🔹 THORNE
It could be a tactic.
Probably was a tactic.
It was the same display of vulnerability that had gotten Silverfang infiltrated years ago, the same performance that had led to our pack being desecrated and our people enslaved. My mother had pitied an outsider once—a wounded omega who'd stumbled into our territory with a story about escaping abuse, about needing sanctuary, about having nowhere else to go.
That omega had been Morgana's spy.
And within a month, Silverfang fell. The Luna Witch was murdered. Half our pack was slaughtered, the other half enslaved. All because my mother had let compassion override caution, had seen suffering and responded with mercy instead of suspicion.
We had learned the hard way. The Allied Packs didn't send warriors to destroy us—they sent victims. People we would feel obligated to help, to protect, to trust. And by the time we realized the truth, it was too late.
I would not make the same mistake my mother made.
