Wolf Wounds — Update 3

How I Actually Build a Story With AI (The Real Process)**

Dec 6, 2025

Every book teaches me something different, and Wolf Wounds is teaching me how to trust the process more than the hype. I’m not trying to “make content.” I’m trying to build something honest that feels alive.

So this update isn’t about lore or characters or tone.
It’s about how the work actually gets done.

1. The Method: Call-and-Response Writing

One of my favorite ways to draft a new idea is simple:

I throw something at the AI.
It throws something back.
We take turns.

Call and response.

Not “AI writes my book.”
Not “AI replaces creativity.”
It’s more like:

• I make a move
• It reacts
• I react to that
• And the story grows in the space between our decisions

In the case of Wolf Wounds, that back-and-forth got us through the entire book all the way to the beginning of Act III before I stopped the momentum and switched modes.

That’s when the real work begins.

2. I Always Stop Before the Ending

When we reached the last act, I paused and asked the AI to summarize where every character was — not to finish the story, but to double-check our own continuity.

This is crucial for me:

I don’t let the draft momentum blind me.
I stop.
I take inventory.
I ask:

• Where is everyone physically?
• Where is everyone emotionally?
• What have we set up that needs payoff?
• What threads matter and what threads can die?

This step keeps me honest.
It forces a reset.
It exposes weak spots.
It prevents me from sprinting toward an ending that doesn’t belong to the story.

Once I have an outline I actually like — not just one that “works” — I switch programs.

3. Atticus: Where I Turn Chaos Into Chapters

After the outline is solid, I take the whole thing and drop it into Atticus, the drafting and formatting software I use for all my books.

This is where the story stops being a conversation
and starts being a book.

I give:

• each Act its own page
• each Chapter its own page
• each one a short synopsis

This is the stage where I’m no longer thinking like a brainstormer.
I’m thinking like an architect.

Here’s what happens in Atticus:

• I re-read the outline
• I add what needs adding
• I remove what doesn’t feel true
• I write notes to myself about tone, symbolism, pacing
• I make adjustments based on gut instinct, not “cool ideas”

This is the part that most people never see, because it’s not flashy.
It’s just me, alone with the work.

4. Drafting Placeholder Chapters

Once the structure feels right, I generate placeholder chapters.

This isn’t the book.
This is scaffolding.

These placeholders serve three purposes:

1. They help me see the flow of the full narrative.
2. They give me something to react to and revise.
3. They keep the AI from “helpfully” steering the story off a cliff.

If you diverge wildly from your outline during this stage, the AI will start inventing new characters, subplots, twists, and motifs that don’t belong. Sometimes fun, sometimes chaos.

Me?
I like reading those developmental takes —
but I also enjoy deleting them and writing it myself.

Because once the placeholder is in Atticus, the real drafting happens:

• rewriting
• reshaping
• grounding
• tightening
• throwing out entire chapters
• and finding the emotional truth under the spectacle

That’s the part no AI can do for me.
That’s authorship.

5. What Happens Next

Right now, I’m about to:

• take the full outline we created
• finalize the Act/chapter structure in Atticus
• generate placeholders
• start the real drafting
• and see if Substack/Wordpress will let me attach a downloadable PDF so readers can follow along

This stage always feels like jumping off a cliff —
but it’s also the moment the book becomes real.

Wolf Wounds started as a vibe.
Then it became a call-and-response game.
Then it became a skeleton.
Now it’s about to grow flesh.

FULL RICH OUTLINE

0. CORE LOGLINE

WOLF WOUNDS is a neon-soaked road-horror about a recovering addict and a haunted werewolf whose broken pact drags them into a war between a monster trafficker and a government black-ops program trying to build the perfect supernatural soldier in a Cold War Vault full of caged nightmares.

Tone: Requiem for a Dream × Near Dark × Werewolf (1987) × Cold-War black-site horror.

1. MAIN CAST (QUICK)

Lily – recovering opioid addict, wiry, exhausted, smart in a feral way. She keeps Mark chained during full moons; relapse and guilt are her orbit.

Mark – werewolf; lucid, gentle human between moons, unstoppable animal during. Former pit-fighter in Caleb’s monster ring. Haunted by pack trauma.

Caleb – human monster; runs a supernatural pit-fighting and trafficking empire. Inherited The Vault (Cold War monster silo). Treats monsters as assets.

Sara – Mark’s sister-in-law; fierce “mother wolf” of their old biker pack, emotional anchor.

