The training began at dawn.
Aldric woke me before the sun, his hand on my shoulder, his breath misting in the cold. "Up. We have work to do."
I rose without complaint. I had been waiting for this moment since the Conclave ended. Three years to turn the Red Oak Pack into something that could stand against the vampires. It wasn't enough time. But I would use every second.
We walked to the clearing in silence, the frost crunching beneath our boots. When we reached the center, Aldric stopped and turned to face me.
"You're strong for your age," he said. "Faster than any cub I've trained. But strength and speed aren't enough. The vampires are faster than you. They're stronger than you. They've been hunting wolves since before your grandfather was born."
"Then how do we beat them?"
"We cheat."
He reached into his coat and pulled out a length of chain, each link etched with symbols that glowed faintly in the dawn light. I recognized them immediately. Witch-marks. The kind of magic the old covens used to bind and trap and kill.
"Where did you get that?"
"I was young once," Aldric said. "Young and stupid and in love with a woman who could make fire dance on her fingertips. She taught me things. Things the witches would kill me for knowing." He tossed the chain to me. It was heavier than it looked, the metal cold against my palms. "The vampires are creatures of magic. They can't be killed with teeth and claws alone. But they can be trapped. Bound. Held in place long enough to find their heart."
I ran my fingers over the links, feeling the power thrumming beneath the metal. The system flickered.
[ITEM: WITCH-CHAIN]
[QUALITY: UNCOMMON]
[EFFECT: BINDS SUPERNATURAL CREATURES (VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, WITCHES) FOR 30 SECONDS]
[NOTE: MUST BE PLACED BY HAND. BREAKS AFTER SINGLE USE.]
"You're going to teach me to use this."
"I'm going to teach you to use everything." He pulled a second chain from his coat, identical to the first. "The vampires think they know us. They think we're animals, beasts who fight with claw and fang. They've forgotten that wolves are also clever. We hunt in packs. We set traps. We wear our prey down until they make mistakes." He looped the chain around his own wrist. "Today, you learn to set a trap."
We trained until the sun was high. Aldric showed me how to lay the chain in the earth, how to cover it with leaves and frost, how to bait it with blood from a rabbit he had killed the night before. He showed me how to move in silence, how to read the wind, how to position myself so that when the trap sprang, I would be there to finish what it started.
My body ached. My hands were raw from handling the cold iron. But the system tracked every repetition, every success, every failure.
[SKILL: TRAP LAYING — 12%]
[SKILL: STEALTH — 8%]
[SKILL: TRACKING — 45%]
Small gains. Every day, small gains.
When the sun began to set, Aldric called a halt. We sat at the edge of the clearing, sharing a flask of water and watching the light fade.
"You did well today," he said. "Better than most cubs twice your age."
"I have practice."
He gave me a long look. "I've noticed. You move like someone who's been fighting for years. You don't flinch when you see blood. And sometimes, when you think no one's watching, you look at the world like you're waiting for something terrible to happen."
I didn't answer.
"I'm not going to ask," he said. "Whatever you are, whatever you've seen, it's yours to keep or share as you choose. But I'll tell you this." He leaned forward, his old eyes bright in the fading light. "The wolf who trained me, back when I was a cub, he was like you. Old in a young body. Haunted by things he couldn't name. He died in the last war, fighting creatures that shouldn't exist. And before he died, he told me something I've never forgotten."
"What did he tell you?"
"He said: 'The wolf who fights alone dies alone. The wolf who fights for something—for a pack, a land, a future—that wolf can move mountains.'" Aldric stood, brushing the frost from his knees. "You're fighting for something, Kael. I don't know what it is. But I'll help you get there."
He left me there, sitting at the edge of the clearing, the weight of his words settling in my chest.
I was fighting for something. A second chance. A pack that wouldn't fall. A future where the wolves didn't retreat until there was nowhere left to go.
But I was also fighting for something I hadn't told anyone. Something I barely let myself think about.
The woman I had loved in my first life—Lira, with her hair like fire and her laugh like thunder—was out there somewhere. She had been human. She had been kind. And she had died because I was too weak to protect her.
I didn't know if she existed in this life. The world was different, the packs scattered, the borders drawn in different places. But if she did—if she was somewhere in these forests, waiting to be found—I would find her. And this time, I would be strong enough to keep her.
I stood and walked back toward the village, the moon rising above the trees, the weight of my past pressing against my shoulders.
I had three years. Three years to train. To grow. To become the wolf I needed to be.
It wasn't enough. But it would have to be.