16

JAX

I wake up in a cold sweat, panting as my eyes adjust to the darkness of my room. All the talk lately about the shadow pack and strategizing how to align our defenses with Denver has been seeping into my nightmares, robbing me of sleep. I’m lucky in that I don’t have any personal experience with the shadow pack thus far, but in my nightmares Alpha Xavier is this larger-than-life villain, his followers these soulless, twisted monsters who kill without remorse. Then again, from what I’ve heard about the shadow pack, the version of them in my dreams may not be too far off.

I’m wide awake, my heart still racing from the nightmare that so rudely interrupted my sleep. Tossing the sheets off of my body, I climb out of bed, crossing my room to retrieve a bottle of water out of my mini fridge. I twist off the cap, downing the whole thing in a few gulps, tossing the bottle into the wastebasket.

There&rsquo