The Traitor in the Ranks

The hospital’s temporary strategy room was dim, lit only by the soft glow of monitors and the occasional flicker from Rae’s laptop. Code scrolled across the screen in tight, efficient bursts as she leaned forward, her fingers dancing over the keys.

“I’ve narrowed it down to five possible access points,” she muttered, not even looking up. “Whoever the mole is, they’re good. They were ghosting logs through third-party packet masks. Took a while, but I cross-referenced every instance where council-level tech interfaced with Jason’s beacon trail.”

Will stepped closer behind her, arms crossed. “You’re telling me we’ve had this guy inside since before the attacks?”

“Not just inside,” Rae said, her voice edged with disgust. “They were logging into systems across three different strongholds. And… here.” She tapped a line of script, isolating a time stamp. “Right before the first pack raid, someone remotely accessed Del’s old files.”

Del straightened from where she was perched. “What files?”

“Her shift logs. Routine movement records. Security overlays. They were tracking you months ago, Del. Someone gave Jason the layout of every safehouse you might have fled to.” Rae’s eyes darkened. “They planned this like a damn blueprint.”

Remi stepped behind Rae and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “Rae… take a breath.”

“I’m close,” Rae said, refusing to look away from the screen. “Just give me two more minutes and I can—”

Beep-beep-beep.

The glucose monitor on her arm started to sound off.

Her hands trembled.

Remi moved instantly. “You’re crashing.”

“I’m fine,” Rae mumbled, blinking fast, her face paling as she tried to mute the alarm. “I just need—”

“No,” Remi said firmly, already opening her emergency kit and pulling out a juice box. “No hacking, no arguing. You sit back right now or I’m calling the nurses and letting them stab you with every needle they have.”

Trey appeared beside her with a granola bar, peeling it before she could protest. “Drink the juice. Eat the bar. Then hack. In that order.”

Will crouched beside her, tension in his eyes. “We need you at a hundred percent, Rae. No one’s asking you to run yourself into a coma to win this war.”

Reluctantly, Rae accepted the juice and granola, mumbling, “I had it under control…”

“You say that every time,” Remi said, crouching to meet her gaze. “And every time I catch you seconds from hitting the floor. You’re not invincible, and you’re not alone. Let us take care of you too.”

Del, watching from the hospital bed, grinned faintly. “Better listen. She’s scary when she’s in nurse mode.”

“I will throw this juice at you,” Rae muttered, but she drank it.

As the monitor slowly stopped beeping and her color returned, Rae sighed and slumped back against the chair. “Okay. Five suspects. Once my brain stops spinning, I’m going to narrow it to one. Then we expose them.”

“And then?” Will asked.

Rae’s eyes narrowed. “Then we burn their trail to ash.”

The hum of technology filled the space as Rae, now somewhat recharged, refocused on her laptop. Remi kept a close eye on her, snacks within arm’s reach just in case. The others hovered nearby, tension growing with every passing second.

“There,” Rae said, voice quiet but sharp. “Got you.”

Everyone leaned in.

She pulled up an access log tied to a council server node—one most wouldn’t have known even existed without root-level clearance.

“Council server pinged at 3:12 AM, two nights before the safehouse raid,” Rae said, clicking through the timestamps. “It wasn’t just a trace request—it was a file pull. Someone pulled security footage, pack patrol logs, and Del’s medical updates.”

Remi narrowed her eyes. “That level of clearance… only a few on the council have that kind of access.”

Will’s jaw tightened. “So which one is it?”

Rae answered by dragging a name onto the center of the screen, bold letters stark against the dark background.

Maren Ashwyn.

Council Elder. Long-standing member. Trusted voice. And the traitor.

“She masked it by running the request through a proxy system she used for inter-pack communications,” Rae said. “But I unraveled the bounce path. It ends at her personal device.”

Del sat forward, eyes cold. “Maren was always watching. Always listening. She told me once she ‘worried’ about my influence.”

“She’s not worried,” Rae muttered. “She’s involved.”

Trey rubbed a hand down his face. “You’re sure it’s her?”

“About as sure as I am that I need to make her phone spontaneously combust,” Rae muttered. “She’s the only one with digital footprints on every major breach.”

Will exhaled slowly. “Then it’s time we pay Maren a visit.”

“She’s not going to go quietly,” Remi warned.

“No,” Rae said, finally leaning back. “She’ll play the long game. That’s what makes her dangerous. She’s the kind of person who smiles while she stabs you.”

Will looked to Remi. “We need to bring this to the others. Quietly.”

Remi nodded. “We’ll plan the confrontation carefully. No public accusations until we have her boxed in.”

Del tilted her head, her gaze hard. “And when we do?”

Rae gave a wicked little smile. “Then I blow the door off the box.”