Chapter 284: Magic...
Xavier POV
The sun was setting, casting a deep orange hue over Greyhound Pack, but there was no beauty in it tonight—only the weight of impending disaster. The rogue wolves outside our walls were increasing with every hour, drawing closer like a swarm of locusts, littering the fields beyond the pack’s boundaries. They were organized, more than they should be, more than rogues ever were. Something felt wrong. I could see the tension in the eyes of my warriors, and it mirrored my own. How long could we hold them off? And why weren’t they attacking outright?
I shook my head, trying to clear the dark thoughts as I approached a group of warriors working near the western edge of the compound. They were bent over the communication lines, trying desperately to figure out why every form of contact had gone dark.
"Alpha," one of the warriors greeted me, standing up quickly and wiping his hands on his dirty jeans. "We’ve been trying to repair the lines, but... it’s worse than we thought."
"Worse how?" I asked, stepping closer to inspect their progress.
Another warrior, Kael, gestured to the mangled wires on the ground. "Look at this, Alpha. These wires—they weren’t just damaged. They’ve been severed clean. Whoever did this knew exactly what they were doing."
I crouched beside the wires, my brow furrowing as I studied them. Sure enough, the cuts were deliberate—clean and precise, like someone had taken their time to make sure nothing could be easily fixed.
"Damn it," I muttered under my breath. "How long until you can repair it?"
Kael exchanged a worried glance with his partner before speaking. "We’re not sure, Alpha. We’ve tried rerouting the system, but the entire grid might be compromised. We could spend hours trying to reconnect everything, but if the damage is this extensive... it’s not going to be a quick fix."
I stood up, frustration bubbling beneath the surface. "We don’t have hours. We need those lines up before the rogues make another move. We’re cut off from the outside world—we can’t reach anyone, and we sure as hell don’t know how many more of them are coming."
Another warrior chimed in, wiping sweat from his brow. "If we can’t repair the lines, maybe we should try getting a message out some other way. A few of us could sneak out and—"