Chapter 14

Gabriel’s POV

Aarav and I stood outside my house, which was slightly elevated above the ground. From my vantage point, I could see nearly the entirety of the Abode, the name we had given to the place where the pack resided.

It was a sizable pack, and if the tales were to be believed, it had once been ten times the size of what it currently was. Additionally, it had controlled a far larger territory than it did today. Reflecting on that history often brought me a sense of shame. How had a pack that had been so grand and mighty — its very pups inspiring fear in the hearts of even the mightiest werewolves — become so modest? We were hunting for food in the woods as if we were commoners, moving stealthily near the territories of other packs and avoiding what lay on the other side of the river: humans. We were capable of so much more, much, much more.

As a child, ever since I learned that I would one day become Alpha, I had always harbored a plan to res