DEREK
I sat there for a long time after my mother left, the untouched bacon on the plate cooling
beside me, the scent of coffee thick in the air. But it wasn’t breakfast I could taste. It was
bitterness.
Elena.
Her name kept echoing inside my skull like a curse and a prayer at once. I’d betrayed her— again. Or maybe she’d been right all along to keep her distance.
I didn’t remember what happened with Cassandra. Not really. And that scared me more
than I wanted to admit.
My father would have never allowed himself to be caught in a situation like this. But then
again, my father had been many things I wasn’t.
I stood abruptly and pushed away from the table, my chair scraping hard against the floor. The night’s guilt still clung to my skin, even after a shower, even after the self–loathing had settled in like a second heart, pumping shame through every vein.
I needed answers. Something to focus on besides the wreckage I kept leaving behind.
Upstairs, in my study, the folder still sat on the desk where Brock had left it.
Pierce.
The name alone carried the weight of old wounds–ones that clearly hadn’t healed. Ones I’d never even known we’d suffered.
I sat down, flipped the cover open, and began to read.
The Tribunal of Silverclaw v. Gamma Pierce
Dated: 19 years ago.
Chapter 85
Location: High Courtroom, Silverclaw Grounds.
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Pierce’s name leapt off every page, always capitalized, always followed by titles and
reminders of service–Former Gamma, Tactical Advisor, Strategic Liaison. They stacked
his accolades like a shield, but even on paper, I could feel how brittle that shield had
become.
I read on.
He stood accused of breaking inter–pack treaty terms, manipulating secondary alliances, and leaking sensitive information that undermined the fragile balance between Silverclaw
and Moonstone.
There was evidence brought forward of the charges levied, the evidence damning. Each
charge that Pierce had been accused of, there was evidence to back it up.
But that wasn’t the worst of it.
“We should never have entered a treaty with Moonstone, Alpha, never!” Pierce’s voice was
quoted verbatim, sharp with bitterness, practically leaping off the page.
“Calm yourself, Gamma.” My father’s words followed. “I know they’ve hurt you. But we were in the wrong. We crossed the border into their lands, not the other way around. I’m
sorry your son was lost.”
I paused there, reading the line again.
My throat went dry.
Pierce’s only son. Killed during a Silverclaw border raid that my father admitted–right there in the tribunal–had been unjustified. A pre–treaty incursion. I hadn’t even known we’d lost anyone that day, much less a child of our highest–ranking soldier.
I’d been away when this tribunal had been held–away at school. I’d never even know this had happened.
My hand curled into a fist on the desk.
2/6
Chapter 85
The document said Pierce didn’t respond to that line. Just stood in silence, his face unreadable, while his wife and two daughters wept quietly from the back bench.
Then came the next part.
My father, never one to beat around the bush, had apparently decided to confront the unspoken.
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“This is not among the formal charges,” he said, “but I need to know. There are rumors- persistent ones—that you planned to kidnap or harm the Moonstone heirs. Mason and Elena, correct?”
A clerk confirmed the names.
Pierce remained silent again.
“Do you deny it?” my father asked.
No answer.
“Do you deny it?” he repeated.
Nothing.
And that was all the confirmation my father needed.
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I could picture him leaning forward in his seat–deliberate, calm. “If it were only the formal charges, I would issue jail time. But threatening children? That’s not justice. That’s vengeance on the innocent. And I won’t allow it.”
I could see the scene in my mind. Pierce standing tall, stony and proud. His wife and daughters quietly sobbing. My father, his voice steady, his hands folded like he was bearing the weight of the entire pack.
“You have served me faithfully for many years,” he continued. “So I will not kill you.”
There was a scribbled side note in the margin: Pierce’s family sobs louder. One daughter collapses.
Chapter 85
“But I will banish you,” my father said. “Effective immediately.”
“No!” Pierce’s wife had screamed. “That’s worse than death!”
But my father didn’t relent.
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“Your family may remain,” he said. “They are innocent. I offer them clemency. They may
stay with Silverclaw if they so desire.”
And finally, Pierce spoke. “If I am banished, they come with me.
The oldest daughter, barely fourteen, reportedly collapsed again.
The final lines of the transcript were curt.
“Then leave. Now,” my father ordered. “This tribunal has come to a close.”
Pierce had to be dragged out of the courtroom, the guards reporting he shouted the whole
way out. The last line in the record was chilling:
“Silverclaw and Moonstone will never be at peace. Not while I’m still alive.”
I sat back hard in my chair.
The silence in my office was deafening.
This was it.
This was the thread. The beginning of the rot.
If Pierce was still alive–and I had to assume he was–he still had every motive in the world to come after Elena. Mason. Maybe even Aiden. A vendetta like this didn’t die. Not with a
banishment. Not with time.
This may be the link between Silverclaw and Elena’s fall from the cliff six years ago. Between the rogue who’d nearly taken her life and the maps that had started this new war.
Pierce had disappeared.
4/0
Chapter 85
But his hatred hadn’t.
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I thought back to the discussion I’d had with my mother. How it was believed that Pierce
may have killed my father in retribution for his banishment. That would need to be looked
into, too.
If the man was responsible for my father’s death–if he was responsible for what had happened to Elena all those years ago, I needed to know about it.
I stood and crossed to the fireplace, pressing a hand against the mantel to steady myself.
Then I turned and walked to the door, opening it into the hallway beyond.
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“Joe!” I shouted, my voice echoing against the high ceilings. “Get in here.”
Footsteps thundered from down the corridor, and a few seconds later, Joe appeared, slightly out of breath.
“What is it, Alpha?”
I handed him the folder. “I need you to find him.”
Joe frowned, opening the transcript file and quickly scanning the contents. “Who?” he asked, his eyes going back and forth on the page.
“Pierce. My father’s former Gamma. If he’s alive, if he’s anywhere, even if someone whispers his name in the roguelands–I want to know about it.”
Joe looked grim, already nodding. “Understood.”
“Tell Brock,” I went on. “Inform the intelligence networks. Call on the other packs. If this new alliance is real let’s use it.”
Joe already had a tablet out, nodding at me as he typed into it.
“If he’s still out there,” I said, my voice low and cold, “Elena’s in danger.”
And I wasn’t going to let that happen. Not again.
Chapter 85
Not ever.
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