Chapter 4

That afternoon, the intelligence from the Frostthorn clan arrived.

The messenger was a mind-linked raven—black feathers, red eyes—that landed on my windowsill and sat quietly while I untied the sealed scroll from its leg. My father Griffin's personal courier.

What was in those documents made my blood run cold.

Finn. Biological father: Caius Raven. Biological mother: Sera. Age: twenty-one. Raised in early childhood under the guise of a distant relation, fostered in a human town beyond the pack's outer borders. Secretly brought back by Caius at the age of sixteen, privately groomed as a bloodline candidate. Has been involved in the pack's core affairs for the past two years, participating in the Raven Pack's most classified territorial negotiations and power structure.

Sera. For the past nineteen years, has been living in a private domain in the outer territories, secretly arranged and funded by Caius, maintaining frequent covert contact with him—contact that has never been interrupted. The story of her "running away and disappearing" was a fabrication by Caius for the outside world—including for me. From beginning to end, he knew where she was. He always knew.

I turned to the last page.

Supplementary investigation into the death of Rowan Raven: Witness located. Finn is suspected of having deliberately hunted and killed Rowan three years ago. Method: a silver hunting rifle, fired at close range. He chose a blind spot in the castle's rear training grounds, and afterward used his internal pack permissions to seal all channels of investigation.

Silver.

I closed my eyes.

The wolf clans are acutely sensitive to silver—silver weapons are the most effective means of killing a werewolf. To use a silver hunting rifle on a ten-year-old pup...

"Mama, that Finn keeps staring at me."

The words Rowan had said offhandedly in the week before his death, scrunching his little nose up, his voice carrying that instinctive unease that only a child's direct perception can produce. And I had noticed nothing. I had just ruffled his hair and said, "It's alright, he just doesn't know how to talk to little ones."

I had noticed nothing.

The truth was laid bare. I didn't move for a long time.

Then I stood, walked to the paper shredder in the corner of the study, and fed every document and every strip of the scroll through it. I watched the last page come apart into fine, thin fragments.

Everything that needed to be remembered had been carved, word for word, into my bones.

Anyone who searched this room from top to bottom would find no trace that any of it had ever existed.

The shredder went quiet. The study settled back into stillness.

"What are you doing in here?"

Caius's voice from behind me.

I cleared every expression from my face that had no business being there—fifteen years had made that reflex. Then I turned, slowly, wearing a tired, well-measured smile.

"Going through some old medical records," I said. "The healer said the old prenatal files can be disposed of. They were just taking up space."

Caius stood in the study doorway, one hand in his pocket. His gaze paused on the shredder for a moment, then moved on.

"There's an advancement ceremony the day after tomorrow," he said, coming inside and settling into the chair across from me, his tone as easy as if he were commenting on the weather. "I intend to formally transfer a portion of the pack's authority and territorial matters to several promising young men—bringing them into the inner council."

I sat down across from him. "What kind of ceremony?"

"A tradition in the Raven Pack going back generations," he said. "New blood joins the core, the elders bear witness, the pack gives its recognition." He paused, and something unmistakably satisfied moved at the corner of his mouth. "Finn is one of them. He's come a long way these past two years—steadier, sharper. I'm pleased with him."

Finn.

His tone held something I knew too well.

The pride of a father talking about his son.

And this son he was so proud of had put a silver bullet through my ten-year-old Rowan.

I lifted my teacup and slowly took a sip.

"Would you like me to attend?"

"You're my Luna," he said, with easy certainty. "You should be at my side to witness it."

"Of course." I set the cup down gently. "I'll be there."

Caius looked at me, gave a satisfied nod, then rose and headed to the bedroom. The bathroom door closed. The sound of water began.

I sat in the chair and didn't move.

Moonlight crept in through the gap in the window curtains and lay across the back of my hand, cold.

Caius.

Your carefully nurtured heir killed my child with a silver bullet. You knew. You've known from the beginning. You brought that killer back into the pack and gave him standing, gave him power, gave him the right to stand before the clan and receive the blessing of succession.

Fine.

I was going to make this coronation the decision you regret for the rest of your life.

The water was still running upstairs. I pulled out Caius's secondary communicator.

New messages had come through on the Luna's Private Session group.

Ivan: "The night of the advancement ceremony. Final session before delivery—consider it a farewell gift before you all join the inner circle. Six spots, first come, first served. Price down by thirty percent."

Seven or eight men below it, falling over each other to reply, scrambling like wolves for a scarce piece of prey.

At the very bottom, a follow-up from Ivan:

"Reminder, everyone—this is your last chance. After she whelps, the Alpha has other arrangements. The Luna's future is outside the scope of your concerns. Don't miss it."

The Luna's future is outside the scope of your concerns.

So, Caius—once the advancement ceremony is done and Finn is formally named your heir, you intend to dispose of me and the child I'm carrying?

I put the secondary communicator back in the safe without expression, locked it, and restored everything to exactly how it had been.

Then I picked up my own communicator and dialed my father.

Two rings. Connected.

"Papa," I said, calm and steady. "The day after tomorrow—I'll need your people in position."

I paused for one second.

"I want Caius to see, in front of every member of this pack, exactly how foolish he's been."

Caius Raven. You will pay for every single thing you've done, one debt at a time.