Gavyn POV
The drive back to the Pack House was a blur of shredded asphalt and blinding rage. My wolf prowled beneath my skin, scratching at my ribs, demanding blood for the betrayal.
Wolfsbane.
The word tasted like ash in my mouth.
I looked at the twins sleeping in the car seat next to me. Their skin was pale-ghostly, translucent-too pale for pups their age. They whimpered in their sleep, their little bodies fighting a poison administered by the woman I had put on a pedestal.
We screeched to a halt in front of the main entrance. I didn't wait for Marcus to open the door. I kicked it open, the metal groaning and buckling under the force of my Alpha strength.
"Get the healers!" I barked at the guards rushing toward us. I unbuckled the twins with trembling hands, passing them carefully into the arms of the medical team that had just burst through the doors. "Save them. If they die, you all die."
Once my pups were out of sight, the father receded, and the monster took over.
"Lock down the territory!" I roared, my voice carrying the crushing weight of the Alpha Command. Every wolf within a mile radius would feel the compulsion to obey, a physical pressure forcing them to submit. "No one leaves. No one enters. Find Iliana."
My warriors scrambled, the stench of their terror souring the air. They smelled like wet dog and panic.
I stormed into the Pack House. The air was thick with tension, heavy enough to choke on.
"Alpha," Marcus jogged to keep up with me, his breath coming in short bursts. "She's not in her quarters. Her scent trail ends at the eastern border."
"Find her," I snarled. "Turn every stone. Burn every rogue nest if you have to."
I marched into my office, slamming the door so hard the frame cracked down the center. I needed to think. I needed to track the rot to its source.
My eyes landed on the security monitors. The Healer, terrified but loyal, had sent the files directly to my private server.
I pulled up the footage from the nursery hallway.
There she was. Iliana.
She was talking to a figure cloaked in shadows. The figure wasn't pack. He moved wrong. Too jagged. Too feral, moving with a disjointed, predatory grace.
A Rogue.
I zoomed in. On the Rogue's wrist, a tattoo was visible for a split second. A jagged skull with a serpent winding through the eye.
The Shadow Rogues. Mercenaries who dealt in dark magic and forbidden poisons.
"Marcus!" I bellowed into the Mind-Link, my mental voice a thunderclap.
Yes, Alpha?
The old sawmill near the river. It's a known drop point for the Shadow Rogues. Take a strike team. Now.
Two hours later, the interrogation room smelled of copper blood and rust.
The Rogue was tied to a steel chair. He was missing an ear-freshly torn off by Marcus-and his face was a map of purple and black bruises. But he was smiling. A sick, toothy grin stained with red.
"Where is she?" I asked, my voice dangerously quiet, the calm before the slaughter.
"Gone," the Rogue wheezed, blood bubbling at the corner of his lip. "She knew you'd figure it out eventually. She's smart, your little snake."
I stepped closer, letting my Alpha aura fill the small room. It was suffocating, a physical weight designed to crush the will of lesser wolves until they couldn't breathe, couldn't think, could only obey.
"Why?" I asked. "Why poison children?"
The Rogue laughed, spitting blood onto my boots. "Power, Alpha. It's always power. She wanted to be the only Luna. She wanted to be the mother of the next Alpha. But your brats... they kept asking for the Omega."
My fists clenched until my knuckles turned white, the leather of my gloves creaking under the strain.
"She bought the Wolfsbane from us," he continued, enjoying my pain. "She said they were 'defective'. That they needed to be 'fixed' or removed."
My vision went red. The beast inside me snapped its leash.
I grabbed the Rogue by his throat, lifting him off the ground as if he weighed nothing.
"You sold poison to kill my pups," I growled, my voice dropping an octave, becoming something archaic and monstrous.
"Business is business," he choked out, clawing uselessly at my wrist. "Your Chosen Mate... she was our best customer."
I threw him against the wall. He crumpled, unconscious but alive. Bones snapped on impact. I needed him for the trial.
I walked out of the cell, wiping the filth from my hands. The Pack Elders were waiting in the hallway. Elara was there, her face grim.
"We have the records, Alpha," Elara said, handing me a stack of documents. "Bank transfers. Communications. She has been planning this for months."
I looked at the papers. The dates went back to before I rejected Alex.
The realization hit me like a physical blow. While I was pushing Alex away, thinking I was doing what was best for the pack, Iliana was plotting to murder my bloodline.
"Set up the tribunal," I said, my voice hollow, void of all emotion save for a cold, deadly resolve. "Tonight. We end this."
