Jamie's POV
It had been a day since the night beneath the moon.
Since the heat, the need, the way Andrew whispered my name like a vow into my skin.
And yet… the world hadn't stopped.
The wind still blew softly through the trees. Warriors trained. Elders whispered. Andrew was busy— very busy. And I, somehow, was alone again.
I was behind the war hall, the farthest edge of the clearing, where the scent of pine thickened and silence clung like mist. I came here when I needed to breathe. Or maybe when I wanted to pretend breathing was enough.
Then I heard her.
"You move differently now."
Caroline.
She stepped out from the shadows like she'd been waiting there the whole time, watching. I tensed before I could help it. Her voice was warm, but I'd grown sensitive to tones lately, and hers had… layers.
"I guess," I said, turning to face her. "I've been training harder."
Her smile was gentle, easy. Too easy. "That's what I told the Elders when they asked. That you're finally trying." She stepped closer, eyes studying me like she was reading a book I didn't remember writing. "Though I wonder what you're training for."
I blinked. "What?"
"Is it the trial? Survival?" She paused. "Or is it… him?"
I didn't answer, but that alone was an answer.
Caroline's gaze drifted to the trees for a beat before coming back to me. "Andrew's been… distracted." She said it delicately, like it hurt her to admit. "And he's never distracted. Not even when his mother died."
That cut deeper than I wanted it to.
She studied me again, something sharper flashing behind her eyes. "Don't misunderstand. I'm not blaming you. I just think you must understand what you've… walked into." A beat. "What he's risking."
I swallowed. My throat was suddenly dry.
"And the other night…" Her voice lowered, curiosity wrapped in concern. "That storm. The one that came out of nowhere? Right after training?" She tilted her head. "Strange, wasn't it? It's not storm season."
I held my breath.
"I heard there was haze in the woods too," she added. "Some people are saying it was magic. Old, wild magic."
She let the words hang there like spider threads. Then: "You didn't feel anything unusual that night, did you?"
She looked right at me.
Too directly.
"I was tired," I said carefully. "Exhausted. I don't remember much."
Caroline nodded, but there was a flicker of something behind her smile. Satisfaction? Or maybe something worse.
"You've always been quiet, Jamie. Thoughtful. I like that about you." She took another step closer. "But power… real power? It changes people. I've seen it. I just hope you're still you when all this is over. For Andrew's sake."
She reached out and touched my shoulder gently, like she was comforting me. But something in me recoiled, something small and instinctive.
I looked at her and realised... she didn't feel like Caroline anymore. At least not the one I'd come to know in Andrew's orbit. There was something colder beneath her skin now, something practised.
Something watching.
"I should go," she said, pulling away and walking back the way she came. "Just wanted to check in."
But her words echoed in my head long after she was gone.
Just wanted to check in.
No, I thought.
She wanted to see something.
And I think… she did.
******
Andrew's POV
"Even an Alpha can miss the shadows closest to him."
The Council Hall smelled of burnt incense and ashwood when I stepped in the day before. A scent they always used when something bad was brewing.
I'd gone in expecting to be questioned.
After all, the storm hadn't gone unnoticed. Neither had my absence from the aftermath of the training. I was bracing for accusations about Jamie—about what we did, about what might have followed.
But that wasn't what they summoned me for.
Something worse had surfaced.
A resurgence.
A smaller pack—mountain-dwelling rogues, once scattered after the last rebellion, had joined forces with Rufus. The Elders were convinced this wasn't a coincidence. That was the strategy. That war was looming again, only this time, cloaked under silence and shadow.
They needed me to investigate. To lead.
And to prepare.
So now, while the fire still burned low in my blood from what Jamie and I shared beneath the moon, I was instead buried in tactical planning. Daily drills. Mapping out terrain, patrolling our borders, refining our warrior formations.
And every moment I wasn't training my men, I was… missing him.
I told myself he needed the rest. That we'd meet later tonight—maybe just for an hour, maybe less. But I needed him. His presence. His grounding.
The only thing that didn't feel like pressure.
But even today, during training, something gnawed at me that I couldn't name.
Caroline.
She'd come to the training fields like usual, offering support, passing me a water skin, checking in on strategies like she always did. But today, her tone had been… different.
"Have you been sleeping, Andrew?" she asked quietly while the others sparred.
"Enough," I replied, brushing off the fatigue behind my eyes.
She narrowed her gaze. "You've been stretched thin. You should be careful about the company you keep when you're like this. Vulnerability attracts danger."
I looked at her, surprised. "You think I'm in danger?"
Her lips curved. "You're the Alpha's heir. There's always danger. I just hope you're not letting… distractions cloud your instincts."
I thought about Jamie instantly, then hated myself for how fast her words took root.
"Jamie's not a distraction," I said, maybe a little too sharply.
Her eyes twitched, a flicker of something unreadable, but she smiled. "I didn't say he was."
But something was off.
The concern in her voice felt laced with something else. Something more… investigative.
She'd asked if I'd noticed any strange energy lately. If I'd felt changes in my wolf. If the air had felt different since the storm.
The questions came so casually that they almost sounded like friendly chatter.
But they weren't.
They were precise.
Targeted.
And though I told myself I was just tired—that maybe I was imagining the shift in her tone—I couldn't shake the feeling that Caroline was studying me, not supporting me.
Still… I said nothing.
Because what could I even say?
We'd grown up together. She'd fought by my side in more battles than I could count. And I couldn't afford to doubt someone that close to me right now… not when I needed all the stability I could hold onto.
But the truth is, I couldn't wait to leave the training grounds.
Couldn't wait to see Jamie.
Even if it was just for a little while.
Even if I had to pretend, for now, that we weren't being watched. That we hadn't just changed everything under the moonlight.
Even if the trials were only three days away, and everything we were building might be ripped out from under us.
If I could just hold him again… maybe, for a second, the world wouldn't feel like it was crumbling.