Chapter 169 – Symbol
CAITLYN’S POV–
The blood moon was coming.
Barely a week left now.
And after that? War.
I could feel it in the air, sharp and tense like the calm before. everything goes to hell.
15 min loft
I stood at the edge of the Order compound, staring at the sky. Red clouds hung over the horizon, like a warning sign from nature itself. The wolves would probably call it fate. Divine timing. Some stupid moon–blessed sign.
To me, it just meant one thing: time’s up.
I rested my hand on the knife strapped to my hip. Silver–coated. Laced in poison. Blessed in every possible way that could hurt a wolf. Maybe it was too much, but I didn’t care. You don’t play nice with
monsters.
And yeah, I meant that literally.
They weren’t misunderstood. They weren’t tragic. They were killers.
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Born only to spread destruction. To be used, like weapons. Not to have their own minds. Not to build their own little lives and kingdoms.
I knew that better than anyone.
They dressed like normal people. Hoodies. Jeans. Trying to blend in. But underneath all that, they were ticking time bombs. Claws. Fangs. Tempers. Secrets. You never knew when one of them would snap.
I’d seen what they were capable of. The chaos they could create.
And Blake? He was the worst kind.
Not because he was cruel. But because he pretended he wasn’t.
He tried to act human. He tried to feel things. But it was fake. It always was. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t fight what they were.
And he proved it when he kidnapped Lia and dug his canines into her neck. He handcuffed her to the bed and stole her
consent from her.
Whatever goddess they worshipped served him right for what he did.
“You think she’s gonna survive this?” a voice said beside me.
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I didn’t have to look. Ryder. Another agent. One of the few I could stand.
I didn’t answer.
“She’s not just a normal wolf, you know,” he kept going. “She was human her whole life. And they say she might be–”
“I don’t care what she might be,” I cut in. “She’s still one of them. That’s all that matters.”
He didn’t say anything after that.
Inside, the strategy room was busy. Maps and notes spread out across the table. Red circles marked wolf territories. Green ones marked allies. And right in the center? A black circle.
Lia Snow.
The so–called Moon’s Lost Daughter.
Ugh. Even thinking that name made me roll my eyes.
She wasn’t a miracle of some kind. She was a mistake. A glitch. Something their goddess probably regretted now. And if the stories were true, she had the power to destroy everything we’d worked for.
And she was dating Zane Adams.
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It was ironic. How she had called us here to free her from them. And now she stood with them, lovesick and magical.
“Caitlyn,” a voice called. I turned. It was the Commander. Not the actual head of The Order—just someone running this mission. The real power was higher than any of us.
“Report.”
I crossed my arms. “She’s protected,” I said. “Zane’s got his pack on full guard duty. I couldn’t even get near her house, or her parents or friends. They’re everywhere, watching her like she’s their little treasure.”
“That’s because she is,” he replied, his face hard. “She’s a force stronger than any of them.”
I lowered my gaze. That was all bullshit in my opinion.
If she was so strong, why couldn’t she stop Blake from marking her?
We’d injured her before. We could do it again. Only this time, it would be a fatal blow.
“We’ll draw them out,” the Commander said. “When the blood moon rises. That’s when they’re weakest.”
“What about her?” I still asked. I had my opinions and my own conjectures. But that didn’t mean I would act stupidly. We still
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had to make sure we had all angles covered. “What if she isn’t the weakest at that time? What it it’s different for her?”
“It doesn’t matter,” he replied. “She doesn’t know what she’s capable of. So we strike before she finds out.”
I gave a nod, but my stomach twisted a little. I had seen her. And something about her felt… off. Wrong. Abnormal.
She was connected to everything. To Zane. To some mythical prophecy. And to Blake.
The idea of it was overwhelming. I didn’t believe it. But the thought was enough to make me uneasy.
“What about your wolf?” the Commander asked. “What’s his
name?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I snapped. “He’s not mine. And he’s a freak of nature like all of them. It’s best if we don’t use names.”
I clenched my jaw.
I hated Blake Walker.
He confused me. He appeared too human when I first met him. Kind. Offering his help to a scared girl.
But it was all a facade.
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He turned out to be a monster more dangerous than all of them.
His eyes were red. That was something we had never encountered before.
And he was a piece of shit, even in werewolf standards.
And yet, for the strangest reason, when he asked me to be careful, my heart stuttered in my chest. When he grabbed me by the neck to hurt me, tingles shot through my skin.
And I hated that.
After everything I’d been through, after what his kind had already taken from me, I wasn’t going to let him destroy my plans. Destroy everything I’d worked for.
He wanted me to run away. As if he cared for my safety. As if I wasn’t just a girl who had fooled him with her distress and poisoned and abducted him.
As if I was someone more.
No.
Not happening.
I wasn’t an idiot like him.
Whatever caused those sparks was a mistake. A side effect of
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“Well?” the Commander said. “Is he going to help like he promised?”
“No,” I stated. “He’s out the picture. He cannot be trusted. None of them can be. It’s us versus them.”
“Look,” the Commander sighed, stepping closer to me. “I know you hate them. We all do. But we have to play this smartly. We need all the help we can get. So if he’s somehow connected to her, and we share a common enemy, we should use it.”
“He’s useless now,” I replied. “I’m not stupid. He told me his bond. with Lia is done. It broke. So I told him to return to town and prepare, because his pack will be next.”
I didn’t wait for the Commander to respond.
I headed back outside. The air had gotten colder.
Across the training yard, other agents were sparring, practicing how to kill. Memorizing how many ways there were to kill a wolf. Everyone was excited. Full of hope.
Idiots.
Hope didn’t win wars. Hate did. And I had more than enough of that.
Chapter 169–Symbo
14 min left I wasn’t doing this for glory. Or for The Order. I was doing it for my sister. For my family. For the life I lost to black eyes and sharp teeth. For the screams that still echoed in my head when I tried to sleep.
She was still out there, somewhere.
And I would find her one day and bring her back home.
My phone buzzed. Unknown number.
I answered anyway.
“It’s me.”
Blake.
I stayed quiet.
“She’s growing stronger. I thought you’d want to know. The blood moon’s coming.”
I didn’t respond.
www
He was silent for a while. Then he sighed.
“Lia doesn’t deserve to die, Caitlyn. She’s just a girl. She’s been
human her whole life. Just like you.”
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I scoffed. “You know nothing about me, Blakey. And don’t tell me what people deserve.”
“She’s not yours to kill.
“She’s not yours to save.”
“You don’t know what she is, “he snapped. “This is bigger than what you guys can handle. Trust me.
“I don’t care.”
I ended the call before he could argue further. Then I blocked
his number.
I lowered the phone, my heart pounding faster than I wanted it
- to.
I wasn’t blind. I knew the risks. I knew what they can do.
But I was ready for it.
I didn’t care if Lia Snow had a tragic, human past, a powerful bloodline, or some soft spot for her Alpha boyfriend.
She was the worst of them all.
Because right now, she was serving as a symbol.
And werewolves didn’t need any more of those.
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Lia Snow was a monster, just like the man she was in love with.
And monsters didn’t deserve happy endings.
Not on my watch.
