#Chapter 31: Plans Made

ELENA There were a dozen things I was supposed to be focusing on—logistics for the Alliance Summit, reviewing proposals from nearby packs, scheduling site visits for infrastructure coordination—but my mind kept circling back to one thing. Mason. More specifically, Mason’s absence. He’d been disappearing for days now. Not entirely, just enough to make it noticeable. He missed two morning meetings without explanation, then showed up late to our strategy call with the pack’s Beta Council, eyes bloodshot and shirt half untucked—something I hadn’t seen since he was seventeen and sneaking out to meet girls at bonfires. But this wasn’t high school. This was war. Or something dangerously close to it. I leaned over the thick maps spread across the table in my father’s office and tapped my finger against a red-marked border. “Something’s off,” I muttered. Gamma Chad, who was standing across from me with arms folded, raised an eyebrow. “Which part?” “All of it.” I blew out a bre