** Remy’s POV **
My chest goes tight. “No,” I whisper.
Nina’s standing in the centre of them like she belongs there, her once-pristine doctor’s coat shredded and smeared with dirt, her expression is as blank as the rest.
Leo exhales. “Is that…”
“Yeah,” I nod. “That’s Nina.”
For a long second, no one breathes. The only sounds are the steady trickle of the stream and the quiet hum in the air, that same unnatural vibration that has crawled under my skin since last night.
Then, slowly, Nina’s head tilts, her brown eyes finding mine. “Remy,” she says softly as she blinks.
My wolf growls low in my chest. She’s a traitor; it’s her fault we are in this position right now, her fault they had the upper hand. But if that’s true… if it was her that betrayed us, why is she here?
I open the mind-link, pulling Rye, Callen, and Parker in. I hesitate a beat before pulling Jake, Leo and Ronnie in. It seems our inner circle has grown.
“We have a huge issue, or miracle, depending on how you want to look at it,” I say as my eyes scan over all nine of our lost pack members.Ryder is the first to respond. “What is it?”
“We’ve found the missing pack members,” I say, glancing around at the dazed group again. “All nine of them.
They’re alive.”
Silence hits the link like a brick wall.
Then Ryder’s voice cuts through, low and cautious. “Alive?
You’re sure?”
“As sure as I can be when they’re standing right in front of me,” I reply. “But something’s off. They’re not… right.”
“What do you mean ‘off’?” Parker asks.
“They’re standing. Breathing. Talking, barely. But their eyes…” | look at Nina and the others. Their gazes are still fixed on me, unblinking. “They look empty, and their energy feels wrong.”
“Shit,” Callen mutters.
“Goddess,” Ryder. “We can’t bring them back to Midnight.
Not like that. Not with half the damn pack sniffing around and already suspicious of what happened.”
“He’s right,” Callen says. “If we show up with nine resurrected enforcers, we’ll have every pack in the world demanding answers.”
“And we can’t send them back to Phoenix territory either,”
Parker adds grimly. “We don’t even know if it s secure yet, or if hunters are still lurking.”I glance back at the enforcers, my stomach twisting.
They’re just standing there now, silent, swaying slightly like they’re caught between worlds. Nina’s still at the centre of them, her expression blank, her hands loosely at her sides.
“Leaving them here isn’t an option,” I say. “They’re vulnerable like this. If the hunters find them first…”
“They’ll use them,” Callen finishes darkly.
“We need Jake and Poppy to check them over,” I say.”
They’ll know more about what we’re dealing with.”
Ryder hums low through the link. “Agreed. But moving them to Midnight is too dangerous. You’ll have to stay hidden until we figure something else out. There’s an old supply shed not far from the west ridge. It’s off the main patrol routes. Take them there.”
“Understood,” I say.
Ronnie’s voice filters through next. “And what about us?
We can’t all stay out here. If the pack gets wind that we haven’t come back, it’ll start a panic.”
Ryder sighs. “We’ll split. I’ll send Jake and Poppy to you under the cover of checking the perimeter. Callen and will stay behind to meet with Josh. Parker can stay here with Paige and Jaxon.”



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