Mark’s Brother – former pack leader, Mark’s moral mirror. Dies in the Vault.

Scarred Boy – Sara & brother’s son; physically and emotionally scarred, latent werewolf bloodline. The “boy” that matters at the end.

Devon – psychic child once saved by Mark; now Dominion’s living radar/weapon. Flips sides, dies trying to stop them.

Bobby – half-banshee hunter with an armored occult van. Loud, weird, fiercely loyal. Dies in a banshee supernova.

Dawkes – head of the Dominion Program; part-vampiric, cold, ideological, wants perfect soldier; uses Devon, wants The Vault.

2. ACT-BY-ACT OVERVIEW

ACT I – FLIGHT & BLOOD

The Pact Breaks. The Past Wakes Up.

Park massacre: we meet the wolf.

Lily & Mark’s system fails; they run.

Caleb introduced as human monster.

Early motel / road beats: addiction + guilt.

Flashbacks: pack, brother, Sara, scarred boy, Devon.

Caleb recaptures Mark; Lily pulled into his orbit.

The pit-fighting ring and the refusal to kill brother.

Caleb orders the Vault transfer.

ACT II – THE WORLD BLOWS OPEN

Escape, Separation, and the New Predator.

Lily & Mark break out of Caleb’s ring.

They separate: Mark tails convoy; Lily goes to find Sara/Bobby.

Dominion Program destroys the convoy; something worse than Caleb exists.

Ghost-town sequence; Dominion constructs; Devon’s warning through a kid.

Bobby’s introduction + armored van.

Parallel fights: Mark vs Dominion soldiers/ruins; Lily/Bobby vs constructs.

Everyone learns two things: Dominion and The Vault.

ACT III – CONVERGENCE ON THE VAULT

All Armies March Toward the Same Grave.

Caleb reeling, retreats to Vault.

Dominion tracks the Vault’s location via Devon.

Lily/Bobby decide they have to go after Caleb to save Sara & the boy.

Mark discovers the convoy was headed to The Vault; glimpses its legend.

Multi-POV build-up: Mark tunnels in, Lily/Bobby approach base, Caleb arms up, Dawkes deploys.

First clashes at/under the base; The Vault becomes a warzone.

ACT IV – THE VAULT

Love, Monsters, and the End of the World in a Silo.

In-Vault chaos: cages open, alarms, monsters loose.

Reunion with Sara & the boy; discovery brother is missing.

Forced brother fight and death.

Devon’s revolt and execution.

Dawkes starts the Perfect Soldier ritual using the Vault & Mark.

Bobby’s banshee last stand.

Lily’s intentional relapse + sacrificial overdose bite on Dawkes.

Mark completes transformation into the Perfect Soldier.

Dawkes and Dominion fall; the Vault self-destructs.

Survivors: Mark, Sara, Caleb, the scarred boy.

Desert dawn: Lily’s burial, new “family” forged, future implied.

3. DETAILED CHAPTER / SEQUENCE OUTLINE

I’ll frame these as ~32 “chapters” (or sequences). You can later group or split as needed.

ACT I – FLIGHT & BLOOD

CH 1 – The Park Massacre POV: Civilians / Omniscient. On a humid night in a run-down public park, a jogger and a young couple become prey when a massive, unseen creature tears through the trees. We never get a clean shot — just fur flashes, claws, screams, and a rusted swing set sprayed with blood. Sirens wail in the distance as the creature, breath ragged, vanishes into the woods.

CH 2 – The Aftermath & Lily’s Arrival POV: Mark / Lily. The wolf staggers out of the tree line, shedding fur and bone in a painful reverse transformation. Mark collapses naked and blood-soaked near the picnic shelter, horror dawning in his human eyes. Headlights sweep over him as Lily’s beat-up sedan arrives; she curses, wraps him in a blanket, shoves him into the car, and forces them to flee before anyone sees.

CH 3 – The Motel: Broken System POV: Lily. In a cheap roadside motel, Lily scrubs blood from the tub while Mark lies in bed, shaking with guilt. Through their tense dialogue we learn they’ve had a “system” for years: chains, rituals, timing, sobriety. Lily admits she “lost track” earlier; withdrawal tremors hint that her addiction broke the schedule. On the TV, a local news report begins teasing the “park massacre.”

