Chapter 56: The Ascension Trials

The Ascension Trials had once been a respected competition.

Young wolves from different Packs tested endurance, strategy, combat, and leadership.

Then injuries increased.

Politics got ugly.

The Council suspended the event twelve years ago.

Malcolm Reed planned to revive it unofficially.

His Purist faction had recruited instructors and sponsors across twelve Packs.

The strongest competitors would be offered membership in elite units.

The weakest would be humiliated publicly.

Some challenges had been designed to cause permanent injury.

One document used the phrase natural elimination.

I wanted to burn it.

Instead, we used it as evidence.

The problem was that hundreds of students had already registered, believing the event was legitimate.

Cancelling immediately might scatter Reed's remaining network.

Adrian proposed turning the trials into a controlled operation.

I hated the idea.

Then I volunteered.

Rowan stared.

"No."

"Here we go."

"You're an Alpha."

"So?"

"You're also a target."

"Also so?"

"The Purists hate you."

"Strong argument for identifying them."

He looked at Adrian.

"Tell her no."

Adrian wisely studied the ceiling.

Rhea volunteered too.

Cassian refused to allow it.

She smiled.

"You know you can't order me."

"I can try."

"Adorable."

Knox entered the trials representing Stormridge.

Elodie entered for Silvercrest.

Rowan represented Nightvale.

I represented Lunaris.

Four guardian Packs.

Again.

The event took place in an old mountain training reserve.

Council security monitored secretly.

Competitors surrendered phones.

We received basic equipment.

No silver weapons were supposed to be present.

That was the first thing I checked.

Day one involved endurance.

Twenty miles through mountain terrain.

Old me would have laughed at the distance only because old me would've assumed I could never finish it.

Current me knew exactly how much training twenty miles required.

I paced myself.

Knox sprinted early.

I passed him at mile fifteen.

He looked offended.

"Enjoying yourself?"

"Immensely."

Rowan ran beside me for a while.

"You're smiling."

"Knox is behind me."

"Healthy motivation."

Elodie passed both of us.

"Talk less."

I respected her.

The first suspicious event happened at a rope crossing.

One competitor's safety line snapped.

Not frayed.

Cut.

Rowan caught him before he fell into the ravine.

Security quietly removed the equipment.

Sabotage confirmed.

We continued.

That night, competitors slept in cabins.

At 2:00 a.m., an alarm sounded.

"Forest fire."

Everyone rushed outside.

There was no fire.

Instead, instructors ordered us into teams and announced an emergency survival test.

Not on the official schedule.

I exchanged a look with Rowan.

Purist operation.

We followed.

Our team included a small Omega wolf named Finn from Cedarbrook.

Reed's list had marked him disposable.

That alone made me stay close.

The instructors led us into a canyon.

Then disappeared.

A gate slammed behind us.

Smoke bombs ignited.

Finn panicked.

"I can't shift."

"It's okay."

"I can't—"

"Look at me."

He did.

"Human form works."

The Purists expected strength to mean wolf form.

Fine.

We would use brains.

Rhea found airflow.

Elodie found the release mechanism.

Knox lifted a fallen beam.

Rowan coordinated.

Finn noticed symbols carved into the canyon wall.

"They're trail markers."

He was right.

Tiny markers showed an emergency route.

Because Finn had spent years hiking in Cedarbrook territory, he recognized them.

The supposedly disposable wolf found our exit.

We emerged twenty minutes later.

Purist instructors were waiting.

Surprised.

One muttered, "Weak link should've slowed them."

I heard him.

So did Finn.

His face fell.

I walked straight toward the instructor.

"Say it again."

He recognized me.

"Alpha Lunaris."

"Say what you said."

"Nothing."

Golden power flickered.

"Interesting."

Council security moved in.

The instructor ran.

Cassian tackled him from behind a tree.

Apparently he had been secretly following Rhea the entire night.

She looked furious.

"I told you not to babysit me."

"You almost got locked in a canyon."

"I escaped."

"Because I was nearby."

"You did nothing."

"I provided emotional support."

They argued while the instructor was arrested.

The operation ended early.

Twenty-three Purist members were identified.

Six instructors.

Four sponsors.

Several students who had been recruited without understanding the group's real goals.

Finn stood beside me as ambulances checked everyone.

"Alpha?"

"Yeah?"

"Was I really the weakest person here?"

I looked at him.

"According to Reed's list."

His shoulders dropped.

I continued.

"Reed's list was stupid."

He blinked.

"You found the exit."

"Because I knew trail signs."

"Exactly."

He smiled slowly.

Strength wasn't one thing.

I wished someone had told me that when I was seventeen.

Then again, maybe I needed to learn it myself.

Finn later received an invitation to help redesign future inter-Pack training standards. He thought the message was a joke until Adrian called personally. The new proposal replaced elimination rankings with team problem-solving, rescue skills, navigation, first aid, and controlled combat. Strength remained part of the trials, but no longer the only language they spoke. When Finn sent me a photograph of his first planning meeting, he was sitting at the center of the table. I saved it. Not because I had rescued him. I hadn't. In the canyon, he had helped rescue all of us. That was exactly why Reed's worldview had failed.