Page 17

BONUS CONTENT

DEAN - AGE 15

The first thing I notice when I wake up is the silence.

Silver Creek used to be full of noise, wolves training, children playing, businesses bustling. Now, the silence weighs like a physical thing.

Pulling on my jeans, I peer out my window at the empty streets. No one goes out much anymore. Dad says it's safer this way. Says other packs can't be trusted.

I don't believe him.

"Dean?" Maya's quiet voice is at my door. My twelve-year-old sister looks smaller these days, haunted. "Dad's calling a pack meeting."

My heart sinks. Pack meetings mean new rules. More restrictions. More of Dad's paranoid rambling about threats and betrayals.

In the great hall, what's left of our pack gathers. I count the faces which grow fewer each month. Some disappeared in the night. Others were sent away for training and never returned.

Dad stands at the front, wild-eyed and unkempt. He's nothing like the strong, confident alpha I remember from my childhood.

"The border will be sealed," he announces. "No one leaves without my direct permission. No exceptions."

Murmurs of protest rise, quickly silenced by his growl.

"Our young ones will be educated here. Mates will be chosen from within. We don't need outsiders. We can't trust them."

My hands ball into fists.

Next to me, Maya trembles.

"But Alpha," someone bravely speaks up. "What about finding true mates? It’s not happening. The pool of wolves is too small."

Dad's laugh is bitter. "True mates? Like mine? Who betrayed me? Who let herself be corrupted by outside influences?"

I want to scream that Mom didn't betray anyone. That I saw the bruises, heard the fights. That her "suicide" was as suspicious as her sudden withdrawal from pack life.

But I stay quiet. For Maya's sake.

"Anyone attempting to leave will be considered a traitor," Dad continues. "Dealt with accordingly."

The threat hangs heavy in the air. We all know what "accordingly" means.

After the meeting, I find Maya in Mom's old garden. The flowers are wild now, untended. Like us.

"We can't stay here," she whispers, pulling dead leaves from a rosebush. "It's getting worse."

"I know." I wrap an arm around her shoulder. "I'm working on it."

And I am.

Secret college applications hidden under my mattress. Correspondence with the Grey Ridge alpha, carefully deleted. Plans within plans.

Dad might have sealed the borders, but he can't seal our minds. Can't stop us from dreaming of something better.

That night, I hear him pacing in his study. Muttering about traitors and threats. About the Jones pack watching us, plotting against us. About Mom's betrayal.

Maya slips into my room, pillow clutched to her chest. "Bad dreams."

I make room for her like I used to when we were small. "Want to hear about Grandad?”

She nods eagerly, then I tell her what I remember. He was a good man, who tried his best for as long as he could.

"Will we ever have a normal pack?"

I stroke her hair, remembering Mom doing the same. "Yes. I promise. Whatever it takes."

Because that's my real inheritance. Not Dad's paranoia or his crumbling empire. But the responsibility to fix what he's broken.

To save what's left of our pack.

Even if I have to do it one small rebellion at a time.