Chapter 18: His Problem Now

William's Pov

The call came in at half past midnight.

I was standing outside the secure property watching my team run the perimeter check when Cain's name came up on my screen. He only called at this hour when something had already gone wrong.

"Talk," I said.

"About the three rogues. We picked up their trail an hour ago. They were two blocks from the penthouse before we intercepted."

"Where are they now?"

"Contained. We're questioning the third one. The first two didn't have much to say after a while."

"What did the third one give you?"

"Hired through a packless broker in the south district. Cash transaction. No names on the contract but the description of the client matches Herdez.”

"Not enough to file on."

"Not yet. But we're still talking to him."

"Make sure he keeps talking. I want a name before morning." I ended the call and went back inside.

Lola was at the desk in the main room with three documents spread out in front of her and her laptop open to two windows. She had been at it since we arrived.

I was a bit relieved that she decided to follow me.

She hadn't asked for anything. No food. She just sat down and worked like someone who had learned a long time ago that the only thing you could rely on was the output of your own hands.

I watched her for a moment from the doorway.

My wolf had been like this since the warehouse. Since the first time she walked into a room I was already standing in. Specific, quiet and completely indifferent to whether I wanted it there or not.

She was my fated mate.

I had known it the moment I saw her at the auction. The bond registered before I had even processed her face. My wolf had gone from still to certain in the space of a single breath and had not shifted from that position since.

She didn't know.

I had made a deliberate decision not to tell her. Not yet. She had just come out of five years of a man using her trust as a tool. Walking up to her and saying the Moon had written her name next to mine was not something she needed to hear right now.

She needed solid ground. She needed someone who showed up the same way every time without asking for anything in return.

That I could do.

I walked into the room and set a glass of water on the corner of her desk. She glanced up.

"The rogues have been contained," I told her.

She set her pen down. "All three?"

"All three. My team is still questioning the last one. We'll have more information by morning."

"Tristain hired them righ?"

"Almost certainly. We don't have a name on paper yet but we will."

She nodded and picked the pen back up. There was silence for a while.

“Do you have a documentation specialist on your network?" She looked at me.

"I have a lot of things on my network."

"What exactly did you spend those years doing in the underground circuits, Williams?"

"Learning," I answered. "The same thing you were doing up here. Just with a different curriculum."

She held my gaze for a second and then looked back at her documents. "The custody hearing. Eight days. Arthur still thinks I should appear before the Council presentation."

"Arthur is a good lawyer. He's thinking about the custody case in isolation. I'm thinking about the whole board."

"And the whole board says Council first."

"The whole board says that the moment the Seal goes on record, everything else reorganizes around it. The custody case, the relatives, Tristain's emergency session request. All of it falls under a different set of rules. You stop fighting on his ground and start fighting on yours."

She was quiet for a moment. Her hand moved across the page, making a note in the margin of the document.

"My wolf trusts you," she said without looking up. "I want you to know that doesn't mean I do."

"I know the difference."

"Good." She turned the page. "I want to be at the verification office an hour early tomorrow. I don't want to walk in at the exact window. I want to be settled before anyone else arrives."

"I'll arrange it."

"And I want Arthur on a live call during the presentation. Not in the room. Just available."

"That's reasonable."

"And if anything comes through on the rogue questioning before six in the morning, you wake me up. I don't care what time it is."

"Understood."

She finally looked up. Her eyes were steady. Whatever she had been carrying when she walked into that earlier meeting, she had set it down somewhere and picked up something harder in its place.

"We're going to get through tomorrow," I said.

"I know we are." She closed the top document and moved it to the side. "I just need to stay alive long enough to get there."

My phone buzzed on the table between us. I picked it up and looked at the screen, itwas Cain again.

I answered.

"The third one talked," Cain said. "But that's not why I'm calling."

"Then why are you calling?"

"We just got flagged by a council watcher contact. The relative coalition. They didn't just file documentation tonight, Williams." He paused.

"They filed a formal injunction. They're requesting a full suspension of any Nightwood verification proceedings pending review of their claims. The council clerk received it twenty minutes ago."

I kept my face still.

"How long does the review process take?" I asked.

"Standard timeline is thirty days."

Lola was watching my face. She had put her pen down.

"Can it be challenged?" I asked.

"Yes. But not overnight. You'd need to appear before a review panel and that panel doesn't convene until…"

"Until when, Cain."

…

There was a short pause at his end before he spoke again.

"The next available date is in thirty two days."

I lowered the phone.

Lola's voice was flat and precise when she spoke.

"Tell me what he just said."