Chapter 17

IRIS POV:

I thought about it.

But before any words came out, my father's phone rang.

The sound cut through the room like something sharp. Everyone went still. He pulled it from his pocket and looked at the screen.

Something left his face the moment he saw the name.

He answered it.

"Alpha Crest," he said carefully.

Nobody moved. Nobody breathed. We could all hear the voice on the other end, not the words exactly, but the tone. Cold.

My father's jaw clenched silently with every passing second.

"I understand," he said once.

A pause.

"I understand," he said again. Quieter this time.

The line went dead.

He lowered the phone slowly.

My mother rose from the sofa. "Gerald. What was that?"

He didn't answer immediately. He set the phone down on the mantelpiece. Then he stood there with his back to us for just a moment too long.

"The Alpha," he said finally, "is withdrawing all his contracts from the company."

My mother's hand flew to her chest.

"All of them?" she whispered.

"Every single one. Effective immediately." His voice was completely flat. "He is sourcing new vendors. New partners. New everything." He turned and looked at me then. Slowly. "Because his son was disgraced in front of every pack in this territory."

I held his gaze and said nothing.

The elder with the white beard exhaled quietly through his nose.

The room settled into a silence that felt like the moment before something falls.

Then a knock came at the front door.

Nobody moved.

Our housekeeper appeared at the sitting room doorway.

"Sir," she said. "It's the police."

My father straightened.

That expression crossed his face again. The one I still didn't have a name for. The look of a man who already knows exactly what is standing on the other side of that door and is simply deciding how to meet it with his chin level.

"How many?" he asked quietly.

"Four officers, sir. And two men in suits. They have documents."

The elder with the white beard closed his eyes for a brief second.

My father smoothed his jacket once with both hands.

"Show them in," he said.

"Gerald." My mother's voice came out barely above a whisper.

He turned to look at her. Just for a moment. Something passed between them in that look that only they understood.

"It will be handled," he said softly.

The officers came through first. Two in uniform, two plainclothes. The suited men behind them carried folders thick with documents. The lead officer scanned the room once, then looked directly at my father.

"Gerald Calloway?"

"Yes," my father said.

"We have a warrant for your arrest in connection with financial fraud and falsification of pack trade documents. We are also serving notice of immediate suspension of all operations at Calloway Trading pending full investigation."

My mother made a sound I had never heard from her before in my life.

Sarah's hand found mine under the blanket.

My father took the documents without a word. He read through them slowly, page by page, with careful eyes. His face gave away nothing.

"This is a setup," he said quietly. Not to the officers. Almost to himself. The way someone states a fact they already knew was coming but hoped wouldn't arrive tonight.

Then he looked up.

And his eyes found mine across the room.

In that look, buried quickly under everything else, there it was again.

That apology.

Gone before anyone else could catch it. Composed back into stillness in less than a second.

He handed the documents to the elder beside him without another word.

"Call the lawyer," he said to my mother. "Don't speak to anyone until he arrives. Not a single word."

"Gerald, please…"

"Margaret." His voice was the gentlest I had ever heard it. "It will be handled. I promise you."

They led him out.

The front door closed.

And the house, which had always been so full of his presence, so shaped around his voice and his footsteps and his commands, suddenly felt like a place none of us recognized anymore.

My mother sat back down on the sofa very slowly. She didn't cry. She just folded her hands in her lap and stared at the empty space in front of the fireplace where he had been standing.

The elders spoke quietly between themselves for a few minutes. Then they offered careful words and lowered eyes and excused themselves one by one.

And then it was just us.

My mother. Me. Sarah.

Nobody touched the tea that was made. Nobody suggested food. Sarah stayed close beside me on the sofa for a long time without speaking, which was its own kind of kindness.

When she finally left, she held me at the door for a moment.

"Call me," she said simply.

I nodded.

I locked the door behind her.

I checked on my mother. She had moved to her bedroom, sitting at the edge of the bed in the dark, still in her clothes, still with her hands folded in her lap, staring out at the garden she couldn't see in the darkness.

"Mum," I said softly from the doorway. "Try to get some rest. The morning is still early."

She nodded once without turning around.

I pulled her door closed gently.

I walked to my own room and sat on the edge of my bed.

Aurelian's jacket was folded on the chair in the corner. His card still tucked safely in the pocket of the sweatpants beside it.

I looked at them for a long time.

My wolf was quiet inside me. Not asleep. Just waiting.

I lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling and listened to the house settle around me in the dark.

But eventually sleep took me.