Chapter 149

Liam

The new watch rota went up at the end of the week.

It went up the way it always did, on the board inside the door of the warriors’ hall, in Ryan’s square black capitals, two weeks at a time. I didn’t think anything of it. I was going past with a stack of the storehouse inventories under my arm, on my way to Kade’s office, and I glanced at it out of habit, the way you glance at a clock.

Then I stopped, and went back, and looked at it properly.

Every night watch through to the new year. Every gate, every border run, every shift on the eastern road. Owen’s name, and Callum Fletcher’s, back on the roster with a little note beside it in Ryan’s hand, light duties till the 1st. Ryan’s own name, more often than anyone’s. Half the young warriors in the pack.

Not mine.

I had been on that rota every week since I was old enough to stand a watch. Twice a week, sometimes three times. The Beta takes his turn. That was how Kade’s father had don