CH 4 – Caleb Steps Onto the Board POV: Caleb. Caleb arrives at the park crime scene after the police, perfectly tailored but carrying predator energy. Flashing bogus credentials, he interviews a cop and a shaken witness, his questions aimed at one thing: did anyone see a man and woman fleeing? Once he has the answer, he kills both efficiently, retrieves his silver-bullet case from a muscle car, and heads out — hunting Mark like a lost asset.

CH 5 – Ghosts of the Pack (Flashback Montage) POV: Mark. On the road, Mark drifts into feverish sleep, and we drop into fragmented flashbacks: a biker werewolf pack; his brother leading with rough charisma; Sara as fierce matriarch; a younger scarred boy watching, trusting; a smaller boy (Devon) being protected from something we don’t yet see. The images are chaotic, half-remembered, and end with Caleb’s voice promising Mark “purpose.”

CH 6 – Caleb’s Ring & Mark’s History (Revealed in Layers) POV: Lily / Mark. At another stop, Lily confronts Mark about what he’s not telling her. In tense bits of dialogue, we learn Mark once fought in a secret pit for Caleb — monsters versus monsters, monsters versus humans, all for money and control. Lily’s horrified but not shocked; she’s seen enough of the world to believe it. They swear they’re done with that life, but Caleb is already closing in.

CH 7 – Capture and Return to the Ring POV: Mark. Caleb’s men ram Lily’s car off a back road. After a brief, brutal fight — Mark half-shifting in self-defense — they’re tased, collared, and dragged into a hidden industrial facility: the fighting ring. Caleb greets Mark like a prized dog that ran away, coolly ignoring Lily except as leverage. Mark is drugged and caged; Lily is thrown into a holding room with other human “assets.”

CH 8 – The Brother Fight & Mark’s Refusal POV: Mark. In the arena, in front of cheering rich spectators and occult handlers, Caleb pits Mark against another werewolf — his own brother, beaten and chained. The crowd demands blood. Instead, Mark refuses: in wolf form he tackles his brother, but to shield, not kill, holding him in a desperate, human embrace. The psychic tension of the room shatters as the “show” breaks. Enraged, Caleb orders both brothers slated for execution and the remaining monsters transferred to “The Vault.”

ACT II – THE WORLD BLOWS OPEN

CH 9 – Lily’s Escape & Arena Chaos POV: Lily. Backstage, Lily uses her addict’s street sense and desperation to slip her restraints, steal keys, and trigger a partial release of creature cages. Chaos erupts: alarms, snarls, handlers dying. She fights her way to Mark’s cell, frees him mid-shift, and together they tear open a loading bay door. They escape in the confusion on a stolen motorcycle as Caleb’s workforce screams and the arena burns.

CH 10 – The Decision to Split Paths POV: Mark / Lily. On a dark stretch of highway, they stop to catch their breath. Mark has overheard Caleb’s order: everything is being moved to a place called The Vault — a whispered bogeyman among captive monsters. He believes his brother, Sara, and the scarred boy may be taken there. Lily wants to disappear, but Mark insists: she needs to find Sara’s last known safe town + Bobby. Mark will tail the convoy. They share a raw, maybe-final embrace and split.

CH 11 – Mark Tails the Convoy POV: Mark. On a dirt bike, Mark follows a line of unmarked trucks through the night, keeping his distance. Hours pass. Dawn glows on the horizon when he smells smoke. He crests a ridge and sees a nightmare: overturned trucks, twisted metal, melted cages, bodies. The convoy has been annihilated by something that wasn’t Caleb.

CH 12 – The Convoy Ruins & New Threat POV: Mark. Picking through the wreckage, Mark finds: dead handlers; mutilated monsters; strange, seared sigils burned into the earth that aren’t Caleb’s style. He hears a distant inhuman shriek unlike any werewolf. He also finds a small blood-smeared shoe marked “RUN” — a hint toward Devon or the boy. When armed, faceless operatives in high-tech gear arrive to clean up, Mark shifts fully and prepares to fight or flee.

CH 13 – First Brush with Dominion Soldiers POV: Mark. We get our first real fight between Mark and Dominion foot soldiers: disciplined, ruthless, armed with silver-tech and stun weaponry. He takes several down but realizes they’re more interested in retrieving tech and bodies than him, treating the supernaturals like specimens. He barely escapes into nearby tunnels, overhearing radio chatter about “Dawkes,” “The Vault,” and “Dominion Program assets.”

