Chapter 19 – The Trail of Rot

The moment my boots hit Eclipse Star soil, I knew things would change drastically.

And I didn’t have to wait long. Out from behind a twisted old oak, my father appeared, clutching a worn leather satchel. His face was etched with exhaustion and cold fury.

                “The treasury’s bleeding out, Amani,” he said bluntly, skipping any pleasantries.

He pulled a thick wad of papers from the bag, printouts, digital receipts, each one telling a story of reckless greed.

I stared at the figures, my eyes widening.

These were not in the ledgers, it was the first time I’d seen them.

Damn! Vance hadn’t just been distracted, he’d been stealing from the pack. And that was a serious crime, the Elders had agreed to separate private from business accounts.

 Luxury cars, jewelry enough to fund a militia, and, most damning of all, a private island in the Atlantic. A getaway for his ‘treasure.’ He’d also drained our joint money and was now gutting the pack’s emergency funds.

“This man is crazy”, I hissed beneath my breath, clutching the crumpled pages. “Just in a few weeks he had spent millions to please her. The Council won’t just see this as a petty mistake. It’s outright betrayal, stealing and abandoning his duty to the pack.”

“It’s more than greed,” my father agreed. “But more is about to dive up. I’ve sent some loyal warriors to dig into her past. No wolf is born a rogue. Someone, somewhere, knows why she was cast out, or why she left. I’ll find the root of this rot.  You can’t keep taking on this burden alone. I have the obligation to help you, you are my only pup and I won’t stand and watch him destroy you.”

I stared at him in a mix of disbelieve and admiration.

“You are willing to go against your Alpha, Dad?” I asked in bewilderment. “You know that is treason. Your loyalty has to be unconditionally to Eclipse Star and the Alpha. Although I’m still the Luna, you have no obligations toward me.”

Before I was done speaking, he shook his head.

“There is where you go wrong, my child. One of my main tasks is to make sure the Luna is content so she can have a positive influence on the women and pups,” he dictated. “The twist is that you are the Luna and also my daughter. But don’t worry, I’ll help you through this. The pack is better off with you than that love sick scum.”

Gratefully I braid my hands around his neck, his warmth strengthening me.

“Thank you, dad. In my dream, Selene made it clear that the solution’s close,” I confided in him. “I won’t hide anymore for the rogue. If she’s up to something, I’ll find proof for the Council to chase her out. I’m so sure that every time Vance’s attention drifts, she’s plotting. I feel it, her intent isn’t just lust. It’s calculation.”

“Be careful,” he warned, placing a firm hand on my shoulder. “A cornered rogue is dangerous, but one who believes she’s already won, she’s lethal.”

That night, the house felt like a pressure cooker.

Again the psychic backlash from the master suite throbbed in my skull, a sickening pulse. Once, I would have curled into a ball in agony. Tonight, I used it. Let the searing heat of betrayal made my resolve stronger. After they were done, I pulled myself from the bed, muscles protesting, and stood in the middle of my room until the world steadied.

This was the moment where Vance was lost in sleep, caught in the haze after their mating. That was my window.

I had to be surgical. Zebub now bore the Alpha’s mark, heightening her senses. She was no longer a mere scavenger.

I cracked the door open.

The hallway was silent, carrying the sterile scent of floor wax and the faint copper of arousal. Then I heard it, a floorboard creak near the stairs. Not Vance’s confident stride, but something lighter, quicker.

I froze, holding my breath until my lungs burned. A shadow slipped past the banister—Zebub.

I waited, counting the seconds until I heard the front door click shut. That final sound marked her departure. A soft shuffle on the porch, then the unmistakable wet snap of a shift.

She was leaving.

I slipped out, letting Sara lead. The shift was painfully slow, my body weakened from the siphoning, muscles trembling. But once my paws hit the ground, instinct took over. I caught her scent, salty, iron-rich, with a strange, synthetic tang that didn’t belong in these woods.

I tracked her through the underbrush, staying downwind. She was heading straight for the border. Her dark wolf form blurred against the trees.

‘She’s meeting someone,’ Sara growled in my mind, hackles raised. ‘Look at her pace. She’s not hunting. She’s traveling.’

We reached the neutral zone, the invisible line where Eclipse Star law ended.

She crossed without hesitation.

I pushed forward, desperate to see who was waiting beyond. My heartbeat hammered in my chest, I needed proof. If she was conspiring with outsiders on neutral ground, her claim to Luna would be finished.

But just as I stepped over the threshold, everything froze.

It wasn’t a tree I ran into even not a root. I collided headlong into a solid wall of muscle, warm, unyielding, like hitting a mountain.

I tumbled back, yelping wolfishly as I scrambled for footing on the damp moss. Looking up, I bared my teeth in a snarl, expecting Zebub’s scouts or some hired mercenary.

Instead, I stared into eyes that didn’t belong to any wolf in my pack.