#Chapter 147: Only Darkness

LOGAN The Blightwood stood before me like a promise and a punishment all at once. Branches arched high above, skeletal and twisted, their tips clawing at the bruised sky like they wanted to tear it open. The air was damp and metallic, thick with the scent of rot and old things buried deep. Even the light here felt wrong—diffused, gray, like it had passed through a veil of shadow before reaching the forest floor. I hadn’t meant to come back here. The first time, it had been Cassandra’s idea. Her voice, full of false confidence, whispering that there were powers older than the Council, powers that didn’t care about bloodlines or mating bonds or whether or not you were a disgrace to your pack. But now? Now I was here because I had nowhere else to go. Maggie had been captured. I didn’t know what she’d already said—or what she might say if they pressed her hard enough. And if the Alpha Council had issued a warrant for me, then it was only a matter of time before someone tracked