Chapter 14 · Silver at the Fence

The alarm punched through the dark at four a.m. Not the wake-up bell. The invasion siren.

Rena didn't move. She'd been staring at the ceiling for two hours, the archive pages still burning behind her eyes. Every time she tried to close them she saw her mother's name in Marcus's handwriting. *Target: Lydia Hale. Status: Eliminated.*

"What's going on?" she whispered to Cain, already knowing the answer.

Cain rolled off the bed and yanked his jeans on. "Silver Oath. They're here for you."

She grabbed her jacket and followed him out. The camp was chaos. Wolves running everywhere, some half-shifted, claws out, eyes glowing amber in the floodlights. Kids crying in the main hall. Ella shouting orders near the clinic, stuffing supplies into a duffel.

"How many?" Cain caught a sentry sprinting past by the shoulder.

"Thirty. Maybe more. They got the whole perimeter locked down," the guy replied, breathing hard.

Rena's stomach dropped. Thirty hunters. Silver Oath didn't send thirty people for cleanup. They sent thirty when they wanted to erase something.

She pushed through the crowd and took the watchtower stairs two at a time. Cain was right behind her. When they hit the top, she saw them.