Chapter 13: The Shadowed Path

Caleb left at dawn. There was no fanfare, no grand farewell. He simply walked out of the main gate, the Shard of Midnight dagger strapped to his back, a solitary figure swallowed by the thick, grey mist rolling down from the mountains. The pack watched him go in a silence that was part fear, part awe. Their Alpha was embarking on a suicide mission, and the woman who had sent him—for that was how they saw it—stood watching from the highest balcony of the Great Hall. I felt his departure not...