Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 112

Chapter 112

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Joseph wasted no time. He stripped out of his clothes quickly, the movement efficient from years of necessity, and shifted into Rex, his

wolf, before joining the battle. The world changed with the shift. Sounds sharpened. Scents thickened. Instinct rushed up and flattened

thought into something faster, harder, meaner.

“Update,” he linked Brian.

“Rogues and some of our men.”

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Brian’s response came clipped, distracted, his focus split between speaking and surviving. The words confused Joseph immediately. Some

of our men? Rex had barely taken two hard steps into the thick of the fight before a wolf lunged at him from the side. Joseph did not

hesitate. Rex met the attack with force, slamming into the other wolf, knocking it down hard. His jaws found the neck in one brutal

The wolf died instantly.

movement. Bone gave way. Flesh toro pull y

Joseph was peace-loving by nature.

But he was not weak.

“Elaborate,” he told Brian.

Brian did not answer immediately. Joseph could sense why. The Gamma was in the middle of fighting two wolves at once. Joseph tore

through another attacker and moved deeper into the chaos, his eyes scanning, mind racing even while his body acted on instinct.

When Brian finally answered, his thoughts came rougher.

“Some of our men betrayed us. A sort of failed mutiny, something about Alpha Ethan not being home.”

That made no sense. No sense at all. Joseph pushed forward, ripping through another wolf that came at him from the front, his mind

stumbling over the words even while Rex kept killing. Betrayal? Mutiny? In Whitewood?

Adam’s voice came through next.

“They aren’t rogues, Alpha. They are pack wolves, but we do not know what pack they belong to.”

Joseph registered the next part almost in the same breath.

The rogue scent was artificial.

It had been put on deliberately to mislead them.

That detail changed the shape of everything. This was not some messy border clash. Not some random rogue invasion. This was planned,

Thought through. Built to confuse. Built to delay understanding. Built by wolves who knew exactly what they were doing.

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Chapter 112

And that was new to Joseph.

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Whitewood had known peace for a long time. Long enough that this kind of thing felt almost unreal when measured against the life he

had spent protecting. They had no known enemies. No open war. No long-standing border feud that should have erupted into this. So why

now? Why Whitewood? Why with Ethan away? Why with traitors inside the pack?

Questions kept coming, but the battle did not stop long enough for him to dwell on any one of them.

They fought hard.

Hard enough that time blurred into movement and blood and the repeated shock of impact. Joseph did not know how long it lasted

exactly. Long enough for his muscles to burn. Long enough for rage to replace confusion for stretches at a time. Long enough for the

ground to become slick in places. But in the end, Whitewood held. Joseph and his men were victorious, and though there were casualties,

they were far fewer than they might have been if Brian had broken before help arrived.

Every enemy wolf died.

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They tried to capture some. Joseph ordered it more than once. But it was as if the attackers had all come with the same dead purpose in

them. They would rather die than be taken. Rather let their throats be torn out than risk being questioned later. Joseph had seen

conviction before. Loyalty too. Fear-driven obedience. Desperation. But this? This was something uglier. These wolves were determined in

a way that chilled him. Hardened. Committed. As though surviving had never been the point of the mission.

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And that led him to one conclusion.

They were not truly there to take Whitewood.

They were there to test the strength of Whitewood’s defences.

That thought sat like ice in Joseph’s chest.

When the last of it was over, he shifted back into his human form and went to the truck to put on his clothes. Sweat and blood clung to

him. His breathing was still heavier than he liked. Adrenaline was leaving his body in waves, making everything feel slightly unreal now

that the killing had stopped.

Adam was already by the truck.

“What do you think?” he asked as Joseph climbed in.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna