natural explanation. They came from somewhere that doesn’t operate by the rules we know, and there is exactly one entity we’ve been told about who has been sitting in a space between worlds for three centuries, building something." He looked at me. "That’s not coincidence."

"But if she’s trapped in the in-between," I said, and stopped, pressing my hand to my forehead. "The ritual requires her to be present. If she can’t fully..."

"That’s the thing about dark magic," Kael said.

"It doesn’t follow rules you can predict. She doesn’t have to be fully present to send something through. She just has to have enough reach."

He leaned forward slightly.

"I fought one, Ryland. I’ve been fighting wolves and rogues and trained warriors my whole life. This is completely different. The force behind it, the way it moves, the way it absorbs damage. It’s not operating on the same principles."

I looked at the table. Thought about what Eren had said about the first stage, the isolation. The separation of bonds before anything else could begin. An attack on a pack didn’t isolate a target. But it demonstrated range. It demonstrated that she could reach into allied territory and cause damage before anyone was ready for it.

It was a message as much as an attack.

"So she’s moving," I said.

"She’s already moving," Kael said.

"Shadowfang first. Silvercrest this morning." He paused, and the pause had weight to it.

"That’s a pattern, Ryland."

I looked at him.

He held my eye.

"Silverclaw is next in line,"