Chapter 9: What the Records Don't Say

I spent three days chasing Adrian's warning around in my head before I finally admitted I couldn't just wait for him to hand me the rest of it.

*Considerably worse than spread rumors. To someone else. Someone he wanted controlled, and couldn't fully control any other way.*

Someone. A name he wouldn't give me, a history he wouldn't explain, and every hour I sat with it, the word curdled a little more in my stomach. In my first life, I'd learned about Kael's true nature only after he'd already killed me by proxy. I wasn't doing that again, waiting patiently for the truth to arrive in its own time while the walls closed in around me.

So I went to the one place I knew kept records nobody bothered to hide, because nobody thought anyone would care enough to look.

The territorial archive sat three towns over, a dusty building staffed by a single elderly wolf named Corwin who'd catalogued pack disputes and land transfers for longer than I'd been alive. I told him I was researching Everly land history for my father. It wasn't entirely a lie. It also wasn't remotely the truth.

"Draven territory," Corwin said, adjusting his glasses when I asked. "Now that's a thick file. What exactly are you looking for, dear?"

"Anything unusual," I said. "Disputes, complaints, anything filed against the pack in the last decade."

He gave me a long look over his glasses, the kind that made me wonder exactly how much this quiet archivist actually knew about territory politics that never made it into official gossip. "Unusual," he repeated slowly. "I can pull the public filings. Some of it's sealed, mind you. Council business."

"I understand."

What he brought back was thinner than I expected, mostly land disputes and trade agreements, nothing that explained the cold weight in Adrian's voice when he'd warned me. I was halfway through a stack of trade documents, ready to admit defeat, when a name jumped out at me from a footnote in an old boundary dispute.

*Filed by: Thomas Ashworth, on behalf of ward Ivy Ashworth, regarding conduct of Alpha heir Kael Draven.*

My pulse spiked. "Corwin. This file. Is there more on it?"

He squinted at the page, expression shifting into something careful, guarded. "Ah. That one." He hesitated, a rare enough thing that it told me everything before he even spoke. "That's sealed, dear. Council business, like I said."

"Please." I didn't have to fake the urgency in my voice. "It's important. More important than I can fully explain right now."

Corwin studied me a long moment, something weighing behind his tired eyes, and finally sighed, the sound of a man who'd spent decades watching secrets rot quietly in filing cabinets and had grown tired of pretending that was justice. "I shouldn't do this."

"I know."

"You didn't hear it from me."

"Never."

He disappeared into the back room and returned several minutes later with a slim folder, worn at the edges, and set it in front of me without another word, retreating to his desk like he wanted no part of whatever I found inside it.

I opened it with hands that weren't quite steady.

*Ivy Ashworth. Ward of the Ashworth pack, age nineteen at time of filing. Complaint alleges coercion and manipulation by Alpha heir Kael Draven during a proposed courtship arrangement between the Ashworth and Draven territories. Complaint withdrawn eleven days after filing. Ms. Ashworth relocated shortly thereafter. Case closed without council action.*

Coercion. Manipulation. My stomach twisted, cold and sick, the words on the page conjuring images I didn't want but couldn't stop imagining. Below the summary, a single handwritten note in the margin, faded but legible.

*Girl was terrified when she came in. Terrified when she withdrew it too. Someone got to her.*

I sat back hard in my chair, the folder trembling slightly in my grip. This wasn't a rumor manufactured for political leverage. This was real, buried years deep, a young woman coerced and then silenced before the truth could ever surface properly.

*Someone he wanted controlled, and couldn't fully control any other way.*

"Corwin." My voice came out rougher than I intended. "Do you know what happened to her? Ivy Ashworth?"

He didn't look up from his desk. "No one's heard from her in years, dear. Not since she relocated." A pause, heavy with things he clearly wasn't willing to say outright. "Some people, once they disappear from these territories, they don't come back. Doesn't mean anything happened to them. Just means they wanted to stay gone."

*Or it means something happened to them and nobody ever bothered checking.*

I copied the details into my phone with shaking hands, careful not to leave any trace behind that would connect the search back to me, and thanked Corwin quietly on my way out, though the old wolf just gave me another long, searching look and said nothing more.

---

Damon Blackthorn found me before I found him, which should have unsettled me more than it did.

I was halfway back to my car in the archive's gravel lot when he fell into step beside me, easy and unhurried, dark hair windswept, a grin on his face that didn't quite match the sharpness in his eyes.

"You're a hard woman to track down," he said.

I startled, hand instinctively going to the folder tucked against my side. "Have you been following me?"

