Kaelan POV
Sleep refused to come.
Kaelan sat in silence, the candle burning low beside him, the faint scent of blood and pine still clinging to his hands. His thoughts circled like vultures back to the forest, to Lyra, to the moment she'd turned from him with that look of betrayal carved deep into her eyes.
She hated him.
And maybe she had every reason to.
But she was wrong about one thing he hadn't raised his sword against her family.
He'd raised it for them.
And he'd failed.
The memory still came in fragments that night, the fire, the chaos of battle. His father, Alpha Draven, leading the Ironclaw warriors through the Silverfang border under the pretense of "peace enforcement."
Kaelan had been barely twenty-one then newly named heir, bound by oath and blood to follow orders.
He'd been told the Silverfangs had broken treaty, that they were harboring rogues. That their Alpha planned to rise against the Council
He believed it.
Until the screams started.
By the time he realized it was a massacre, not justice, it was too late.
He'd fought his own men that night turned his blade on those wearing his crest. But when he finally reached the Hale stronghold, the hall was already burning.
He remembered one thing clearly: a small girl's face through the smoke pale, terrified, clutching a silver pendant.
He'd reached for her.
But the ceiling collapsed before he could.
Now she stood before him again alive, grown, filled with hatred that mirrored his own self-loathing.
He couldn't lose her again. Not until he knew who had orchestrated that night.
Kaelan rose and crossed to his desk, pulling out the old, sealed report the one his father had ordered locked away. He broke the wax seal.
Inside: witness accounts, patrol logs, field notes. Half of them falsified. He could tell by the inconsistencies names erased, times altered.
At the bottom of the stack, something caught his eye.
A single line. A name.
"Mission oversight: Beta Rowan."
His pulse stilled.
Rowan had been his father's second-in-command.
The man who stood beside his father at every meeting.
The one he also trusted as a father.
Or thought he did.
A knock shattered the silence.
"Enter," Kaelan said without looking up.
The door creaked open. Rowan stepped inside, wearing his usual calm expression the kind that gave nothing away.
"You called for me, Alpha?"
Kaelan slid the report shut, masking his reaction. "No. But since you're here… tell me, Rowan. What do you remember of the Silverfang attack?"
Darius brow furrowed slightly. "It was chaos. The Council approved your father's intervention after reports of rebellion. You were there you know what it cost."
"I do." Kaelan's tone was even. "Too much."
"Why bring it up now?"
Kaelan's eyes lifted sharp, assessing. "Because ghosts don't stay buried forever."
For a fraction of a second, Rowan composure slipped a flicker in his gaze, gone almost as soon as it appeared.
He inclined his head. "If ghosts trouble you, Alpha, I can assign more guards. You've had restless nights lately."
Kaelan smiled faintly cold and humorless. "That won't be necessary."
Rowan bowed slightly and left.
Kaelan waited until the door shut then exhaled, the tension bleeding from his shoulders.
The bond between him and Lyra pulsed faintly, as if echoing the danger crawling closer.
"Rowan," he murmured. "What did you do?"
He turned toward the window, where the moonlight pooled like spilled silver across the floor.
His wolf stirred beneath his skin, restless and dark.
Find the truth, it whispered. Before she does.
Kaelan's jaw tightened.
Because if Lyra uncovered the truth first if she learned what his family's name had done to hers she would never forgive him.
And fate, cruel as ever, had tied her life to his.
Lyra POV
The wind bit through the trees as I ran.
The scent of pine and frost burned in my lungs, but I didn't stop not until the manor was a distant shadow behind me
I couldn't breathe in there anymore.
Not with him.
Kaelan's voice still echoed in my skull the calm, low tone that always made it hard to think. The way his eyes had flickered when I'd thrown my words at him, sharp and cruel.
You think you're my savior? You're the reason my family's dead.
I'd meant to hurt him. I had.
But what hurt worse was how he hadn't denied it.
The forest swallowed me, silent except for the crunch of my boots and the faint hum of power under my skin. The bond that cursed, invisible thread between us pulsed faintly at the edge of my senses. I could still feel him, even now
Anger wasn't enough to break it.
Neither was hate.
I stopped beside the old river crossing, where moss-covered stones broke the surface of black water. The moon was high the same silver light that had watched over me the night everything burned.
I stared into it until the world blurred, and suddenly, I was nine again small, barefoot, running through smoke. My brother's voice yelling my name. The feel of his blood warm on my hands.
I pressed a shaking hand to my chest. "I'll find who did it," I whispered. "I swear I will."
The woods stirred.
A sound.
Footsteps.
Instinct kicked in I spun, claws half-bared, eyes glowing faint gold.
A figure limped from the shadows, ragged, filthy, but unmistakably wolf. His scent hit me before his face did blood, ash, and something older.
"Stay back," I warned.
He raised both hands, palms up. "Easy… I'm not your enemy, Hale."
The name froze me. "What did you call me?"
He smiled weakly, one fang chipped. "Hale. Silverfang blood. I'd know that scent anywhere."
My pulse stumbled. "You're mistaken."
"No." His voice roughened, like he'd swallowed gravel. "I was there the night your pack fell. I saw you a little girl running through fire. Thought you died with the rest."
The ground tilted under me. "Who are you?"
He leaned against a tree, grimacing as he pulled back his torn sleeve. A faded mark glowed on his forearm the Ironclaw crest.
My stomach dropped. "You're one of them."
"I was " His laugh was hollow. "Until they tried to silence me, too."
I didn't lower my claws. "Start talking."
He looked past me, eyes reflecting the moonlight. "We were told it was a sanctioned strike. Alpha Draven ordered it said Silverfangs were planning rebellion. But that was a lie. The order came from his Beta."
My breath caught. "His Beta?"
He nodded slowly. "Rowan. Said it was a Council directive. But he had his own deal running something about cleansing old bloodlines before the new heir took power. When the slaughter began, even Draven looked shocked."
I stared at him, every word sinking like ice into my veins.
Kaelan's father hadn't planned it.
His Beta had.
And if what this rogue said was true, then Kaelan the man I'd sworn to hate had carried guilt for something his family hadn't even done.
But why hide it? Why live under a lie this long?
"Why are you telling me this?" I demanded.
"Because I'm dying," he said simply, lifting his shirt to reveal a deep wound near his ribs. "Ironclaw guards caught me two nights ago. I escaped. Figured I'd clear one sin before I go."
He reached into his pocket and tossed something toward me.
A crest blackened by fire, edges melted.
The Hale emblem.
"I took it that night," he rasped. "Proof that not all Silverfangs were gone. Keep it safe, Alpha's daughter. You'll need it when the truth comes out."
Before I could speak, he coughed a wet, choking sound and collapsed.
The scent of blood filled the air, sharp and metallic. I crouched beside him, but his pulse was already fading.
"Hey stay with me!"
His lips twisted into a faint smile. "Find him before he finds you. Rowan not done yet."
Then the light in his eyes went out.
I knelt there for a long moment, the world eerily quiet. The river whispered, cold and endless.
When I finally stood, my hands were shaking. I looked down at the burned crest in my palm the symbol of everything I'd lost, and maybe… everything I still was.
Kaelan's face flickered in my mind those storm-gray eyes, the guilt, the silence.
Had he known?
Was that what haunted him all this time
The bond between us throbbed, alive and restless. I could feel his worry echoing faintly through it.
"Damn you," I whispered. "You're not the monster I thought, are you?"
The wind carried no answer.
Only the promise of what came next truth, betrayal, and the beginning of something neither of us could undo.