The scream tears me out of my own skin.
Samantha bolts upright in the infirmary bed, terror ripping through her so violently it feels like a physical blow. The sound she makes isn't human—it's raw, shattered, the cry of a soul being ripped open. She's sobbing before she's even fully awake, thrashing against the sheets as if the fire is still around her.
"Mom—! Dad—!" she screams, voice breaking into pieces. "Please—please—I want my mom, I want my dad—"
I'm at her side instantly, hands on her shoulders, then pulling her into my chest when she starts clawing at the bedding like she's trying to escape her own body. She's shaking so hard I can feel it through my bones. "Samantha," I say, my voice barely holding together. "Little wolf. Look at me. You're safe. I've got you. I won't let anything hurt you."
She doesn't hear me.
Cameran is there too, grabbing her hand, crying openly, begging her to breathe. Dirge stands frozen at the foot of the bed, his grief rolling off him in suffocating waves. The scent of sorrow is thick in the air—old, deep, and newly torn open.
"I remember," Samantha sobs suddenly, her body going rigid in my arms. My heart stops. "I remember everything." She pulls back just enough for me to see her face, wrecked and drowning. "It was me, Kieran. It was all my fault." She shakes her head wildly, tears streaming unchecked. "The fire. My shift. I did it. I killed them."
The words gut me.
"They died because of me," she continued, voice collapsing completely. "My parents. Aunt Ginny." Her gaze finds Dirge, and when she says his name, something inside me fractures. "She died because of me."
The room goes deathly still.
Dirge stares at the floor like it will vanish beneath him, a sound tearing from his chest that no man should ever have to make. Cameran breaks with him, folding over Samantha's arm, sobbing so hard she can barely breathe.
And Samantha—my mate—crumbles.
I pull her back against me, wrapping every inch of myself around her as she screams and cries, as if my body alone can shield her from the weight of that memory. My hand cups the back of her head, pressing her to my chest, my heart hammering violently beneath her ear.
"No," I say, my voice rough, breaking despite everything I am. "No. You were a child. You were terrified. That was not your fault." I press my forehead to hers, forcing her to feel me, to feel now. "Your power answered fear. It does not make you guilty. It makes you alive."
She sobs harder, and I hold tighter.
The fire tried to take her.
The past tried to bury her.
But she's here. She survived. And whatever ghosts claw at her from the ashes, I will stand between them and my mate until my last breath.
Hours pass quietly, the kind of quiet that presses down on your chest and makes every thought heavier.
Dirge excuses himself eventually. He doesn't say much—just a nod, eyes hollow, grief too big for words. When the door closes behind him, it feels permanent somehow, like another loss added to the room.
Cameran stays.
Samantha barely looks at her. The guilt is written all over her face, carved deep and merciless. I can feel it through the bond—sharp, choking, relentless. No child should ever have carried that kind of weight. No wonder she never shifted again. Fear, pain, guilt layered so thick it buried her wolf alive.
I stay off to the side, leaning against the wall, close enough to intervene but far enough to give them space. This is something only they can do together.
"I'm so sorry," Samantha breaks, voice wrecked. "I'm so sorry, Cameran. I—I—" She can't finish, the sobs stealing the rest of the words.
Cameran's response is immediate and rough. "Shut up. Stop apologizing."
Samantha startles, looking up at her with wide, wounded eyes.
Cameran wipes the tears from Samantha's face with a firm hand, her own eyes shining but steady. "We were kids. What did we know?" Her voice cracks just a little, but she pushes through it. "I told you—my mom could have escaped. She was right there. At the door. With me." She swallows hard. "She chose to go back. She made that choice. Not you."
She grips Samantha's chin, forcing her to look at her. "Do you hear me, Samantha? It was not your fault. And you will stop saying it is."
Samantha shakes, breath hitching.
"I lost her in the fire," Cameran continues fiercely, pulling Samantha into her arms. "I can't lose you to the memory of it."
That does it.
Samantha breaks completely, crying into Cameran's shoulder like the child she never got to be. Cameran holds her tight, rocking her slightly, murmuring things I can't quite hear but feel all the same—love, forgiveness, survival.
They stay like that for hours.
Eventually, exhaustion takes them both. They fall asleep tangled together on the infirmary bed, Samantha curled instinctively into Cameran's side. I don't have the heart to separate them. They need this—need each other—to grieve properly.
So I sit.
Alone in the corner, staring at nothing, trying to put the pieces together.
Her parents didn't make it out. That alone doesn't make sense. Her father was a White Wolf—royal blood, ancient power. If anyone should have been able to control the flames, it was him. He should have had the Lumen. He should have been able to shield them.
Something doesn't add up.
The door slams open, ripping me out of my thoughts.
Enoch strides in, face calm, controlled—too controlled. That warrior mask tells me everything I need to know.
"What is it?" I ask.
He glances at the bed as the girls stir awake. "There's an attack. Small pack. Less than a hundred klicks from here. Fewer than five hundred wolves. Only about a quarter are warriors. Another Alpha is moving in, claiming their land."
Rage coils tight in my chest, cold and lethal. Preying on the weak, calling it conquest—this is exactly the rot I've been trying to rip out of our world.
"The twins?" I ask.
"Already preparing to head out."
"Good." I straighten immediately. "Tell them I'm going too. Callen stays here with the girls. Half the guards come with me—the rest remain here with our females and Callen. We leave separately from the twins. Find their entry strategy; we'll come in from the opposite side. Box them in."
"Yes, sir." He turns to go.
"Wait." Samantha sits up abruptly, panic flashing across her face. "An attack?"
"Hey." I'm at her side instantly. She doesn't even need to say it—I feel it through the bond, sharp and terrified. "I'll be okay."
"Kieran—" Her voice trembles, breaking. "I'm scared. I can't—" She chokes. "Not you too."
I cup her face, grounding us both, and kiss her gently—slow, deliberate, real. "I will be okay," I murmur against her lips. "I've done this before."
Her hands clutch my shirt like she's afraid I'll disappear if she lets go.
"I'll be okay," I repeat softly. "Now that I have you, I have something to come home to. Stay with the Beta pair. Stay safe."
Enoch reappears in the doorway, Cameran behind him, tears streaking her face. "Sir. We're moving out."
I turn back to Samantha, brushing my thumb along her cheek. "I thank the Moon Goddess every day for you."
She grips my wrist as I kiss her forehead, desperate and clinging. "I love you," I say quietly.
Then I force myself to stand.
And I walk out the door