Chapter 224

Chapter 224
Nolan POV
The borderlands had changed since the last time I crossed them.
The roads were narrower now, the trees thick with fog, and the air carried that strange metallic tang that always clung to rogue territory not quite danger, not quite decay, but the uneasy in-between.
I moved carefully, hood drawn low. The old truck I’d borrowed rattled along the ruts,
its headlights slicing through mist. To anyone watching, I looked like just another traveler – a trader or courier, not a pack Alpha.
The illusion worked. No one looked twice.
But as the miles slipped by, a tightness grew in my chest. The rogue lands were more than a lawless sprawl; they were the border between order and chaos, a reminder of everything a wolf could lose.
I’d spent years ensuring Silver Fang never ended up like this- fractured, desperate, clinging to survival – yet here I was, driving straight into the ruins of all I’d feared.
Straight into the chaos that Ellie had lived in before I met her, working at that little bar, and realized that she was my mate.
The first settlement came into view just before dusk. Wooden shacks clustered along a dirt path, smoke curling from the chimneys. I parked outside the main square and climbed down, scanning the faces of the few people still moving about.
Thin women with wary eyes, children tugging at threadbare coats, the occasional man in patched leather glaring as I passed.
No one smiled. No one greeted me.
Rogues had no need for courtesy.
I adjusted my coat, keeping my scent suppressed. Better to look like an outsider than a wolf from a pack. Too much pride, too much dominance – either one could get me killed here.
The market stalls were half-empty. Scavenged tools, dried meat, rough-spun cloth. Nothing worth paying for, but plenty to notice. These people were surviving, barely, and yet something else was off. The ratio of women to men. The quiet way they moved, glancing over their shoulders as if afraid of being overheard.
I caught a whisper as two women passed: gone again, said they’d be back by the new moon
Gone where?
My gut tightened. Reports from my scouts mentioned mercenaries taking coin for unknown work. Seeing the hollow look in these people’s faces, I knew it wasn’t just a umor. Someone was recruiting from the rogue lands.
I thanked the goddess that Ellie had left this all behind. Thinking about her here, among these struggling women, made my heart twist painfully.
I don’t think that it ever truly struck me what she had left behind when she agreed to marry me.
Was this what made her so afraid in those early years? Was he afraid that if she couldn’t win my affection, I would send her back here?
It didn’t bear thinking about. I had to keep my wits about me right now. Yet, I couldn’t seem to leave the train of thought. If she hadn’t had Moonstone to care for her, would she have come here when she ran from me?
The thought of her raising the twins anywhere near this kind of desperation made my stomach twist. She’d
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survivest here once already the accident, the orphanage, he years lost to memory. I couldn’t imagine it now.
“You looking to buy something?” a gruff voice broke through my thoughts. I looked up at the man behind the market stall. His eyes were hard, suspicious as he looked at me.
“You have anything worth buying?” I asked coldly, raising one eyebrow at the man. I had to tread carefully. One wrong word could expose me.
The man glanced down at my hands for a moment, then huffed.
“Nothing for someone like you.”
I bristled at the subtle insult. He thought I looked soft. My hands were too clean, my nails too intact. It gave me
away.
“Then there’s no point in continuing this conversation,” I replied evenly.
I walked away, keeping my gait steady and unhurried. I kept my hands shoved into my pockets as I continued to explore the sparse village.
Calling it that was a stretch, but it was the best word available. I heard spatterings of conversation as I explored, but no one else spoke to me. No one else made eye contact. Old men and women looked at me with growing suspicion.
I was overstaying my welcome.
As night began to fall, I turned back toward the truck. I’d seen enough for one day. There was more I needed to find out, but lingering too long in one village was a risk I couldn’t take.
The drive back toward the border was long and silent. The farther I went, the more
the tension eased from my shoulders. Civilization, even the ragged edge of it, would feel like a breath of fresh air after that.
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Chaprer 200