The Ghost Pack

CONNOR

The interrogation feed snapped off with a hiss of static.

No one spoke, at first. The weight of what we’d just heard settled into the room the way ash did after a volcanic eruption—slow, choking, impossible to ignore.

On the monitor, the council rep leaned forward, clearing his throat. “Iron Ridge. There used to be a pack by that name. But they died out—gods—nearly forty years ago.”

“I remember them,” came a faraway voice from Alpha Dan’s screen. Dan shifted his camera, and one of his pack elders came into view. “When I was a boy, they were still active. They were our neighbors.”

“Where, exactly?” I asked.

“They occupied land up against the Iron Mountains,” the elder said without hesitating. “East of the Columbia River, right along the old border trail. Just outside Colville National Forest.”

Josh, who’d been silent since the Chloe feed started, snapped his head up. But he wasn’t the only one to make the connection.

“Of course!” Alpha Dan said before I could speak. “I wondered why BioBridge’s lab was so close to Rosewood Pack! Iron Ridge must’ve helped the humans!”

The moment he said it, a ripple of disgust seemed to pass between all of us.

“No way.” Alpha Mateo shook his head. “No way a wolf pack would do that.”

“Maybe they didn’t have a choice,” Ben said. “Maybe the humans found them, took them captive. Maybe that’s why they died out.”

“But they didn’t die out,” Alpha Ronan said. “The clone said she worked ~with~ Iron Ridge. So they clearly still exist. They’re simply hiding from the council. Because they’re offering up their own wolves to BioBridge.”

Alpha Roger scoffed. “And now they’re offering up our wolves.”

The meeting fell silent once again before Alpha Dan sat straight and nodded. “Right, well, let’s find out. I’ll dispatch scouts immediately to Iron Ridge’s last-known location, as well as to the area around BioBridge.”

“Do it,” I said. “Let’s find out exactly what the hell they’re doing out there. Because whatever it is, it’s not over. And I plan to stop them.”

“Don’t you mean ~we~?” Alpha Mateo scoffed. “You may be seeking vengeance for your mate, but those are ~our~ pups, and ~we’re~ getting them back!”

A chorus of “yeahs” and “that’s rights” came through the laptop speakers.

“Gentlemen,” the council rep said, “it sounds like you’re formally declaring war against BT Holdings and all the companies under it. Is that correct?”

We all said yes except for Alpha Mateo, who added, “And Iron Ridge.”

The council member held up a hand. “We can’t declare war on a pack that doesn’t exist. If we find them, that’s a different story.” He gave a curt nod. “Right. On behalf of the Werewolf Council Directive, I approve your declaration.”

Willow and I stood in unison, and I looked at my inner circle. “You heard him. We’re going to war.”

***

The SUV growled down the old forest road, kicking up dirt behind us. The air was heavy, full of sap, silence, and the kind of tension that made your bones buzz.

We’d moved the meeting to mobile devices to plan the attack. At the same time, I mind-linked the strategy to my pack. In case GhostBridge returned to Moon Shield, the vulnerable stayed in the bunkers with their guards. Everyone else came with me.

The other alphas were coordinating their squads, talking over each other and revving themselves up like this was just another turf war.

“This is what we were born for.” Alpha Roger’s voice crackled through the speaker. “Wolf against human. The way it’s always been.”

“We shift the moment we see them,” Alpha Mateo said. “Show them what real dominance looks like.”

“Don’t forget,” I said sharply, cutting through their bravado, “they have weapons that take wolves down. If you shift too early, you may never get your wolf back. And then you’d be walking into a slaughter. So, we should fight as humans for as long as we can.”

Mateo scoffed. “Our wolves ~are~ the fight, Connor. That’s what separates us from them.”

“Yeah,” Alpha Dan added. “We wolves are apex predators. No human weapon can match raw power and instinct.”

“Exactly,” Roger added. “I’ll shift before I ever fight on two feet. What’s the point of being a wolf if you’re going to cower like a human?”

“The glory belongs to the wolf,” said Alpha Mateo. “Always has. We don’t win wars by pretending to be what we’re not.”

A roar of agreement filled the SUV. It was clear they had no intention of listening to me. They’d always scoffed at my embrace of human technology. Today, I feared that would be their downfall.

I rolled my eyes and gritted my teeth. “Fine. Your funeral. Dan, I’ll call when I’m five minutes out.” I exited the meeting before I could say something I’d regret.

They didn’t understand what they were going up against—technology designed specifically to strip us of what made us strong. These fools were planning to charge in as if it were the old days, when humans fought with spears and fear.

They didn’t get it, but they would.

WILLOW

The trees blurred past in long green streaks.

Connor’s voice filtered through the haze—strategy, control, forward motion, sharp remarks to the alphas on the call.

But I was unraveling. Six of them out there with my face. My skin. Sent to steal children.

~Clones~. The word sounded sterile. Clinical. Like they weren’t people.

Like I wasn’t, either.

~Do they have wolves?~ That question kept circling. Because if they shifted under the same moon I did, they couldn’t be soulless, could they? What if they weren’t evil—only me, twisted into something else?

I stared at my reflection in the window. All my life, I’d been taught to fear my wolf. Punished for shifting. Drugged. Told I was too dangerous.

What if they were right? What if I wasn’t simply a test subject, but a sleeper weapon? What if some random phrase was all it’d take to flip the switch? What if I wasn’t the girl who escaped but the payload they let loose?

No real memories. No names. Just training halls, test rooms, needles, and restraints. The hum of lights and the smell of bleach and old blood.

Connor thought I was a pure alpha, so did that mean my parents were the alpha couple of Iron Ridge? That would mean they’d willingly given me to BioBridge, even knowing no wolf had ever made it out of there alive.

The SUV bounced, jostling me from the spiral. I took a breath, then another, and refocused on the problem at hand.

The scientists were out there hurting pups. That was the line.

I wasn’t going to let another child suffer what I had.

If that meant tracking them down, one by one—including the clones, if they were still gathering pups—I’d put every one of them in the ground.

Because Nurse Amy and Shawna had died helping me escape.

And the people who’d done all of this?

They weren’t going to get away.

The SUV hit a rough patch again, and I shifted in my seat to get more comfortable. I looked out the window one last time, right as the Iron Mountains rose in the distance.

Then, sleep dragged me under, slow and thick, like mud over a grave.

***

Something jolted me before fingers gripped my shoulder, firm but gentle.

I blinked, and the haze of sleep cracked and fell away. The world came back in fragments: dark trees outside the window, the metallic scent of guns, and Connor’s eyes, locked on mine.

“Willow.” Connor’s voice was steel wrapped in silk. “We’re here. It’s time to end this.”