The end-of-season hunt concluded the same way it always did in the Grey Stone Pack. Alpha Elena stood at the head of the carcass and called the kill division, her voice carrying the full weight of her rank. Jax stepped forward and claimed the prime organs. He snatched the heart and liver while they were still steaming, taking the raw cuts only high-ranking wolves were allowed to touch. He held them in both hands and never once looked in my direction. I was handed an insult wrapped in gristle. Elena tossed me the bones Jax had already cracked open and sucked dry. His saliva still clung to the marrow, and the stench of his satisfaction was baked into every fracture. It was the kind of scrap a wolf throws to a stray. For five years I had kept Grey Stone's walls from crumbling. I built their Silver-Trap Boundary System from salvaged wire and old ward components. I reset the perimeter triggers by hand and worked three straight nights during the Rogue siege so the rest of the pack could sleep in their dens. Now I was expected to feast on Jax's leavings. Alpha Elena found me at the equipment shed later that evening. She leaned in the doorframe with her arms crossed, a smile cutting across her face like a blade. "Silas," she said, her voice laced with false warmth. "The north ridge ward-triggers are failing again." "I know," I said, keeping my back to her. "Regional Alpha Greaves arrives in nine days. We need the perimeter running clean before he sets foot on our land." She stepped closer. "Fix the wards, Silas. Do this for the pack and I'll personally push your Transfer Order to the Royal Pack." I set my wrench down and stared at the dark wooden wall. She had made this exact promise when I rebuilt the flood barrier. She made it again when I ran the emergency generator alone through the siege. For five years she used that Transfer Order as bait, but Jax was always the one who walked away with the reward. "No," I said. The word came out flat and final. Elena's smile didn't move, but her eyes sharpened. "Excuse me?" I turned around and met her gaze. "I said no. I'm done being your pack mule, Elena." The shed went quiet. Elena studied me for a long moment. "Don't be reckless. Stay and fix the wards, and I'll personally guarantee the next Release Order goes to you. No committees. No delays. You have my word as Alpha." Before I could answer, Jax appeared in the doorway. He was still picking bits of liver from between his teeth, dark blood staining his chin like a badge of his unearned rank. "Elena's doing you a favor, Omega," he sneered, dragging the word out like he was scraping mud off a boot. "You should be on your knees thanking her for even noticing you." He leaned against the frame with a gap-toothed grin. "Tell you what, I'll let you smell my heart-cut. Maybe that'll cheer you up." I wiped the last of the grease from my hands and looked past him to Elena. "Don't bother. I'm transferring to the Blood Moon Pack. They've already offered me the position of Master of Wards with thirty pounds of fresh kill every month, and they put it in writing." Elena's composure cracked. "Blood Moon? You go there and you'll be a masterless stray with a tool belt. They only want your skills, Silas. The second you stop being useful, they'll drop you like a Rogue carcass." I buckled on my tool belt and stepped toward the door. "You've used me for five years while I starved. At least Blood Moon is honest about what my work is worth." Elena's warmth vanished completely. Her eyes went cold and flat. "You need my Alpha's Seal on your Pack Severance Order. Without my mark, you go nowhere. You will stay in Grey Stone, Silas, because I am the law here. Now fix those ward-triggers. That is a command." She turned and walked out without a second glance. Jax lingered a moment longer, whistling a taunting tune before following her into the dark. I stood alone in the shed. I thought about the seventeen Rogues who never breached our territory because of the traps I built. I looked at the gnawed bones in the rag, smelled Jax's stale scent on them, and made my decision. I walked to the north ridge boundary panel and stripped out every custom piece I had ever installed. I pulled the hand-tuned silver-trigger pulses and the pressure wards I had calibrated with my own sweat. Pack property could stay. But my work was leaving with me. On my way back I stopped at the supply post. Old Bren didn't look up from his pipe. "Nothing for you, Silas. Alpha Elena reallocated your ration to Jax for his supply run to the High Council. You'll have to manage." A hollow laugh escaped me. Elena's "guarantee" was already being paid for with my stolen food. As I walked away I heard Bren muttering to a woman nearby. "Serves him right, playing the hero over those ridge trees when we could have sold the timber." I didn't stop. Three years ago I saved those trees because they formed a natural flood barrier keeping the pack dens dry. They called me a traitor then. They were starving me now. I had chosen their lives over their gold, and I would make that same call again. But from this moment on, the fate of the Grey Stone Pack was no longer my concern.