CH 14 – Lily Reaches the Ghost Town POV: Lily. Lily arrives at a once-vibrant desert town Sara used as a bolt-hole, now eerily emptied: boarded windows, sand in the streets, a church door hanging open. She finds subtle signs of past pack presence — claw marks high on beams, a stashed jacket. The silence feels wrong.

CH 15 – The Riddle Kid & Devon’s Warning POV: Lily / boy / Devon. A starving, spaced-out kid stumbles into the street, speaking in sing-song riddles: “They came, they saw, they conquered…” Before Lily can help, his eyes roll back; a new, calm voice — Devon’s — speaks through him. He warns Lily: run, they’re coming, they want you and Mark and Caleb, they need what’s in The Vault. The boy collapses. Lily realizes someone psychic is piggybacking on random humans.

CH 16 – Dominion Constructs & Bobby’s Entrance POV: Lily. Monstrous “assembled” creatures — hybrid, stitched, psychically warped — appear at the end of the street, moving with unnatural synchronicity. Lily bolts, nearly gets cut off, when an armored van with hand-painted sigils screeches into view. Bobby, ragged and wild-eyed, yanks her inside. As they race away, the constructs hurl debris with telekinetic force. Bobby unleashes a half-banshee roar to stun them, and they escape, the town receding like a bad dream.

CH 17 – Info Dump Done Right: Bobby Explains Dominion POV: Lily / Bobby. Inside the van, Bobby explains what he knows: a rogue black-ops branch called Dominion has been capturing, dissecting, and weaponizing monsters. They use a psychic child named Devon as a surveillance and control hub. The constructs and convoy hit carry Dominion’s “signature.” Bobby has been trying to track the Vault’s location for years; now Mark, Lily, and Caleb are all tangled in the same mess.

ACT III – CONVERGENCE ON THE VAULT

CH 18 – Caleb Learns of the Convoy’s Destruction POV: Caleb. In a safehouse, Caleb loses his composure for the first time when he sees footage/photos of the ruined convoy. His empire is bleeding. His monsters are dying. He realizes another predator — Dominion — is eating his food. He orders a full retreat to The Vault, his last secure asset, and personally checks on the scarred boy, revealing genuine, warped affection.

CH 19 – Dominion Tightens the Net POV: Dawkes / Devon. We finally meet Dawkes in a Dominion command center: immaculate suit, faintly predatory smile, eyes too still. Devon, wired into a psychic amplification rig, scans for anomalies. Dawkes focuses him on Caleb and “the Vault site,” promising rest if he cooperates. We see Dawkes drink a bit of blood from a chilled vial, healing a wound — subtle vampire echo.

CH 20 – Mark in the Tunnels: Whispers of the Vault POV: Mark. Hiding in old service tunnels after the convoy escape, Mark stumbles across faded government signage, maps, and file cabinets referencing “Silo Project – Anomalous Containment.” The word “VAULT” appears repeatedly, with coordinates and dates. The idea that monsters have been cataloged and stored since the 1950s rattles him. He resolves to reach Sara and the boy before they become permanent entries.

CH 21 – Lily & Bobby Decide to Go to Hell POV: Lily. Safe in a dusty gas-station lot, Lily and Bobby argue options. Lily wants to rescue Sara and the boy; Bobby thinks going near the Vault is suicide. Ultimately, Lily’s stubborn guilt wins: she can’t live with herself if she abandons Mark’s family. Bobby grudgingly agrees and reveals he has partial coordinates for the Vault; they arm up, ward the van, and head toward the desert base.

CH 22 – Three Armies on the Move (Cross-Cut) POV: Multi. Montage chapter: – Caleb’s convoy of black SUVs and private guards storming toward the decommissioned base above the Vault. – Dominion helicopters and trucks closing in from another angle, Dawkes calm on comms, Devon sweating under his halo. – Bobby’s rattling van, sigils glowing faintly, Lily in the passenger seat clutching a map and shaking — from fear, not drugs, for once. – Mark, on foot and in occasional wolf form, traveling through drainage tunnels and access shafts, drawn by the scent of stale monsters and old blood.

CH 23 – Breaching the Base POV: Lily / Bobby. Lily and Bobby arrive to find the surface-level base seemingly dead: fences leaning, “NO TRESPASSING – U.S. GOV’T” signs rusted. As they approach, Dominion drones buzz overhead; spotlights flare. Bobby uses occult tricks and banshee resonance to scramble some sensors, but Dawkes notices “anomalous interference” and redirects a team. Meanwhile, Caleb uses an old elevator code to slip inside via a side building.

