They will pay with their blood.

Baelakis

The morning light streamed through the windows, cold and indifferent, casting long shadows across the floor of the pack house. It had been a night of endless tears and unanswered prayers. The emptiness inside me had grown so vast that I felt like I was floating in some dark abyss, detached from everything except the gnawing, raw ache of loss. My babies were gone, and the realization settled in my bones like a poison, spreading slowly but surely, poisoning every thought, every breath.

I had spent most of the night curled up on the living room floor, staring blankly at the ceiling while the others sat in stunned silence around me. No one knew what to say; no words could mend the chasm that had opened in my heart. We all knew who was responsible, though. The betrayal, once just a bitter suspicion, had now festered into a truth too ugly to ignore.

Tina.

The name echoed in my mind like a curse. She had been one of us, someone I had trusted, someone who had watched over my children