The forest should have been quiet, but something moved within it.
Finn slowed his steps, his senses sharpening as a faint rustle slipped through the trees to his left. It was not the careless shuffle of an animal or the whisper of wind through leaves. There was intent behind it, something deliberate enough to make his shoulders tense.
"Alright," he muttered, his voice low but steady. "Come out."
From between the trees, a small figure emerged. A girl.
She could not have been older than ten. Her hair was tied back in a loose ponytail that swayed gently as she walked, her movements slow and uneven, as though each step took more effort than she had left.
Finn frowned.
"You're lost," he said flatly. "This isn't a place for wandering. Head back the way you came."
She did not respond. She just kept walking.
Finn exhaled and started to turn away, already uninterested in playing guardian to a stray child in the middle of the woods.
"Not my job to babysit."
But his steps slowed almost immediately as unease crawled up his spine.
Finn glanced back and saw that the girl had stopped moving.
Her head tilted slightly, almost mechanically, before she looked up at him.
Her eyes caught the dim light filtering through the trees. They were dark red, the kind of color no child should have.
Finn's face lost whatever ease had been there a second ago.
"Yeah... that's not normal."
The corners of her lips pulled back, but it was not a smile. Her mouth stretched too wide, revealing jagged teeth that looked far too sharp for a child. A low growl rolled from her throat, rough and distorted.
"What did they do to you?" Finn muttered, shifting his stance.
The answer came fast.
She lunged without warning, crossing the distance between them with unnatural speed. Finn twisted aside just in time, her claws slicing through the air where his throat had been seconds earlier.
He shifted mid-motion, his body folding and reforming until a sleek black wolf hit the ground and darted sideways through the trees.
She followed even faster, her movements wild and unpredictable. She fought like an animal, all claws, teeth, and blind aggression.
She slammed into him, sending him skidding across the damp forest floor.
Finn shifted back before impact, boots digging into the earth as he steadied himself.
"She's not right," he muttered.
The girl came at him again, claws flashing, teeth bared. There was no hesitation in her, no fear, no sign that she even felt pain.
"Nyx!" Finn called, ducking another strike. "I could use some help here."
The shadows shifted before she appeared.
Nyx stepped out from the darkness as though she had always belonged to it. Her gaze settled on the girl, and for a brief moment, curiosity crossed her face before sharpening into focus.
"Well," she murmured calmly, "that's interesting."
"Less observation, more action," Finn shot back as he barely avoided another swipe.
Nyx's lips curved faintly, but her attention stayed on the girl.
The shadows at her feet stirred, rising in thin tendrils that snapped forward and wrapped around the girl's limbs. They yanked her back as she shrieked, the sound tearing through the forest.
The shadows tightened, but the girl fought against them with a strength that should not have been possible for someone her size.
Within seconds, the restraints snapped apart like they had never been there at all.
Nyx's expression shifted.
"Stronger than she should be."
The girl twisted free and launched herself forward again, this time straight at Nyx.
Nyx vanished just before the claws could reach her and reappeared behind the girl. The shadows sharpened into thin spears and shot forward, forcing the girl to twist in mid-air before landing in a low crouch.
Her growl deepened.
Finn let out a short breath. "You seeing this?"
"I am," Nyx replied, her voice still calm, though her eyes had sharpened. "And I don't like it."
The girl moved again, faster than before, her body pushing beyond what it should have been capable of. Violent energy rippled outward from her, disturbing the ground beneath her feet.
Nyx stepped back, her movements measured.
Then something red cut through the space between them.
It moved too fast for the eye to follow, slamming into the girl and sending her crashing into a tree hard enough to splinter the trunk.
She hit the ground, but it still was not enough to keep her down.
Cade stood where the blur had been, his chest rising and falling slightly, the faint dampness of sickness still clinging to him.
"You both look like you're struggling," he said evenly.
Finn scoffed. "Try dealing with that thing yourself before you judge."
Cade ignored him.
His attention stayed fixed on the girl as she pushed herself upright again, her body trembling but still driven by that same unnatural force.
Behind him, Levi and Grace stepped into the clearing.
Levi's presence was steady and grounding, while Grace looked at the girl with something far more complicated in her eyes, something caught between recognition and sorrow.
Grace stepped forward and raised a hand. A faint glow spread beneath her skin before reaching toward the girl, as though searching for whatever part of her still remained.
For a brief moment, the girl froze.
Her body trembled, and her fingers twitched as though she were caught between two forces.
"She's gone. Poor soul," Grace said softly.
Then the girl screamed.
Whatever had been left inside her shattered completely as she lunged again, faster and more violent than before.
Cade moved without hesitation.
His body shifted mid-stride, bones reshaping, muscle expanding as white fur tore through skin. The form he took was larger than any ordinary wolf, something more imposing, caught between two natures that refused to separate.
He met her head-on.
The fight did not last long.
When it was over, the forest fell quiet again.
Cade shifted back, his breathing heavier now, the strain obvious despite how controlled he looked.
Levi approached the fallen body, his expression tightening as he looked down.
"A child," he said quietly.
Nyx looked away, the edges of her usual calm starting to crack.
Finn let out a slow breath. "That wasn't natural. Not even close."
"No," Grace replied quietly. "It wasn't."
Levi exhaled slowly and dragged a hand through his hair as he looked down at the girl's still body.
"That was one," he said, his voice low but steady. "Just one, and it pushed all of you this far. Now imagine a whole pack of them moving together, controlled and unleashed at once."
Grace spoke before anyone else could.
"He's not just creating monsters," she said, her voice calm but edged with something colder. "He's improving them. If we go after him head-on like this, we won't make it out. Not alone."
Her gaze moved between them, steady and calculating.
"We need support. If the other packs turn against him, we stand a chance. Otherwise..." She let the sentence die there. She did not need to finish it.
Cade looked around the forest, his senses still sharp despite the strain on his body.
"That thing found us too easily," he said. "It didn't wander in here. It tracked us."
Finn cursed quietly under his breath.
"If something like that can slip past our borders without being noticed," Cade continued, "then we're more exposed than we thought."
Nyx's jaw tightened, though her expression stayed calm.
"I've been watching the perimeter," she said. "Nothing crosses into my range without me knowing. At least, nothing used to."
Her eyes flicked briefly toward the body before returning to Cade.
"They're changing. Whatever is being done to them is not finished yet."
Silence settled over the group.
Cade lowered his gaze for a moment, his expression unreadable.
"Then we don't have much time."
Grace stepped closer and rested a hand lightly against his shoulder. The touch was gentle, but grounding.
"You're already pushing yourself too hard," she said softly. "You need to recover."
Cade shook his head once.
"Rest won't stop what's coming."