Chapter 77. The Door That Opens

The compound never slept.

Even at night, someone was always watching. Always patrolling. Always listening for what might come clawing out of the woods.

But no one ever looked inward.

No one wondered what might already be inside.

Aria walked the halls like a ghost—silent, present, untouchable. Cassandra had stopped calling her for training. Jules had stopped offering to spar. Even the younger wolves flinched when they caught her gaze too long.

She had become the story whispered in doorways.

And she didn’t blame them.

Not anymore.

Because they were right.

***

It started with a voice. A rumor.

A child—one of the newer arrivals from the western edge of the mountain—had gone missing. Slipped through a break in the perimeter spell.

It had happened before. The wards weren’t perfect. Wolves ran. Young ones especially.

But this one mattered. This one had blood.

Pack blood.

And Cassandra’s warning had be