LOGINLilith's POV "You called me in like it was the welfare briefing," I said, stepping through the study door, "but no one in this room is holding documentation." Nobody answered. My father stood behind his desk. Scarlett was at the table, arms folded, watching my face with the keen attention she gave things she had not yet decided how to deliver. Reed was at the far end of the room with his laptop open, his jaw tight in the way it went tight when he was holding something back until it was needed. On the desk was a single printed page. I crossed the room and picked it up. I looked at the signature at the bottom. My name, alongside my handwriting, or what appeared to be my handwriting, was in the context of a formal criminal complaint filed with a regional land registry against my father's personal land ownership documentation. I turned the page toward the window light. I was not panicking. I had spent four years studying documents under conditions that required precision over emo
Dominic's POV"I have been waiting for you to put those on my desk," Cain mentioned commandingly.I set the last item down, which was the prepaid phone, the cloth, and the filing signature printout, three objects in a line on the desk between us, the desk that smelled of old paper and black tea, thirty-two years of a man keeping something he should have said out loud.I sat down.I did not utter a single word. I only looked at him with the same gaze I had used on every person I had needed a complete truth from, without the managed patience, without the Alpha authority layered over it. Just me, looking at him, waiting.Cain looked at all three objects.He folded his hands.Then he looked up."Thirty-two years," he began, his voice carrying the weight of something that had been pressed down so long it had taken the shape of the container. "I have been carrying this for thirty-two years, Dominic. I want you to understand that before I tell you, because I need you to understand the weight
Scarlett's POV "Lilith's signature," I repeated into the phone I had taken from Dominic's hand. "On the criminal complaint filing," Callum confirmed. "I pulled the original document from the registry. The signature matches, the documents used to support the complaint, personal correspondence, internal pack communications, could only have come from someone with direct family access." I looked at Dominic. He looked back at me with the face he wore when something had arrived that he needed to process before he could respond to it, completely still, jaw set, eyes doing the work of a mind that had gone several moves ahead. "We will call you back," I told Callum, ending the call. I put the phone on the desk. "Lilith arrived five days ago," I said quietly. "Yes," Dominic replied. "The complaint was filed three days ago." "Yes." "Which means it was filed two days after she came home." I held his gaze. "Dominic. Are you thinking what I'm thinking at all? Don't you think someone used
Dominic's POV "It belongs to Cain," Reed's voice came through the phone. I took the phone from Scarlett's hand. "Say that again," I told him. "The second device," Reed repeated. "The one the prepaid phone messaged from the tree line. It is registered to Cain's account. His personal number is the receiving contact." A pause. "Dominic's name is saved as the contact label, but the device belongs to Cain." I looked at the cloth in my hand. Then I looked at Scarlett. "Stay on it," I told Reed. "Nothing moves without my instruction." I ended the call while I set the cloth on the desk. I picked up the formal letter Callum had brought up twenty minutes ago, the welfare investigation notification from the regional human governance body. Twenty-one days, inspectors. Three anonymous complaints, Morrow's public statement, and the community board photograph. I had been dealing with Morrow's instruments in sequence. I was done dealing with things in sequence. I called the briefing for ni
Scarlett's POV"You are staring at the ceiling again," Dominic said from the window."I am thinking," I told him."You do both with the same expression." He turned from the window. "Coffee?"He already had it. He crossed the room, sat on the edge of the bed, and held the cup out. I sat up and took it.This was the third morning I had woken up in his room. He was already dressed, shirt on but jacket still over the chair, that in-between state that belonged only to early mornings before the pack's weight settled fully on him. Still private and mine. I drank the coffee.He watched me with the patient attention he gave things he was not going to rush."Tell me something you have not told me," he said.I looked at him over the rim of the cup."About the first life," he added. "The parts you left out because they seemed too small."I looked at the window.They were neither too small nor too embarrassing. There was a difference. The large things had been survivable to say out loud. The smal
Lilith's POV"The intermediary is still inside the boundary," Reed told me, sitting down on the bench.He had come into the east garden fast, which meant whatever he had seen on the camera feed was not something that could wait for a comfortable entrance."You saw them on the northern corridor camera?" I asked."At the tree line," he confirmed. "For about four seconds before they stepped back." He looked at his phone. "Dagger has bikers moving to that section now. But four seconds is enough time to have already done whatever they came to do.""What would they come to do?"Reed looked at me. "That is what I cannot name."I looked at the garden wall and worked through it.The intermediary had introduced Baas to Morrow's team. They were inside this pack, which meant they had access to conversations, movements, and decisions. They had known about the criminal complaint when Baas did not, which meant their information channel to Morrow was separate from Baas's. They were still on the bound
Dominic's POV.I shook my head and walked past her and towards my bed, “I think you should leave.”“Why? Because you want to keep up whatever wall you have up?”I turned around to her, her innocent eyes boring into mine, “what do you want from me, Scarlett? Why do you keep pressing?”“You talk as t
Scarlett's POV.“Let's go, shall we?”I wasn't bad at combat—not even close. Yes, I was less skilled compared to a lot of people at this pack, but I knew somethings at least, a lot more than my trainer here believed I did.“So you do know what I meant about the expression and posture.” He pointed o
Dominic's POV.“Everything had been reviewed, Boss. We assure you that the security has been adjusted and tightened.” I came to stop after successfully wrapping my knuckles, getting ready to train, “I don't want an attack like that of yesterday repeating itself.” I turned to my men, “Marco knows t
Scarlett's POV•Just when I thought the atmosphere couldn't get anymore stuffy, it did.I stood with my back faced towards the window as I watched Marco who was standing before me, shooting daggers at Dominic who stood with a gun in his hand by the door—his hands ready to pull the trigger.“What ma







