Chapter Five

Blake

Two years later.

Two years ago was the last time I saw my mother. I remembered it like it was yesterday. The bouts of torture Cody had put her through. The diagnosis that came after. The way he loaded her into that convoy with the single promise that I would see her again once I married one of his sons. He meant every word of it. Since the day he drove off with her, I had not heard from him, from my stepbrothers, or from my mom.

Two years on, it still hurt like a fresh wound. I had not given up. I would find her. I knew, somehow, that she was still alive.

But those two years had changed me in ways I never expected. The morning after Cody disappeared with my mother and his sons, I walked out of the pack mansion and never looked back. I shed everything that tied me to that life, the pack, the bond, even my own wolf. I locked her away somewhere deep inside me and refused to let her out, no matter how hard she clawed at the inside of my chest in those first months. Eventually she went quiet. I told myself it was easier that way. A wolf with no pack was nothing but a target, and a wolf who never shifted could not be hunted for what she was.

I built a new life among humans instead. I changed my name in every system that mattered, learned to walk and speak and exist like someone who had never once heard the word Luna, and eventually found my way into the Argent Division, one of the most secretive agencies in the city. Officially we were a private investigative bureau. Unofficially we were the people humans called when the evidence stopped making sense, when something showed up at a crime scene that should not have been possible for any human to do.

A text had come from my director the day before that had kept me pondering ever since. He said I had been selected for a top secret assignment outside the state, one the entire division had been waiting on for months. I could not let them down, so I was up early. Before leaving, I sipped my coffee and stared at my mother's portrait, the one that stood on my shelf as a reminder every single morning.

"I haven't given up, mom. I'll find you," I muttered under my breath before stepping out the door.

My holster sat snug against my hip beneath a tightly fitted jacket that sculpted my figure in the most professional way possible. I slung my bag over one shoulder and flagged down a cab, my hair loose, a black bouncy coil cascading down my shoulders. I slid into the back seat and put on the composed face I always wore before work.

My phone showed a string of missed calls from Director Hale. Whatever this was, it had to be important. I sent back a short reply. On my way, sir. Minutes later I arrived at the Argent building, a tall glass tower where every agent in the division reported, paid the driver, and rushed inside.

I had worked there for almost two years now. What better way to mourn my mother than to become someone who hunted down the things that went bump in the night, with the quiet hope that one day I would find her myself.

I inhaled deeply and stepped into Hale's office. He swung his chair toward me, setting his phone down to give me his full attention.

"Good morning, sir," I said with a salute as he motioned for me to sit.

"Agent Blake." I smiled at the title, the one I had earned through almost two years of hard work.

"Yes, sir. I got your message."

"Of course." He leaned forward, lowering his voice. "We have reason to believe one of our open cases ties back to something we have never been able to confirm before. Disappearances, impossible strength reports, wounds that heal overnight. My team thinks werewolves are real, Blake, and that they are behind every loose thread in this case."

I kept my expression still, though my pulse jumped. "And if they're real, sir?"

"Then we expose them. Quietly, carefully, and completely. We are sending you in as a secretary at Ashbourne Corporation, the company at the center of all of this. To the world you're their newest hire. To us, you're confirming whether monsters are walking around in tailored suits, and if they are, you're the one who hands us the proof to take them down."

My stomach turned. I knew exactly what it would mean if humans ever had proof that werewolves were real, the hunting, the silver, the slaughter that would follow for wolves who had nothing to do with any of this. It was dangerous, the kind of dangerous that could not be undone once it started.

But then I thought of my mother in the back of that convoy. I thought of Cody's voice telling me I would never see her again until I gave myself away to one of his sons. My own pack had taken everything from me and never looked back.

"I'll do it, sir," I said.

"Good. You leave for Ashbourne territory tomorrow morning. Three months minimum, for a proper evaluation."

I paused. Ashbourne territory. I knew that name. It was close to the bloodmoon pack territory, I had grown up close enough to its border to recognize it instantly, and for a moment the office around me seemed to tilt. Two years ago I had walked away from that land and the man who ruled it. Cody. if he was even still alive. Whoever sat on that throne now, it would not be him. It could not be.

"Understood, sir," I said, and I meant it.

The next morning I was flown out without hesitation. I decided to visit the pack and stay there for proper investigation .The weight of it sat heavy on my chest the entire flight, the idea of walking back into a place I had spent two years trying to forget, this time as someone else entirely.

I arrived at Ashbourne Corporation in a fitted black skirt and crisp blue blouse, every inch the new secretary I was supposed to be. But instead of a receptionist at the front desk, two men in dark suits stepped forward the moment I walked through the doors, their eyes sweeping over me with an attention no human security guard would ever bother with.

"This way," one of them said, his voice low and even. "The heirs will see you first."

I blinked. "I think there's been a mistake. I'm here for the secretary position, I was told to go straight to the executive floor."

"No mistake," the other said, already turning toward the elevator. "Everyone new to this territory sees the soon to be Alphas first. It has been that way since the pack fell into darkness."

"Darkness?" I asked, careful to keep my voice light, curious rather than alarmed.

“The old Alpha stepped down two years ago. Since then, the future of the pack has remained uncertain. All four heirs are eligible to inherit the title, but according to pack law, the first of them to find his true mate and complete the mating bond will become Alpha.”

My wolf, silent for two years, stirred faintly at the word Luna, and I told myself it meant nothing. The elevator doors opened onto a long hallway, and at the end of it, double doors swung open into a wide office.

I stepped through, and the moment I crossed the threshold, I froze.

Four men sat behind the executive table, and every one of them turned to look at me at once.

Shawn. Gaige. Mason. And Leo.

My four stepbrothers.

And for the first time in two years, my wolf surged to the surface, howling.