Chapter 10: The Letter

POV: Arthur

The room had gone completely still.

I stared at the envelope in Evana’s hand.

My father’s handwriting. Unmistakable. The sharp letters. The slight slant. The way he pressed harder whenever he was angry.

But seeing his hand on an envelope addressed to my mate made no sense.

He’d died years before Evana and I became mates.

Years before I even knew she existed.

“Open it,” Evana said.

I looked at her. “Together.”

She hesitated. Then nodded.

I pulled the letter free. The moment my fingers touched the paper, my wolf stirred, not violently this time. Almost reverently.

I unfolded it. Only a few pages.

Arthur,

If you are reading this, then I am already gone.

There is something about your future mate that you must understand.

I stopped. Evana’s eyes had gone wide.

I kept reading.

The woman destined to stand beside you may carry a bloodline that has remained dormant for generations.

My throat tightened. I looked at her. She was staring at the page like it might vanish if she blinked.

Do not mistake her silence for weakness. Do not mistake her gentleness for fragility. What sleeps within her may one day awaken.

My fingers tightened around the paper.

“He knew,” Evana whispered.

I couldn’t answer.

“When it happens, the future of the Crystal Moon may change.”

My heart pounded. He’d known. He’d known about a bloodline. He’d known my mate might carry it.

But how.

“The council must never be allowed to control her.”

I froze.

My mother’s voice came back to me, clear as if she were standing in the room.

“You must keep her under control.”

My father’s warning said the opposite.

I looked at Evana. For the first time I understood something. Maybe he hadn’t been afraid of her at all.

Maybe he’d been afraid of what would happen to her if the wrong people found out who she was.

I kept reading, and every breath left my lungs at once.

“If they discover her before she awakens completely, they will destroy her.”

“No,” Evana breathed. “Who’s ‘they’?”

“I don’t know.”

“Arthur.”

“I don’t.”

She stepped closer. “Then why did your father know about me?”

I had no answer. That was the part that frightened me most. He couldn’t have known her. Not personally. Yet he’d written about her like he’d already seen her face.

I looked at the date at the top of the page.

My blood went cold.

Months before he died. Months before I’d ever met her.

I sat down hard. “This isn’t possible.”

She looked over my shoulder. “What?”

I showed her the date.

“So he knew,” she said.

“Apparently.”

“How?”

“I don’t know.”

I dragged a hand through my hair. Every certainty I’d ever held about my father was starting to come apart in my hands. Strict. Secretive. Difficult to understand, sometimes. But I never believed he’d bury something this size and let me walk into it blind.

“There’s more,” Evana said, and I followed her gaze to the bottom of the page.

His handwriting had gone smaller there. Faster. Like he’d run out of time to write it carefully.

Arthur, if you have found this letter, do not trust what you were told about my death.

My heart stopped.

I read it again. Then again.

“What does that mean?” she asked.

I couldn’t speak.

I’d spent years believing the story I was given. A territorial conflict. A brutal attack. Injuries too severe. He died protecting the pack.

Now I wasn’t sure I believed anything at all.

I turned the page. One line left. His hand pressed so hard into the paper it had nearly torn through.

I read it out loud.

“My death was not an accident.”

Silence.

Evana’s face went pale.

I stared at the words until they stopped looking like words and started looking like a door.

My wolf growled, low, certain.

Someone had killed my father.

And whoever had done it might still be standing inside my own pack.

I looked at Evana.

“If my father was murdered because of what he knew about you…”

My voice dropped.

“…then whoever killed him may come looking for you next.”