The Meadow
POV
Ashina Bearclaw
Cold.
That was the first thing I felt.
The ground beneath me was frozen and damp, pressing through my clothes and biting into my skin. A thick blanket of fog surrounded the meadow, curling low over the grass and hiding the trees at the edge of the clearing.
For a moment, I couldn’t remember where I was.
Then everything came rushing back.
Rogues.
My eyes flew open.
I sat up too quickly, my head spinning as I sucked in a sharp breath. My hands moved over my body, searching for blood, torn skin, broken bones—anything that would explain the pain I knew should have been there.
But there was nothing.
No blood. No wounds. No bite mark.
I frowned and pressed my hand against my thigh.
That was impossible.
One of them had bitten me. I remembered his jaws clamping down hard enough to make me scream. I remembered being thrown into a tree like I weighed nothing. I remembered the crack of my body hitting bark.
Then darkness.
Just before I lost consciousness, I had smelled something strange beneath the stench of rogue.
Coffee.
Forest.
Something deep and wild.
I swallowed hard and looked around the meadow.
The fog was wrong. It had not been here before. I had come out to watch the meteor shower. The sky had been clear, the moon bright, the stars scattered above me like silver dust.
Now I could barely see ten feet in front of me.
Ria? I called through our bond.
Silence.
Panic rose fast and sharp in my chest.
Ria, answer me. Are we okay?
Still nothing.
My breathing quickened. I pushed myself to my knees, ignoring the way my hands trembled against the cold grass.
Ria!
Finally, my wolf stirred in the back of my mind, slow and groggy.
I’m here, love, she whispered.
Relief hit me so hard I almost collapsed.
Are you hurt? I asked.
No, she said, though she sounded shaken. But we need to leave. Now.
I forced myself to stand.
My legs felt weak, but they held. I took one step, then another, scanning the fog around me.
That was when I saw him.
Across the meadow, at the edge of the trees, stood the largest wolf I had ever seen.
He was massive.
His ebony fur seemed to absorb the moonlight and glow at the same time, dark and beautiful and terrifying. Power rolled off him even from across the clearing. He stood completely still, watching me through the fog.
Then his eyes caught the moonlight.
Bright green.
My heart stopped.
I’m dead, I thought.
Ria shoved forward.
Run.
I didn’t argue.
I shifted before my human mind could think better of it, my bones snapping and reshaping as Ria took over. The second my paws hit the ground, I bolted toward home.
Branches whipped past us. The forest blurred around me. Ria pushed our body faster, harder, using every bit of strength we had left.
I opened a mind link to my brother and Alpha.
*Basil!*
His answer came instantly, sharp with alarm.
*Ashina? Where are you?*
Rogues, I told him, my thoughts rushing as fast as my paws. I was attacked in the meadow at the edge of the woods. I’m okay. I’m heading back now.
His fury slammed through the link.
*Stay on course. Warriors are coming.*
A second later, the pack alert rang through every linked mind.
*All warriors to the western meadow. Possible rogue breach. Protect the borders.*
Ria ran harder.
By the time I reached the packhouse grounds, my lungs burned. I shifted back near the emergency clothing station and grabbed the first things I could find: a long T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants.
My hands were shaking so badly it took me two tries to pull them on.
I was still bent over, hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath, when Beta Channing reached me.
He shifted back from his wolf form in one smooth motion, grabbed a pair of shorts from the clothing bin, and yanked them on.
“Ash!” he said, rushing toward me. “What happened?”
I shook my head, still breathing hard. “I don’t know, Chan.”
He placed his hands gently on my shoulders, his eyes scanning me from head to toe.
Channing had loved me like a little sister since we were children. He was Basil’s Beta now, but to me, he would always be Chan—the boy who used to sneak extra dessert from the kitchen and blame it on me.
His expression darkened. “Are you hurt?”
“I should be,” I whispered.
His eyes snapped to mine.
“I was watching the meteor shower when two rogues came out of nowhere,” I said. “No warning. No scent. Nothing. I shifted and fought them, but one got hold of my thigh. He bit me, Chan. Hard. Then he threw me into a tree.”
Channing’s jaw clenched.
“I blacked out,” I continued. “When I woke up, they were gone. No wounds. No blood. Nothing. Then I saw this huge black wolf at the edge of the clearing. Ria and I ran. It didn’t follow us.”
Thank the moon.
Channing’s hands tightened slightly on my shoulders. “A black wolf?”
I nodded.
Before he could say anything else, his eyes unfocused. He was mind linking someone.
A moment later, his face went still.
Too still.
“What?” I asked.
“Charlie just linked me,” he said, his voice low. “They found two dead rogues near your meadow.”
My stomach dropped.
Charlie was our head warrior for a reason. He was huge, lethal, and terrifying when he wanted to be. If Charlie said the rogues were dead, then they were dead.
“How dead?” I asked, though I was not sure I wanted the answer.
Channing looked at me carefully. “Torn apart.”
A cold chill moved through me that had nothing to do with the night air.
“Ashina,” he asked slowly, “what did you do to them?”
My mouth fell open. “Me? Nothing! I blacked out after one of the dumbasses bit me and threw me into a tree.”
He studied my face for a moment, then nodded.
He believed me.
But that did not make either of us feel better.
“Let’s get you inside,” he said.
He placed a hand at the small of my back and led me toward the packhouse.
The Westcliff packhouse rose before us like something out of an old storybook. It looked more like a medieval castle than a home, with tall stone walls, spiraling turrets, balconies, and two wide wings stretching out from the center.
Basil and I lived in the west wing on the fourth floor. Channing and his mate, Marie, lived below us on the third. The second floor held offices and meeting rooms, while the first floor belonged to the pack: the communal living room, dining room, kitchen, and gathering spaces.
