apter 39
DEREK
Elena had denied cheating on me with Logan. But she hadn’t denied that Aiden was his.
The realization had settled into my ribs like a slow, festering wound, burning through every rational thought I had left.
She could have corrected me. Could have told me I was wrong.
But she hadn’t.
That was all the confirmation I needed.
I had spent years believing she was gone forever. That she had died in some nameless rogue ambush, her body never found. I had grieved. I had broken myself apart trying to
understand how the world could have been so cruel–how fate could have given me something so precious only to rip it away before I could even mark her.
And then she had come back.
But not to me.
To him.
I stood in my office, staring at the map spread across my desk, barely seeing the lines that marked the territories. My hands curled into fists at my sides, tension coiling tight in my chest.
I wasn’t a fool.
If Logan had been in her life before she regained her memories, if he had been the one to find her after she disappeared, then there had to be a trail.
And I was going to find it.
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+25 Bonus
Joe stood across from me, waiting. He had worked with me long enough to know when I wasn’t in the mood for unnecessary questions.
“Find out everything,” I said, my voice hard. “I want to know exactly how long they’ve been together. Where she was before she came back to Moonstone. Who she was with.”
Joe nodded once. “I’ll have our people start pulling records. If there’s something there, we’ll find it.”
I turned away, jaw clenched. I had to know.
Had Logan been there the whole time? Had he held her, comforted her, played the part of the devoted mate while I was drowning in my grief?
Had he taken my place before she even knew what she was choosing? The very thought made my vision darken at the edges. I needed to keep my mind clear.
There was more at stake than just Elena.
***
The letter from the Alpha Council sat on my desk, the wax seal already broken, its contents as heavy as the ink that described them.
An Emergency Alliance Summit.
Rogue attacks were increasing. Packs were struggling to hold their borders. And whoever was leading the largest rogue faction–whoever was behind these strategic, calculated attacks–was growing bolder by the day.
We were on the verge of war. The Council wanted Silverclaw and Moonstone at the table.
It made sense. Our packs were two of the largest in the region, both capable of shifting the tide of war. If an agreement could be reached, if we stood together, the rest of the packs would follow.
But I wasn’t naïve. This wasn’t just about stopping the rogues. It was about power. About
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leverage.
And if I played this right, I could use it to my advantage.
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Silverclaw and Moonstone had to be key players in this summit, there was no other choice. And that meant I would have access to Elena’s world–her father, her pack, her.
It was the in I had been waiting for. Even if it meant standing across from her father. Of dealing with Mason, whom I’d had more than enough of for one lifetime.
Even if it meant pretending the sight of her didn’t gut me.
I reached for the letter again, running my thumb over the edges of the parchment, weighing my options.
Then, a knock at my office door. I exhaled, already irritated. “Come in.”
The door opened, and I immediately regretted the invitation.
Cassandra stepped inside first, her dark eyes sharp with something unreadable. Behind her Caroline followed, both of them wearing identical expressions of barely concealed disdain.
I already knew what this was about. I sat back in my chair and waited.
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