Chapter 2

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."