The morning after the funeral, I woke to sunlight slicing through curtains I'd forgotten to close. My body felt leaden, every movement requiring conscious effort. Kaia remained silent in the depths of my consciousness, retreated so far I could barely sense her presence.
I found Keith in his office, seated behind the massive oak desk that had belonged to his father. He didn't look up when I entered, his attention fixed on spreadsheets glowing on his computer screen. The floral perfume still clung to him, a sickly sweet stench that made my stomach turn.
"The route," I said, keeping my voice level. "Why did you choose the ridge trail? You know it borders rogue territory."
Keith's fingers stilled on the keyboard. When he finally looked up, his eyes were cold, empty of the warmth I'd once believed was reserved for me alone. "Are you seriously doing this right now?"
"Our pups are dead. I need to understand—"
"They're gone, Rachel." His voice sharpened, taking on that Alpha edge meant to make me submit, to silence questions. "Accidents happen during pack runs. The ridge trail is standard training ground."
"It's also a known trap zone. Beta Marcus flagged it three months ago as needing clearance."
Keith stood abruptly, his chair scraping against hardwood. The Alpha aura rolled off him in waves, pressure designed to force my wolf into submission. But Kaia wasn't present enough to feel it, and my human side had stopped responding to his authority the moment I'd seen that photo.
"You're hysterical," he said, each word deliberate and cutting. "Looking for someone to blame when the only guilty party is chance. I won't have you spreading paranoia through my pack because you can't accept reality."
My pack. Not our pack. His.
The kitchen was empty when I retreated there, seeking coffee I wouldn't drink and space to breathe. I'd barely filled the pot when soft footsteps announced another presence.
Skyla Moreno stood in the doorway, her expression artfully arranged into sympathy. She wore a loose sweater that slipped off one shoulder, her hair tumbled in carefully calculated disarray. The same floral perfume that clung to Keith wafted from her skin.
"Luna Rachel," she said, her voice honey-sweet. "I'm so sorry for your loss. We all are."
I watched her approach, noting the predatory grace in her movements, the way her fingers rose to touch her neck—the exact spot where a claiming mark would rest. Where my mark should have been on Keith, if he hadn't started hiding that side of his neck weeks ago.
"Keith is struggling too," Skyla continued, moving closer until I could see the calculation behind her doe-eyed expression. "He just… he processes things differently. As Alpha, he has to stay strong for everyone." Her hand settled on my arm, the touch brief but pointed. "He needs support right now, not accusations."
Support. From her, she meant. From the woman whose scent marked my mate.
"Get your hand off me," I said quietly.
Skyla's mask slipped for just a fraction of a second—something cold and triumphant flickering through her eyes before the false sympathy returned. "Of course. I'm sorry. I just wanted you to know we're here for you."
She left, trailing perfume and lies.
I waited until the house fell silent, until I was certain Keith had left for pack business and Skyla had retreated to whatever hole she'd crawled from. Then I locked myself in my private study—the one room Keith never entered, the space that had always been mine alone.
The mind-link to my father opened easily despite the distance between Silverpine and Moonstone territories. Alpha Warren, I sent, using his title rather than 'Dad' because this was pack business now. I need to speak with you. It's urgent.
His response came immediately, his Alpha consciousness solid and reassuring in ways Keith's had never been. Rachel. What's wrong?
I told him everything. The suspicious route choice. Keith's immediate dismissal of my concerns. The photo. Skyla's involvement and inappropriate intimacy. The scent of betrayal that clung to my mate like rot.
My father's fury blazed through the link, controlled but absolute. Give me two hours.
I spent those hours documenting everything I could remember—dates, conversations, the gradual way Keith had pulled away from me over the past months while drawing Skyla closer. The mate bond that had once hummed with warmth now felt like decaying flesh, putrid and wrong.
When Keith stormed into the house four hours later, his rage preceded him like a shockwave. He slammed open my study door hard enough that the frame cracked.
"What the hell did you do?" His Alpha voice boomed, meant to force submission, to make me cower. "My accounts are frozen. The trade routes are blocked. The infrastructure loans are being called in immediately."
I met his gaze steadily, feeling something hard and cold crystallize in my chest where grief had been burning. "Those were never your accounts, Keith. They were gifts from the Moonstone Pack, conditional on our mate bond remaining intact and honorable."
"You can't just—" He advanced on me, his aura pressing down. "Do you have any idea what this will do to Silverpine?"
"I know exactly what it will do." I stood, my Luna authority rising to meet his Alpha dominance. Without Kaia present, I shouldn't have been able to match him, but rage gave me strength. "Those resources elevated your pack from mediocrity to prominence. Without them, you'll return to exactly what you were before you became my mate."
Keith's face contorted, fury and something else—fear, perhaps, or the dawning realization that he'd underestimated me. "This is about the photo? About Skyla? I was comforting a pack member!"
"You were comforting your mistress while our children's bodies were still warm." The words came out flat, emotionless. "You didn't mourn them, Keith. You didn't even pretend to mourn them. You couldn't wait to get to her."
"You're insane—"
"Get out of my study."
He stared at me, clearly torn between asserting his Alpha dominance and recognizing that something fundamental had shifted between us. Finally, he turned and left, slamming the door behind him.
I waited until dark, until the pack house settled into uneasy sleep. Then I slipped out through the back entrance, moving through shadows toward the edge of Silverpine territory.
Elias waited where the forest met no-man's-land, his rogue status evident in the way he held himself apart from pack bonds. He'd been an investigator once, before some unnamed crime had gotten him exiled. Now he sold his services to whoever could pay.
I approached with my hands visible, showing no threat. "Elias."
"Luna." He studied me with eyes that had seen too much. "Dangerous place for an Alpha's mate to be walking alone at night."
"I need your services." I pulled off my wedding rings—the diamond Keith had given me, the traditional Luna band from his pack—and held them out. "I need you to investigate Alpha Keith Hudson and Skyla Moreno. Their movements over the past six months. Any off-territory meetings. Any communications. Anything that connects them beyond pack business."
Elias took the jewelry, weighing it in his palm. "This is personal."
"This is justice." I met his gaze. "My pups are dead. I think Keith and Skyla know more about that than they're admitting."
Something shifted in his expression—rogues had no pack, but they still honored the sacred law that protected innocent pups. "Three weeks," he said. "I'll have information in three weeks. Where should I send word?"
"Through Mrs. Zhang at the pack house. She's the head Omega. She's trustworthy."
I turned to leave, but Elias's voice stopped me. "Luna Rachel? Whatever I find—are you prepared to act on it? Even if it destroys everything you've built?"
I thought of Marcus and Maya, their small bodies broken on the rocks. I thought of Keith's indifference and Skyla's calculated sympathy. I thought of the mate bond rotting between us like something diseased.
"Everything I built is already destroyed," I said. "Now I'm just looking for the truth."