CH 24 – First Firefight & Falling Into the Silo POV: Lily / Mark. Dominion soldiers confront Lily & Bobby outside; a firefight erupts, Bobby’s banshee scream shattering glass and scrambling agents. Lily tumbles through a broken hatch into an access shaft, sliding dangerously down. Simultaneously, from another tunnel, Mark claws through concrete and drops into a lower level of the silo structure. Both are now in The Vault — separated but inside.

CH 25 – The Vault Revealed POV: Mark / Lily. Mark wanders through levels of The Vault: old Cold War catwalks, heavy blast doors now repurposed as cell fronts, cages with occult sigils, artifacts sealed behind glass. Lily, on a different level, sees medical labs, recording archives, and rows of relics tagged with decades-old military classifications. The scale of human meddling with monsters sinks in. Sirens begin blaring as Dominion breach codes and Caleb’s men fire back.

ACT IV – THE VAULT

CH 26 – Blood, Monsters, and a Warzone POV: Multi. Dominion blows internal bulkheads; lights flicker red. Caleb’s guards open some cages to use monsters as living weapons. Creatures rampage through corridors; Dominion soldiers respond with specialized ammo and shock gear. The Vault’s original security systems misfire, locking and unlocking random sections. It’s total chaos — an underground monster war.

CH 27 – Reunion: Sara and the Scarred Boy POV: Mark. Mark fights through panicked creatures and downed handlers to find a cell partially blown open. Inside: Sara, bloodied but alive, shielding the scarred boy. Emotional reunion: she half-sobs, half-berates him for being gone so long. The boy clings to Mark, relief and fear mixed. When Mark asks about his brother, Sara’s face crumples — “They took him. For a fight.”

CH 28 – Missing Brother, Missing Time POV: Sara / Mark. Sara explains that a “new group” (Dominion) took a batch of monsters deeper in, including Mark’s brother, for “testing.” Caleb tried to stop it and got sidelined; he’s been pacing like a trapped animal since. Mark swears he’ll find his brother. He locks Sara and the boy in a safer maintenance room and heads toward the inner fighting chamber, following scent and memory.

CH 29 – The Forced Brother Fight POV: Mark. Mark enters a vast, circular chamber designed for observation and violence. Dominion tech and Caleb’s occult remnants intersect here. His brother is thrown into the arena, beaten and barely able to stand, blood matting his fur. Dominion handlers and Caleb both watch through armored glass, gauging the results of their combined conditioning. Mark howls his brother’s name and jumps down.

CH 30 – Mercy Killing & Second Shattering POV: Mark / Brother. They clash, claw and fang, but we quickly see Mark pulling blows while his brother is half-feral, half-conscious. In a moment of lucidity, the brother begs Mark to end it, to protect Sara and the boy, to break the cycle. Mark kills him quickly, tenderly, in a devastating mercy kill. His howl afterward vibrates the whole chamber — a grief-scream that even Dominion monitors register as a spike.

CH 31 – Devon’s Hijack & Revelation POV: Lily / Devon. Elsewhere in the Vault, Lily stumbles into a low-lit control room where monitors show multiple silo levels. Suddenly, her body stiffens and Devon’s voice speaks through her: he explains he’s being used as a psychic circuit; Dominion wants The Vault’s data and the Perfect Soldier; Dawkes will use Mark as the vessel. He begs her to stop the ritual. Lily gasps back to herself, nose bleeding, and follows Devon’s psychic tug.

CH 32 – Devon in the Chair POV: Lily / Devon. Lily finds Devon strapped into an elaborate machine: metal halo, IV drips, cables rooted in the floor. He looks terrified and exhausted. They exchange a few real words: he remembers Mark saving him once; he hates Dawkes; he’s been forced to help them find monsters and sites. Before Lily can free him, Dawkes and Dominion guards enter, calm and in control.

CH 33 – Devon’s Revolt & Execution POV: Devon / Dawkes / Lily. Devon uses a last psychic surge to fling soldiers into walls, fry equipment, and momentarily stagger Dawkes. He declares he’ll burn the whole place down before helping again. Dawkes, annoyed but unfazed, orders a sniper to shoot Devon in the head. Devon dies quickly. Dawkes thanks him coldly for his service and has his body disconnected. Lily is dragged away toward the ritual chamber.

