Chapter 30 Fractures

Chapter 30 Fractures
ZANE'S POV

I pulled my hand away from Davina's and stood up before she could ask me anything else.

"I'm fine." Even I could hear how empty those words sounded.

Davina didn’t buy it. She sat across the table, her sharp grey eyes taking in everything, her hand lingering where mine had just been. Most people accepted my answers without question, it was just easier that way. But Davina? She was different. She’d caught a glimpse of something in that moment enough to know I was hiding the truth, even if she didn’t fully understand it.

I forced myself to let go of the back of the chair, trying not to crush it under my grip.

"Get some rest," I said. "We start hearing prep tomorrow."

I half-expected her to argue, but instead, she just nodded. Somehow, that felt worse.

I could feel her eyes on me all the way to the door.

As soon as I stepped outside, the evening air hit my face like a splash of cold water. The compound had settled into that eerie post-conflict quiet. Wolves were scattered across the yard in small clusters, their voices low, heads bent together. The shouting from the hall had faded. By morning, every wolf in the territory would have an opinion about the challenge.

Most of them probably already did.

I crossed the yard with my hands shoved deep in my pockets, my mind racing through everything at once, the challenge, the hearing, Davina’s hand over mine, and the look on her face when my mask slipped. The shakes were getting worse. I had three days to stand in front of this pack and fight for everything while my own body felt like it wasn't my own.

I was almost at the training ground when I heard my name.

"Zane."

I turned around and Aurelia stood about ten feet away, and the moment I saw her face, I knew this wasn’t going to be a quick chat. Her arms were crossed tightly over her chest, her jaw set so hard that a muscle twitched beneath the skin. Her eyes were red-rimmed, dry now but clearly not long ago. The way she stood with her weight forward, and shoulders back radiated a tension that had been building for hours and was finally spilling over.

The nearby wolves quietly melted away. Smart move.

I walked over to her. "Aurelia."

"I stood in that hall." Her voice was low and trembling from the effort of holding back something big. "I stood there and heard you say it in front of everyone. In front of the whole pack." She unfolded her arms, letting her hands drop to her sides, fingers curling into fists. "You didn’t even tell me. After everything, I had to find out just like every other wolf."

"I should have told you. That was wrong."

She let out a short, sharp laugh that had no warmth in it. "You should have told me." She repeated it slowly, like she was tasting how inadequate it sounded. "That’s what you have for me."

I held her gaze, knowing there was nothing better I could offer.

She stepped closer, close enough for me to see her chest rising and falling too quickly, her hands clenching and releasing at her sides like she didn’t know what to do with them. "Do you know what I’ve given this pack? Every single day over the years" Her voice cracked, and she immediately tightened her jaw, furious at herself for it. "I trained when I was injured. I held border positions in winter that grown males refused. I bled for this pack, Zane. I made myself into exactly what a Luna should be, exactly what you needed, because everyone around me made it clear that was where I was headed." Her eyes blazed with intensity. "And then she walks in. A human who didn’t even know we existed. Who has never fought for anything in this world, who doesn’t know our laws, our history, or what it costs to stand where I’m standing." She stepped even closer, her voice dropping to a quiet, dangerous whisper. "And the moon goddess hands her everything I’ve spent my life building toward."

The yard was completely still around us.

"I’m sorry," I said. "I know that doesn’t fix anything."

"No." She looked at me with something that had moved past grief and was hardening into something else entirely. "It doesn’t." She tilted her head slightly. "Tell me something. Is it real? Forget about the bond or your wolf. You. Do you actually want her?"

I met her gaze steadily. "I do. I have never been more sure of anything."

She took that in with her chin lifting slightly. Then she exhaled through her nose, and something in her expression went very still.

"Then hear me clearly." Her voice was quiet, controlled now in a way that felt far more unsettling than the earlier shaking. "I am not going anywhere. I have given too much to this pack to walk away because of her." Her eyes locked onto mine without flinching. "I will be watching every move she makes. Every mistake, every moment she shows this pack she doesn’t belong here, I will be there." She stepped back, deliberately putting distance between us. "And when she fails, I will be the one still standing."

With that, she turned and walked away.
I stood there and watched her go.

I had just started moving again toward Caspian's office when a young wolf came sprinting across the yard, nearly colliding with the fence before he spotted me and changed direction fast.

Panic radiated off him in waves.

"Alpha prince." He was breathless, chest heaving. "Caspian sent me. He said to find you immediately."

My stomach tightened. Caspian didn’t send runners unless something was seriously wrong.

"What happened?"

The wolf swallowed hard. "Eastern patrol found something on the border." He shook his head.

I was already moving before he finished speaking.
Light spilled under Caspian's office door. Voices inside, more than I expected. I pushed it open, and the room fell silent.

Caspian stood at the table, my father beside him. Logan leaned against the wall, and three senior warriors I recognized from the eastern rotation were there too.

Nobody looked like they had good news.
My eyes landed on the object in the center of the table.

At first, I thought it was cloth.
Then I registered the texture, the color, and my jaw locked.

Wolf skin.
And carved into it, in jagged, uneven cuts were five words.

SEND THE HUMAN BACK NOW.

The room was completely silent.

And for the first time since the night I carried Davina out of her shop, I felt something cold move through my chest that had nothing to do with the shakes.

Whoever had sent this had been inside our borders.
Close enough to leave it, and close enough to know exactly where to p
ut it so we’d find it tonight.

Which meant they’d been watching the compound.
Watching her.