Chapter187:Burning Borders

|| Alaric's POV || The scent of rotting leaves and wet earth filled my lungs as I crouched in the underbrush, the moon a sliver of silver behind the clouds. The south border was alive tonight— not with the usual rustle of prey or the distant howls of pack wolves, but with something darker. Rogues. Ezra shifted beside me, his grey brown fur blending into the shadows. Even in wolf form, I could see the tension in his haunches— the same restlessness that had Hunter clawing beneath my skin. "Three dens," I mindlinked, nodding toward the flickering firelight through the trees. "Main one's in the abandoned mill. Others are flanking it." Ezra's ears twitched. "They're organized. Too organized." That was the problem. Rogues didn’t plan. They didn’t set up strategic outposts or coordinate attacks. Unless someone was leading them. A twig snapped to our left. I didn’t move. Didn’t breathe. Then we heard it. A low, guttural growl. It was an ambush. They came from everywhere at once. Five rogues lu