Meryn arrives at Stark's office before dawn for her first alpha training session. She is surprised to find his quarters are a vast personal library with a sparring square at its center, weapon racks, comfortable chairs, and shelves reaching the ceiling—far from the brutal lair she imagined. Stark wastes no time: without warning, he attacks her, testing her reflexes and combat instincts. He strikes her ribs, knocks her to the ground, and repeatedly overwhelms her physically, interspersing each assault with pointed lessons about leadership, pack structure, and the weaknesses inherent to each pack. Meryn fights back resourcefully, at one point feigning weakness to lure him closer and nearly catching him off guard, but Stark sees through her ruse and pins her down, pressing his forearm to her throat. During the grapple, Meryn becomes acutely aware of their physical closeness and his scent, unsettling her further.

Between bouts, Stark delivers critical lessons: an Alpha cannot afford to show open weakness, each pack compensates for the others' vulnerabilities, and Meryn must master both knowledge and combat. Meryn notices a shelf of old, weathered books that seem to radiate a strange energy. Stark cryptically tells her they are family heirlooms he cannot loan, but implies she should take and study them on her own. Anassa, listening through the bond, urges Meryn to do her own research on them.

Eventually, Meryn and Stark sit at his desk and catalog every gap in her knowledge and skill. They build a grueling daily schedule: combat at dawn, strategy lessons until noon, pack politics in the afternoon, and independent study in the evenings—all layered on top of her regular Rawbond courses. Meryn deflects the intensity with humor, but recognizes she must trust Stark and expose her weaknesses to him if she wants to survive as Alpha. She also reflects briefly on Killian, noting they've agreed to keep distance since the ball and that she told him about her new role; he was proud, but she isn't ready to filter her bond with Anassa yet.

That night, Meryn collapses into bed exhausted but is pulled into a vivid experience. She finds herself physically transported to the center of the arena floor again, just as before, but this time with unsettling clarity rather than disorientation. The shadows around her seem to move unnaturally. Peering into the drainage system at the arena's center, she spots something metallic and gold, an opalescent stone, and what appears to be the curve of a wolf's head buried below. She feels an instinctual pull to reach for it, but approaching footsteps force her to flee. As she escapes through the halls, she is left with mounting questions about what is hidden beneath the arena and a chilling sense of death following her.