Jax sauntered up to Bren's window with his hands in his pockets, acting like he owned the whole ridge. "What's all the noise about?" he asked, all false concern. Bren filled him in on my refusal with obvious pleasure. Jax listened with his head tilted like a patient elder, then turned to me with the look of a man watching a rabid pup. "Silas, man," he called out, loud enough for the crowd to hear. "Walking out on your pack over a few scraps? What does that say about your loyalty to the bond?" A woman behind Bren shouted her approval. The crowd pressed in tight. Jax's mouth curved into a slow, satisfied grin. "He told Elena flat out that Grey Stone was beneath him. He called every wolf here a stray." A massive wolf named Cutter stepped forward and jabbed a finger at my face. "That true, Silas? You calling us strays after everything this pack gave you?" I looked Jax in the eye, my voice flat. "When did I ever say that, Jax?" Jax blinked with wide-eyed innocence. "Right there in the Alpha's office. That's why she stormed out. You going to deny it now?" The crowd erupted. Insults flew. They called me an ungrateful traitor and a mutt. Cutter spat at my feet and accused me of refusing to fix his signal-stone because I thought I was better than everyone else. "Cutter," I said, keeping my voice even. "Your stone cracked because you dropped it off the watchtower. I lent you mine for three weeks, and you still haven't returned it." I turned to Marta at the gate post. "The east wards failed because lightning hit the power relay. I spent the whole night on that post so the pack's entire grid wouldn't burn out. I got to your triggers the next morning." The noise dropped. The truth has a way of doing that. But Jax stepped in quickly to keep the anger alive. "That's the problem with Silas. He keeps score. Every job is a transaction to him, not an act of loyalty." "Spoken by a wolf who has never done a real day of work," I said, and pushed past him. I walked to the equipment shed with Bren scrambling behind me, yelling about pack property. I opened the control panel and turned to face him. "Pack property stays, Bren. I'm only taking what's mine." I pulled out the custom silver-trigger pulse and the hand-built scent nodes I had assembled from salvage. Bren started sweating the moment he realized I was gutting the heart of the system. "You're killing the boundary!" he hissed. "I'm removing my parts," I said, straightening up. "The system will run at forty percent. That's exactly where it was before I arrived." I looked over at Jax in the doorway. "You're the star now, Jax. Fix the wards with that silver tongue of yours. I'll be watching."
I went home and slept deep and dreamless for the first time in weeks. Without my custom triggers, the boundary was wide open. A determined Rogue could find the gaps in a matter of hours. By evening, Bren was pounding on my door with three Enforcers behind him. "Silas! The east perimeter is throwing dead zones!" I didn't open my eyes. "Ask Jax," I said. "Jax doesn't know how to—" "Ask. Jax." I heard them shuffle away into the dark. That night, Jax spent his own gold at the Council outpost to buy generic replacement parts. He came to my window at dawn to brag. "See? The pack doesn't need you, Omega." I watched him from behind the glass. He had no idea the generic parts were incompatible with my custom housing. He didn't know about the manual recalibration the cold required, or that the two systems would fight each other until they failed completely. The Regional Council visit was in eight days and the temperature was dropping. I smiled and went back to sleep. That evening, I caught the Blood Moon signal: two low owl calls spaced three seconds apart. I slipped out the back to find their Beta, a massive wolf named Drum, waiting in the shadows. He handed me a bundle of fresh venison and a flask of dark ale. "Alpha Rhen sends his regards," Drum said quietly. "He says you've been patient longer than anyone should have to be." "Where do we stand on the severance?" I asked. "Alpha Rhen went straight to the Regional Council to bypass Elena. It'll take six more days for the Emergency Release to process. Hold on until then, Silas. Whatever they put you through, it ends soon." I nodded. The warmth of a good meal settled over me. Six days. I could wait six days.
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