The Lost Pack (Paige) novel Chapter 169

** Remy’s POV **

Dawn creeps in slowly. The forest outside the Midnight Pack’s border hums with life again, birds calling, wind shifting through the trees, but it’s wrong. Too quiet in the places that should be loud, too still where the world should move.

I haven’t slept. None of us really have, but I didn’t even try. Every time I close my eyes, I see it… the flash of gold and silver light ripping through the clearing, the smell of burning air, the way my lungs filled again when I was sure they’d stopped for good.

Paige.

She did something none of us understand, something no wolf, human, or healer could explain. I should feel nothing but relief, but all I can think about is the look on Ryder’s face when he realised what she had done, awe and terror tangled together.

Leo pads ahead of me, silent as always, his fur slick from the rain that fell before dawn. He shifts when we reach the ridge, stretching his neck until it pops. “Still no word from Brandon?”

I shift too, and I shake my head. “He got into the server, but the trail cams are down. He thinks someone took them out, or Nina wiped them before she ran.”

Leo curses under his breath. “So she’s smart enough to cover her tracks.”

“Yeah. And stupid enough to betray her pack.”

We fall into silence. The air smells of damp moss and deer. Beneath it, I catch another scent, faint, but familiar. Hunter.

I kneel, brushing my fingers through the mud. Boot prints, half-washed out by the rain. They’re fresh, though.

“They came this far?” Leo asks quietly, crouching beside me.

“Looks that way. Either the ones who survived are regrouping… or someone’s scouting.”

He exhales, the sound rough. “Midnight’s border patrol claims they didn’t notice anything.”

“They wouldn’t. They don’t patrol this far out.”

Leo’s jaw tightens. “Do you think Nina’s with them?”

I shake my head. “No. I think she’s running, but not with them. She might have been feeding them information, but she’s not naïve enough to trust them not to kill her as soon as she became expendable. My guess? They’ll kill her to tie up a loose end, or they’ll use her.”

“For what?”

“Some kind of leverage,” I shrug.

Leo nods, his eyes narrowing as he scans the horizon.

“How are you feeling? After the…” he trails off, not needing to explain. I know exactly what he’s asking.

I blow out a breath and run my hand over the back of my head. “Physically, I’m fine, but I’m worried, for her and for Poppy. If they saw what she did… If they know what they are…” I shake my head.

The words hang heavy between us. Neither of us says what we’re both thinking. Whatever power she carries, the hunters will want it. And I’ve no doubt they’ll bleed anyone who gets in the way. They’ll be even more determined to get to us now.

Leo glances back towards the Midnight Pack base. “Do you think she will be better today?”

“She’s already awake. She will be okay.”

I know she is awake because I felt it. The moment she realised I wasn’t there, the faint pulse through the bond, soft but steady, like she was reaching for reassurance.

“She’s different now,” I say quietly. Not sure why I’m telling him this.

Leo looks at me, frowning. “Different how?”

I hold up my hand. There’s a faint shimmer on my skin, so faint I wouldn’t notice if I wasn’t looking for it. Silver, like dust caught in the light. “It’s been doing this since she… healed me.”

He stares. “You think it’s from her?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s nothing. Maybe it’s a mark, a residue from what she did. But I feel it. Like my body, it’s stronger and sharper. My wolf hasn’t stopped pacing since it happened. He’s restless. Protective.”

“Protective of her?”

“Always,” I admit. “But this feels… amplified. Like the bond doubled down overnight. It feels like she did more than just heal me; she bound us tighter in some way.”

Leo hums low in his throat, scanning the trees again. “It doesn’t sound like a bad thing.”

“I know.”

The weight of it sits heavy in my chest, not because I don’t want it, but because I can feel how much it’s going to cost her. Power like that never comes free.

A sharp whistle echoes through the woods, one of ours. Ronnie appears moments later in human form, with mud streaked up to his knees. “Fresh tracks on the west line,” he says grimly. “Three humans and five to six wolves from what I can make out. Midnight can’t account for them.”

“Scent?” Leo asks.

“Difficult to distinguish; everything close to our territory smells the same… it smells like power,” he responds, his eyes flicking to me.

“A rogue pack?” I suggest, even though it’s highly unlikely they’d venture this close to our territories unless they were seeking us out.

“Maybe, but they’re moving like soldiers, not strays.”

Ronnie’s words hang in the air, heavy with unease.

“Soldiers,” I repeat quietly, scanning the treeline. “Then they’re trained. Can you take us to the tracks?”

Ronnie nods and turns; we follow him for a short distance before he stops, pointing to the trail of fresh prints in the dirt.

Leo crouches, pressing his palm into the mud beside the prints. “These happened after the rain,” he hums. “Maybe an hour or two old at most.”

Ronnie steps forward, disbelief written across his face. “They were gone, Rem. I saw some of them die. I was there when they took their last breaths.”

My pulse hammers in my chest. “I know.”

They don’t react to our presence; they just stand there, looking like they’ve just crawled out of hell and haven’t realised it yet.

“What the fuck…” Leo curses. “How…”

“Shhh,” I hiss, raising a hand. My wolf is restless now, pacing under my skin, uncertain if it should be relieved or terrified.

The air feels wrong here. It’s thick, humming with the same energy that still clings to me. The same charge Paige left behind.

Leo steps closer to the edge of the ridge. “They’re breathing. I can see it.”

I nod numbly and attempt to reach them via the mind link, but there’s no response.

“Something’s not right,” I whisper.

“No kidding,” Leo grunts.

I take one slow step forward, then another. My pulse pounds so hard I can hear it in my ears. “Hayden?” I call, voice low. “It’s me. It’s Remy.”

Nothing. Not a flinch. Not even a blink.

The wind stirs, and the air shifts just enough for the scent to hit me full force. It’s pack… but laced with something else. Something electric and familiar. Something that smells like her.

My stomach twists. “She did this, didn’t she…”

Leo glances at me, but before either of them can respond, one of the men stumbles forward. Another follows, then another. They move sluggishly, but together.

I take another step forward, heart hammering. “Hayden!” I bark, putting every bit of my Beta energy into the word.

A few of the heads snap toward me at once, and every instinct in me screams wrong. Their faces are blank. Their expressions are empty, but there’s something behind their eyes, a glimmer of recognition.

One of the twins, Hale, I think, takes a shaking step forward, lips parting. “Remy?” he whispers, his voice cracked and dry, like he hasn’t spoken in weeks.

Relief spikes through me, and then dies instantly when the rest of them turn their heads in eerie unison.

“What the hell…” Ronnie breathes.

Then I see her. A figure behind the group, small, slumped, unmoving. But then she lifts her head.

Long hair, tangled and streaked with blood. Pale skin, eyes dazed and unfocused… Nina.