Chapter 97

Spring came with the graduated release's first phase—a moment that would either validate everything Arianna had risked or prove she'd made catastrophic mistake that would haunt the continent for generations.

The designated monitoring zone was in neutral territory, far from any pack's core settlements but close enough to major population centers that success or failure would be immediately apparent. Federal forces had constructed what amounted to a small settlement specifically for the released Forgotten—housing designed to accommodate their corrupted forms, monitoring systems to detect any spreading contamination, and rapid response teams ready to intervene if things went wrong.

Twelve Forgotten from Scholar Elian's moderate coalition would be released...