Chapter 152

VALENTINA The air was thick, it felt wrong, pulsing with betrayal. I smelled it before the first howl ripped through the night. Smoke. Rust. Blood... And beneath it, betrayal threading through the corridors of the packhouse like a whisper no one wanted to admit hearing. The gates— Someone had opened the damned gates. I jolted upright, my body still aching from the duel with the Gemini general. My shoulder throbbed where his blade had cut deep, and my veins still burned from the vision of my mother. My room was too quiet for a pack under siege, too heavy, like the walls themselves were listening. Then the sound came. A scream came from outside. Not a warrior’s roar. A sheet scream of someone getting hurt, or worse, dying. I staggered to the window, clawing the shutters open. Lights lit the courtyard, but not in order— it's chaos. Rogues, no! Black beasts slipped like shadows through the grounds, more coordinated than I had ever seen, tearing into warriors who barely had time to shift. T