LOGINSilas’s Pov: I felt a familiar pressure settle behind my ribs as I considered what Rowan might have discovered, because if he had found evidence that someone was using my office to conceal unauthorized actions, his notes could have threatened people who had spent years protecting themselves behind the appearance of legitimate leadership.The remaining part of his note contained only the designation of a reviewing office, and the name of the person he intended to question had either been damaged or deliberately removed, leaving us with another connection but no reliable way to identify the individual behind it.“We need the access history before we make an accusation,” Elara said, closing the notebook carefully. “If we choose the wrong person, whoever is responsible will know exactly what we have discovered and will have time to destroy the evidence we haven't found yet.”I agreed, although the patience required to follow every administrative trail was becoming incre
SilasI stared at the authorization reference on the screen, unable to shake the feeling that the walls of my own office had quietly turned against me, because the evidence Elara and I had uncovered was no longer pointing toward someone who had simply stolen a password or forged a document, but toward a system that had accepted an instruction under the authority of my position without requiring my permission.The Alpha’s office controlled the most sensitive administrative records in the Blackwood Pack, and although I had inherited certain procedures from my father, I had never authorized anyone to keep a deactivated communication channel alive, especially one that could be used to access restricted files and send threats concerning my mate and our unborn child.Elara stood beside me, studying the record with the same steady concentration she had maintained throughout our investigation, and I found myself watching her for a moment longer than necessary because she no longer looked like
Elara’s PovHe agreed without argument, and I found myself noticing how differently he approached the investigation now that he was willing to examine my conclusions instead of treating my questions as challenges to his authority, although that small change did not erase the harm his past decisions had caused.Silas instructed the archive keeper to retrieve the approval history for the last recorded access request, and while we waited, I returned to the older council ledger to compare its entries against the current register, hoping that the dates would establish when the supposedly inactive channel had been used.The archive keeper returned with a record showing that an access request had been approved, but when I placed it beside the council ledger, the dates did not match, and the difference was significant enough to make me stop treating the discrepancy as an ordinary clerical error.The archive record placed the approval before the channel’s supposed deactivation, while the counc
Elara’s pov: The threatening message remained on Silas’s desk long after he had finished reading it, its carefully chosen words hanging over the room like a warning from someone who believed that threatening his unborn child would be enough to make the Alpha of Blackwood Pack abandon his investigation.I stood beside the desk, studying the authentication mark pressed into the paper while Silas compared it with the old council ledger, and although the tension in his shoulders suggested that he was fighting the urge to summon every warrior in the pack and demand answers, he remained focused on the evidence spread between us.Whoever had sent the message knew that we had discovered the authorization that should have expired years ago, and rather than deny their involvement or attempt to explain the irregularities, they had chosen to remind Silas that his child could be reached through the very system he was supposed to control.“They know what we found,” I said, drawing my attention awa
Silas povThe council representative shifted in his chair, but Roman kept his attention on me, his expression growing more guarded as soon as I mentioned Rowan’s name.“Rowan involved himself in matters that were not his to reopen,” he said. “Some decisions were made under circumstances you may not fully understand, and dragging them into the present without knowing why they were made could expose the pack to consequences that extend beyond an archive dispute.”“Then explain those circumstances,” I demanded, leaning forward. “If the directive was legitimate, the council should be able to show me why it remained active, who was permitted to use it, and why the records were altered after the investigation began.”Roman’s mouth tightened, and for the first time since entering the office, he appeared less like an elder offering advice and more like a man measuring how much he could safely reveal.“Your father believed certain matters had to remain protected until the
POV: SilasThe designation left behind in the altered record was one I had seen often enough to recognize without consulting another document, yet the longer I stared at it, the less comfortable I became with what it represented, because it belonged to an administrative office that had been granted access to some of the most restricted records in Blackwood Pack House long before I inherited the Alpha title.I leaned back in my chair, keeping the document beneath my palm as I considered the possibilities, while Elara stood on the other side of the desk with Rowan’s note open beside the old register, her attention moving between the two pieces of evidence as though she expected their inconsistencies to reveal something the people who had altered them had overlooked.“This designation does not belong to one person,” I explained, tapping the faded mark near the bottom of the page. “It belongs to an office, and whoever holds that position can request certain records without having to submi
POV: ElaraThe first thing I felt was a dull throbbing behind my eyes, and when I tried to move my hand, it felt like it was weighted down by lead pipes, so I just laid there for a moment listening to the steady beep of a machine nearby. I slowly forced my eyelids open, and the bright fluorescent
POV: ElaraThe plastic stick felt heavy in my hand as I stared at the two pink lines, and my heart was racing so fast that I could barely breathe.I had waited three years for this moment, three years of being the "rogue wife" everyone whispered about in the hallways, but I was sure everything wou
Elara~I woke up the next morning with this weird ache in my back that made me shift around on the bed a couple times before I gave up and just sat there staring at the bare walls. The room felt different without all that old stuff from before. My hand went to my stomach again without thinking, and
POV: SilasI stood at the head of the long dining table and watched the seats fill up with my high-ranking warriors and their mates, but my mind wasn't on the border reports or the upcoming hunt because I couldn't stop thinking about the way Elara had looked at me in her bedroom.I expected her to







