Chapter 16

Beth didn't recognize this voice, but there was only one man it could belong to. The final guest she had been waiting for had arrived at last.

"You must be Mr. Ad-"

"Just Adrian, please." The elderly man extended a graceful hand, and she shook it with a smile. "I didn't expect to discover that the Elizabeth Heether who wrote me that masterfully composed letter could be such a young lady. I saw you earlier but wandered until I found someone who assured me you are the lady indeed. I apologize for my tardiness."

He was warm, polite, sophisticated. In hindsight, she must have heard something about him before, a scandal that had erupted in the very house of the ruling Silver Nation pack, but all she could remember was a vague mention of a wolf who had gone rogue from the Heether den decades ago. Maybe that was it, and the truth that he had even gone so far as to go to the side of the Gold Nation's ruling pack for years had been omitted from the gossip.

Either way, she had taken a risk by