CH 34 – The Perfect Soldier Ritual Begins POV: Dawkes / Mark. Mark is bound into a massive central apparatus in the Vault’s deepest level: silver restraints, ritual sigils, humming Cold War reactors, artifact pedestals. Dawkes monologues: Devon was the map, the Vault is the library, and Mark is the vessel. The goal: a controlled, stable, super-powered hybrid — the Perfect Soldier. The machine powers up; Mark’s body and wolf fight the process, screaming.

CH 35 – Bobby’s Last Stand POV: Bobby. Near the accesses above, Dominion troops begin to overwhelm Lily’s possible escape routes. Bobby, battered and bleeding, chooses to hold them off. He pulls sigils off his arms, inhales, and unleashes a full-force banshee scream — shattering concrete, rupturing organs, collapsing tunnels. The power consumes him; he dies in the crater he made, smiling faintly, knowing he bought time.

CH 36 – Lily’s Choice: Weaponize the Relapse POV: Lily. Lily staggers into the ritual level to find Dawkes partly transformed by all the monster blood he’s consumed — stronger, faster, eyes glowing with hunger. Mark is mid-ritual, borderline feral. Lily realizes Dawkes feeds like a vampire. She looks at her arm; at a final vial of narcotic; at the track marks. With grim clarity, she shoots up — her first intentional relapse in forever — then walks straight into Dawkes’s arms and lets him bite her.

CH 37 – Overdose Bite & Lily’s Death POV: Lily / Mark. Dawkes drinks deeply; his regenerative rush curdles as the drugs in Lily’s blood flood his system. He slurs, stumbles, tries to tear her throat out, but she clings, whispering, “Choke on it.” He collapses, convulsing and overdosing on her poisoned blood. Lily bleeds out in Mark’s arms as the machine completes its cycle. Her last words: “Don’t be alone. Not again.” Mark’s grief ignites something inhuman.

CH 38 – Mark Ascends POV: Mark. The ritual, Devon’s psychic map, Vault artifacts, and Mark’s raw werewolf essence fuse. The Perfect Soldier process completes — but Mark’s will doesn’t break. He snaps silver restraints like tinfoil, eyes burning molten silver. He’s wolf and man in perfect alignment: stronger, faster, but eerily calm. Dawkes is a twitching corpse at his feet.

CH 39 – Slaughter and Escape POV: Mark / Sara. Mark tears through remaining Dominion operatives and hostile creatures, moving with nightmarish precision. He finds Sara and the scarred boy; frees them from a compromised cell. Caleb appears, bloodied but alive, with his own surviving guards. For a tense second, it seems they’ll fight — but everyone hears structural groaning and distant explosions: Bobby’s scream has triggered a chain reaction. The Vault is beginning to collapse.

CH 40 – Truce in the Silo POV: Mark / Caleb. In a smoky corridor, Mark and Caleb face each other surrounded by Sara, the boy, and dead soldiers. Caleb, realizing Dominion has destroyed his empire, proposes an unspoken truce: everybody who can walk, walks out now. The scarred boy clings briefly to Mark, then stands between Mark and Caleb — symbol of their toxic shared legacy. Mark nods once; Caleb nods back. They move.

CH 41 – The Fall of the Vault POV: Multi. Explosions rock the levels; fire erupts; ancient artifacts shatter or burn. We see glimpses of other monsters dying, containment systems failing, decades of secrets collapsing into an underground pyre. Mark carries Lily’s body; Sara holds the boy; Caleb leads them through maintenance shafts he memorized years ago. They emerge into predawn desert as the ground behind them caves inward.

CH 42 – Desert Dawn, Grave Under a Joshua Tree POV: Mark / Sara. In the gray-gold light, Mark digs a grave beneath a lonely Joshua tree. Sara and the boy stand nearby; Caleb watches from the distance, a shadow at the edge of this new “family.” Mark lays Lily down, says very little, and covers her. The boy quietly takes Mark’s clawed hand, unafraid. In the sky, first sunlight bleeds away the stars.

CH 43 – Final Beat: Dangerous Protector POV: Mark. Sara asks quietly, “What happens now?” Mark, now fully aware of his Perfect Soldier state, looks out at the empty desert, the ruins behind them, and the fragile lives he’s just saved. “We run. We hide. We protect what’s left.” His eyes glow briefly; we feel how easy it would be for him to become the next Dawkes, the next Caleb. But for now, he turns toward Sara and the boy. Somewhere behind them, Caleb disappears into the landscape with his own plans. Fade out.