A week after the recent chaos, Bryce trains in the Aux facility with Cormac and Ruhn, trying and failing to learn how to teleport or summon shadows. The lack of progress frustrates Bryce, while the larger silence from their enemies keeps Ruhn and Cormac uneasy. Emile remains missing despite searches by Cormac, Bryce, Ruhn, and Tharion, and Hunt is still confined to barracks, leaving Bryce unable to safely include him in sensitive plans.

Declan then reveals that his analysis of old gallery footage has found Danika acting suspiciously. In a recording from two months before Danika died, Danika waits until Bryce and Lehabah leave the room, quickly pulls a rare book from a shelf, and photographs several pages before putting it back. The book is identified as Wolves Through Time: Lineage of the Shifters, and Jesiba, after resisting Bryce's demand for answers, unexpectedly sends the book to Bryce's apartment.

Bryce, Ruhn, and Declan study the manuscript and discover that the Fendyr family tree stretches back fifteen thousand years, but the earliest ancestors are absent from history until about five thousand years ago. The missing names that caught Danika's attention are Niklaus Fendyr and Faris Hvellen. Because the gap seems deliberate rather than accidental, Bryce decides to ask the Prime directly, even though entering the Den is dangerous because of Sabine.

With Declan and Ruhn creating distractions, Bryce sneaks into the Den and speaks to the Prime in secret. The Prime confirms that Danika once asked about the forgotten ancestors and then explains that the wolves deliberately buried part of their own history: during the First Wars, they surrendered their true nature and allowed themselves to become servants of the Asteri. He believes Danika may have been trying to lead the wolves back to what they once were. Before Bryce flees an attacking wolf, she tells the Prime that Sabine cast out and nearly killed Ithan, a revelation that shocks him.

When Bryce returns home, Cormac is waiting, injured after barely escaping Mordoc and six dreadwolves during an intel pickup. He reports that the rebels successfully hit the Spine and stole the Asteri's new mech-suit prototype and ammunition, but the prototype is now being shipped to a base on Ydra in the Coronal Islands. Cormac warns that Pippa and her Lightfall forces will likely use the weapons in coming action, confirms that Emile is still being hunted, and concludes that they need to warn Captain Ketos and bring Hunt Athalar into whatever comes next.