The night after the battle, Kael and Lyra were summoned to the war council. The hall reeked of smoke and iron, the memory of blood still clinging to their clothes.
"The rogues grow bolder," Myrren said grimly. "This was no random strike. Someone guides them."
Kael's father scowled. "Then we root them out. Hunt them to their den."
Lyra leaned forward. "Rogues don't move like this unless they're supplied. Someone's feeding them information—maybe even from within."
The words earned her a sharp glance from Kael. He didn't like that she was right.
After hours of arguing, a plan was set: Kael and Lyra would lead a scouting party into the wilds, tracing the rogues' movements. Two heirs, one Alpha, one Omega—bound together by fate.
When the meeting ended, Lyra caught Kael's gaze across the firelit chamber. For once, his glare lacked its usual bite. Instead, it held something quieter. Resignation, perhaps.
"You don't trust easily," he said later, as they walked back through the fortress halls.
She arched a brow. "And you do?"
His lips twisted faintly. "No. But if we're going to find these rogues, we'll need to trust each other at least a little."
Lyra's wolf stirred at the honesty in his tone. She masked it with a smirk. "A little trust, then. Don't get greedy, Alpha."
The journey began at dawn.
Days stretched into nights beneath the stars, the forest thick with shadows and silence. They rode side by side, sometimes speaking, sometimes not. When the others in their scouting party slept, they kept watch together by the fire.
It was in those long, quiet hours that Kael began to see her differently.
Lyra spoke of her village, of the Silverclaw lands filled with winter birch and river mist. She spoke of her dreams—not of being claimed or coddled, but of leading, of proving that an Omega could be more than a pawn.
Kael listened, though he rarely admitted it. And when she caught him staring into the flames too long, she asked about his burdens, his scars, his duty to a father who saw only a weapon, never a son.
He never gave her full answers. But the fragments he offered chipped at the walls between them.