The east wing housed unmated wolves and families waiting for their own homes to be built.
It was not just a packhouse.
It was the heart of Westcliff.
And tonight, for the first time in five years, it did not feel safe.
Channing opened the door and guided me inside.
“Alpha will be here in a moment,” he said. “Charlie and his men will handle the meadow. Go upstairs, shower, and change. You smell like rogue and…” He paused, frowning.
“And what?”
“I don’t know.” He leaned closer, then shook his head. “Something else. I can’t place it.”
Coffee and forest flashed through my mind.
I pushed the thought away.
“Wonderful,” I muttered.
Channing gave me a small, tired smile. “Meet us in Basil’s office when you’re done.”
I nodded and headed upstairs.
Each step felt heavier than the last.
By the time I reached my suite, the adrenaline was wearing off, leaving me shaky and cold. My room was decorated in ivory and gold with touches of midnight blue, soft and peaceful under normal circumstances.
Tonight, it felt too quiet.
I stripped off the borrowed clothes and tossed them into the basket in my closet, then stepped into the bathroom.
The mirror stopped me.
I looked normal.
Pale, yes. Shaken, definitely. But whole.
No bruises marked my arms. No blood stained my skin. No bite wound marred my thigh.
I touched the place where the rogue’s teeth had been.
Nothing.
“How?” I whispered.
Ria was quiet.
Too quiet.
The shower warmed slowly, and I stepped beneath the water, letting it run over my hair, my shoulders, my skin. I wanted it to wash everything away: the fog, the rogues, the black wolf, the scent that still seemed to linger in my mind.
But the fear stayed.
We had been safe for years.
After the attack that killed our parents, the Alpha King had sent royal warriors and guards to strengthen our borders. No rogue had breached Westcliff since.
Until tonight.
I stayed in the shower until the water turned almost too hot, then finally climbed out and wrapped myself in a towel.
I dressed quickly in one of my favorite bright pink T-shirts, black leggings, and black ankle boots. I dried my long brown hair, pulled it into a high ponytail, and forced myself to go find my brother.
As I approached Basil’s office, I slowed.
Voices came from inside, low and tense.
“It doesn’t make any sense for there to be only two rogues,” Channing said. “I think they were scouts.”
My stomach twisted.
Scouts.
That meant there could be more.
I knocked once, then pushed open the heavy wooden door.
Basil sat behind his desk in a high-back chair, his face carefully blank. Channing sat across from him, elbows on his knees, his expression grim.
The moment Basil saw me, the mask cracked.
Only a little.
But I knew him too well to miss it.
People always said Basil and I could pass for twins, even though he was four years older. We had the same long brown hair, the same blue eyes, the same stubborn Bearclaw chin. He had been twenty-four when he became Alpha after our parents died.
I was almost twenty-five now.
And he still looked at me like I was the little girl he had promised to protect.
“Ash,” he said softly, reaching across the desk for my hand. “Tell me everything.”
I sat in the chair beside Channing and put my hands over my face.
For a few seconds, I just breathed.
Then I lowered my hands and looked at my brother.
“I was in my usual meadow,” I said. “Stargazing. Two rogues came out of nowhere. I didn’t smell them. Ria didn’t either. I shifted and fought them the best I could, but one grabbed my thigh and bit me. Then he threw me into a tree.”
Basil’s eyes flashed with his wolf.
I kept going before he could interrupt.
“I blacked out. When I woke up, I had no wounds. None. They were gone. Then I saw a huge black wolf standing at the edge of the meadow.” I swallowed. “I didn’t know who he was, and I wasn’t sticking around to ask. I shifted and ran. He didn’t follow me.”
Basil looked at Channing.
The air in the room changed.
“Send guards and warriors to check all boundaries,” Basil ordered. “Double patrols immediately. I want every inch of the western border searched.”
Channing stood. “I’ll take care of it myself. If the black wolf is still there, we’ll find him.”
“Send trackers too,” Basil added.
Channing nodded and left the office, closing the door quietly behind him.
The second we were alone, Basil stood and moved around the desk. He sat in the chair Channing had vacated and took my hand again.
His thumb brushed over my knuckles.
“Ashina,” he said, his voice softer now, “you are all the family I have left.”
My throat tightened.
“I’m okay,” I whispered.
“You were attacked inside our territory.”
“I know.”
“And somehow two rogues crossed our borders without being detected.”
“I know.”
He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, they were filled with the fear he would never show anyone else.
“Until we know who is responsible, you do not go anywhere alone. No woods. No meadow. No stargazing without a warrior.”
I wanted to argue.
The meadow was mine.
It had been mine since I was a girl. It was where I went when the world felt too loud, where I talked to the moon, where I felt closest to the parents we had lost.
But I was too tired.
And the memory of green eyes in the fog kept my protest locked behind my teeth.
“All right,” I said.
Basil exhaled slowly. “Go to bed. We’ll talk again in the morning after the warriors finish searching the woods.”
I nodded and stood.
Before I reached the door, Basil spoke again.
“Ash?”
I looked back.
His face was hard now, his Alpha mask back in place.
“If that wolf meant you harm, he would have followed you.”
I did not know if that was supposed to comfort me.
It didn’t.
When I returned to my room, I did not bother changing. I brushed my teeth, kicked off my boots, and climbed into bed fully dressed.
I pulled the covers up to my chin and stared at the ceiling.
Two rogues had attacked me.
Someone—or something—had killed them.
My wounds had vanished.
And a massive black wolf with bright green eyes had watched me run away.
The room slowly blurred as exhaustion pulled me under.
Just before sleep claimed me, Ria stirred in the back of my mind.
Ashina, she whispered.
What? I asked, already half-dreaming.
Her fear rolled through me like thunder.
That wolf wasn't a rogue.
