Chapter 253

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PIPER

As I entered the common hall, the pungent smell of dew and pine traveled in the morning air.

My mind jumped back to the note Dane had spoken of but I had no idea as far as its contents were concerned.

The itch in my head seemed to have turned disturbing and so my eyes began searching the room for a clue of any sort.

It was a stray piece of paper on the edge of the table where Alina had sat during yesterday’s meeting half concealed under a folded napkin that first caught my eye as the hall began filling with wolves readying for the tasks of the day.

My brow furrowed as I reached for it, my fingers brushing against the rough papers.

The moment the note opened in my hand, my stomach somersaulted. The script was squeezed, rushed, and unfamiliar.

All it said was, “Keep the next move discreet. They can’t suspect. anything yet.”

I closed my fingers more tightly over the paper as my gaze flashed around the room. Alina wasn’t anywhere, yet I could sense her behind me, lurking like a ghost.

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“Warrick,” I whispered, clenching his arm as he strode into the training ground later that afternoon..

He froze mid stride, the perpetual grin on his face faltering as he took in the look on my face.

“What’s wrong?”

I held up the note, my voice low and urgent. “I found this near Alina’s seat after yesterday’s meeting. It’s. suspicious.”

He took the note from me, brows furrowing as he read. “What the hell is this?

“That’s what we need to find out,” I said, crossing my arms. “I don’t trust her, Warrick. There’s something she’s hiding, and if we don’t figure it out”

“She’s going to get away with it,” he finished, his voice hardening.

I nodded. “Exactly.”

For a moment, Warrick’s gaze flickered with hesitation. Then he sighed, shoving the note into his pocket. “All right. Where do we

start?”

We had spent hours checking her usual haunts: the storage shed near the edge of the village, the abandoned cottage she would often sneak to under the pretense of “training,” even her

quarters.

Chapter 253

turned

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midday, frustration had set in. Warrick slumped against the side of the training arena, his hand

this,” he muttered. “She’s sneaky, but she’s not stupid. If she’s hiding something,

front of him, my

don’t write themselves, and Alina doesn’t strike

the heat in

footsteps, my eyes drifting toward the packhouse. “Her

Warrick frowned. “What stash?”

voice whittling down

secrets. Alina’s no different. We

working our way methodically through every room we knew and every crawl

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creak of a floorboard, the rustle of shifted paper always tempting

Warrick said after the hundredth empty drawer. “This is

I insisted, though

to waver.

edge. His brow

said,

ran to his side,

It showed a small, hallowed place behind. There was

muttered, pulling the bundle

letters, each one

outside the pack, someone

of plans to destabilize leadership, to sow discord, and

my

Chapter 253

the old mill tomorrow night. We’ll

then.”

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old mill?” Warrick repeated, turning to me. “We have one

near the

“She is up to something. And we just

note and tucked it into my pocket.

this to Aurora.”

around my arm. “If we accuse Alina now, she’ll just deny it. But if we can catch her

nodded, the weight of what hung in the balance weighing upon me like a

“Tomorrow night,” Warrick echoed.

wordlessly in the dim light of the packhouse, the

looked down at the letters in my hand, my fingers clenching on the fragile papers. The mere idea of what Alina could be planning tied my

Chapter 253

I asked, my voice barely above a

“Wel keep our heads down. If Alina

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