HIS FATHER’S SECRET.

Davis’s POV

For several seconds, I stared at my phone.

My father hadn’t asked what the report contained or whether the claims were true. He had gone straight to warning me against taking it to the council.

That alone told me he knew more than he was willing to admit.

Rebecca stood across the table, clutching the report against her chest. Her eyes moved from my phone to my face as I ended the call.

“Davis, what did he say?”

“He wants me at the Draven estate.”

“Did he explain why he kept the investigation secret?”

“No.” I slipped my phone into my pocket. “He refused to discuss it over the phone.”

Rebecca let out a humorless laugh. “Of course. Your family keeps secrets, and we’re expected to show up whenever they call.”

“I didn’t say I was going.”

Her eyebrows lifted slightly.

I pulled out the chair beside her and sat down. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”

She studied me as if she were waiting for me to change my mind.

“My father asked me to come alone,” I continued. “If he wants to explain this report, he can do it in front of you and Harper.”

“You’re willing to confront your own father over this?”

I looked at the document in her hands.

“He knew about the warning. He let me make decisions without giving me all the information. I deserve an explanation.”

Rebecca slowly lowered the report onto the table.

“And if he says he did it to protect the packs?”

“Then he’ll have to prove it.”

She held my gaze for a moment before looking away.

I knew she had expected me to defend him. Loyalty to my family had never been something I questioned. Even when I disagreed with my father’s decisions, I had always believed he had a reason for making them.

Now I wasn’t sure what to believe.

Harper shifted in her chair.

“There is something else you should know.”

I turned toward her. “What?”

“Orvayn warned me not to discuss the investigation with anyone outside the family.”

My jaw tightened.

“My father told you to keep quiet?”

“Yes.”

“And you listened?”

“I was told it involved political security. I didn’t know the investigation concerned the truth of our bond.”

I stared at her.

For years, I had believed the connection between Harper and me was a private matter. We were supposed to be fated mates, and our families had treated our bond as a matter of political importance. But I had never imagined that people were investigating it behind our backs.

“How much did you know about the warning before I rejected you?” I asked.

“Very little. I knew there was a problem, but I wasn’t given the details.”

“Yet you allowed me to believe rejecting the bond was the only way to protect the packs.”

Harper’s face tightened. “I believed that was what you had decided.”

“I made that decision based on information I was given. There’s a difference.”

She lowered her eyes.

Rebecca reached for the report again.

“Then perhaps we should stop asking what everyone believed and start finding out what actually happened.”

I looked at her. “That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

She nodded, but her fingers remained pressed against the edge of the paper.

I covered her hand with mine.

“Rebecca, look at me.”

She raised her eyes.

“I won’t ask you to trust my father. I won’t ask you to accept his explanation without proof. Whatever is in that report, we’ll find out the truth.”

Her gaze dropped briefly to our joined hands.

“You say that as if it’s easy.”

“It isn’t.”

“Then why are you making it sound so simple?”

“Because I know what I’ll do next.” I squeezed her hand gently. “I’ll get answers, even if my father never forgives me for asking the questions.”

Something in her expression softened.

“You might regret that.”

“Possibly.”

“You’re supposed to reassure me.”

“I could tell you my father is a wonderful man who never makes mistakes, but you already know I’d be lying.”

A small smile touched her lips.

“There. That wasn’t so difficult, was it?”

“What?”

“Admitting your family isn’t perfect.”

I leaned closer. “Don’t get used to it. You’re the only person who gets to hear me say that.”

She gave me a sideways look. “Should I feel special?”

“Very.”

Her smile widened, and for a moment, I forgot about the report, my father, and the secrets that had been buried for years.

I wanted to keep her smiling like that.

The thought caught me off guard.

I released her hand and leaned back, but she reached for the report at the same time. Our fingers brushed.

Neither of us moved immediately.

Her eyes met mine, and the room seemed quieter than before.

Then Harper cleared her throat.

I turned toward her, reluctantly breaking the moment.

“You said you noticed something before Rebecca’s first wedding,” I reminded her. “What was it?”

Harper folded her hands in her lap.

“I noticed the strange reactions between you and Rebecca. The same things I’d seen recently.”

“What reactions?” Rebecca asked.

“The way your presence affected each other. The changes in your behavior. I couldn’t explain them, but they reminded me of what I’d witnessed before the wedding.”

I frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t understand what I was seeing. By then, both families had already committed to the alliance, and I was told the investigation was about political security.”

“And you never questioned that explanation?”

“I did. I simply didn’t have enough information to challenge it.”

I looked at Rebecca. She was listening carefully, but I could see the tension returning to her face.

Whatever had happened before our first marriage, she had suffered because of it. I couldn’t undo that, but I could refuse to let the same people control what happened next.

“We’ll examine the report together,” I told her. “No one makes another decision for us.”

She held my gaze.

“Together?”

“Unless you’ve suddenly decided you prefer working alone.”

“I’m considering it.”

I raised an eyebrow. “After all the trouble you’ve caused me?”

She nudged my knee beneath the table.

“You’re the one who keeps following me around.”

“Someone has to make sure you don’t threaten every person who walks through the door.”

“I haven’t threatened you.”

“You threatened to throw Harper out of a window.”

“I said that was your suggestion.”

She laughed, and I couldn’t help smiling at the sound.

Then she noticed the way I was looking at her.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Davis.”

I reached for the report before she could question me further. “Let’s find out what my father is hiding.”

She shook her head, still smiling faintly, and moved closer to read the document with me.

For the first time since Harper had arrived, I felt certain of one thing.

Whatever the truth was, I wouldn’t let anyone decide Rebecca’s future for her again.

I lowered my eyes to the report, but before I could read another line, something struck my mind.

A flash of white.

A wedding dress.

Rebecca stood before me, dressed as a bride, her face drained of color. Tears ran down her cheeks as she reached for my hand.

I tried to hold on to her.

She slipped away from me.

“Rebecca!”

My fingers dug into the edge of the table. The image vanished, but the pain in my chest remained, sharp enough to steal my breath.

Rebecca immediately dropped the report.

“Davis?”

I couldn’t answer.

She hurried around the table and caught my arm.

“Look at me. What’s wrong?”

I forced myself to meet her eyes. Her face was pale with worry, and her fingers tightened around my arm when she felt me trembling.

“Davis, you’re frightening me. Talk to me.”

I stared at her, remembering the wedding dress, the tears, and the unbearable feeling of losing her.

The words escaped before I could stop them.

“Rebecca, why do I remember you dying in my arms?”