56.Nia

Layla’s rage boiled over. No longer hidden behind her panic and worry, a white-hot fury left everything else in embers. Her fists clenched again, but she wasn’t trying to contain herself anymore.

‘Don’t, Layla,’ Rebecca said through their mindlink. ‘You don’t know what it will do to you.’

Her mother rushed up to the glass and put her palms against it. She hadn't noticed it before, but there were bags under her mother’s usually vibrant face, and the undeniable strength she always sensed from her mother was gone.

The Hunters did that.

They took a woman who once shielded a whole packhouse full of wolves, calmed them during the war and reduced her to just a shell of herself. A wolf rumoured to be stronger than anyone.

They took scouts, the bravest and most skilled fighters out of all the packs.

They took Gavin and Faith.

They took children.

She approached the glass that imprisoned her mother and placed her palm against it. Behind her, the mood shifted. The tension in the Hunters