"Following's such an ugly word. I prefer 'keeping an eye out.'" His grin widened, though something more serious flickered underneath it. "My brother's worried about you. He doesn't show it well, I'll grant you, but trust me, it's there."

"Adrian sent you?"

"Adrian doesn't know I'm here, technically." Damon fell into step beside me as I reached my car, leaning casually against the door before I could open it, which was either annoying or endearing, I hadn't decided which yet. "But he's been distracted since the Gathering, and distracted isn't a word I usually get to use about my brother. So naturally, I got curious."

"Curious about what, exactly?"

"About you." He studied me with open, unapologetic interest, though there was nothing predatory in it, more like a puzzle he found genuinely entertaining. "What exactly did you say to him that night? He's been asking questions about Draven territory ever since, quiet questions, careful ones. That's not really his style unless something's bothering him."

I hesitated, weighing how much to share with a stranger, however charming, however apparently trustworthy his brother seemed. "I didn't say much of anything. He's the one who's been dropping warnings on me instead."

Damon's easy grin faded slightly, something more serious settling behind his eyes. "What kind of warnings?"

"The kind that mention Kael Draven has done considerably worse than spread rumors before." I held up the folder, just slightly, testing his reaction. "I think I might have just found out what he meant."

Damon's gaze sharpened on the folder, curiosity and concern warring behind his expression. "May I ask what's in that?"

"A complaint. Filed years ago. Withdrawn under pressure." I met his eyes, willing him to understand the weight of what I was saying without spelling out every detail in a parking lot where anyone could overhear. "A young woman. Coerced, according to the file. Then silenced. Then gone."

Something dark passed across Damon's usually playful expression, quick and cold, gone before I could fully catch it. "That tracks," he said quietly, "with things I've heard whispered but never confirmed."

"You've heard about her? About Ivy?"

"Not her, specifically. Not by name." He glanced around the lot, an old habit of caution I recognized immediately, the kind that came from growing up surrounded by threats. "But there are stories, old ones, about Draven territory. Women who got close to Kael and then simply weren't around anymore to talk about it. Nobody's ever proven anything. Nobody's ever really tried."

The cold, sick feeling in my stomach deepened into something closer to dread. "Why hasn't anyone tried?"

Damon's smile, when it returned, held none of its earlier ease. "Because Kael Draven is powerful, Luna, and powerful men rarely get investigated by people who value staying alive."

The bluntness of it landed hard, confirming every instinct that had been screaming at me since I first read the ledger in my first life, since I first saw the cold calculation behind his eyes at our wedding altar. This wasn't just a man who'd used me for territorial gain. This was something far darker, a pattern stretching back years, buried under silence and fear.

"I need to find her," I said. "Ivy. If she's still alive, if she's willing to talk—"

"That could be extremely dangerous," Damon cut in, his easy charm entirely gone now, replaced by something sharp and protective. "If Kael finds out you're digging into his past this way, Luna, you're not just embarrassing him publicly anymore. You're threatening something he's clearly willing to bury people to protect."

"I know the risk."

"Do you?" His eyes searched mine, something almost pleading underneath the intensity. "Because from where I'm standing, you've spent the last few weeks doing everything possible to paint a target on your own back. Rejecting his proposal, surviving his retaliation, and now digging up buried complaints against him. At some point, that adds up to more than bad luck."

*It's not luck. It's a debt I owe a version of myself who didn't survive long enough to ask these questions the first time.*

"I have my reasons," I said instead, quiet but resolute. "Reasons I can't fully explain yet. But I'm not stopping, Damon. Not now that I know what I know."

He studied me a long moment, something complicated shifting behind his sharp, assessing gaze, before he finally exhaled, some of the earlier warmth returning to his expression, though wearier now, more careful.

"Then you're not doing it alone," he said. "I'll talk to Adrian. Whatever this is, whatever you're really chasing, I think it's time my brother stopped being so careful about how much he tells you."

Relief and apprehension tangled together in my chest at once. "Why would he trust me with more, all of a sudden?"

Damon's grin returned, softer this time, genuine. "Because he hasn't looked at anyone the way he looks at you in longer than I can remember. And because, if I had to guess, whatever secret he's protecting so carefully involves exactly the kind of danger you've apparently decided to walk straight into anyway."

He pushed off my car door, stepping back to let me finally open it, though he paused once more before turning to leave.

"Be careful, Luna," he said, all the earlier playfulness gone from his voice entirely. "Truly careful. Whatever you're chasing, I have a feeling it's already noticed you're chasing it."

He disappeared around the corner of the building before I could respond, leaving me standing alone in the gravel lot with a folder full of buried secrets clutched against my chest and a cold certainty settling deep in my bones.

I wasn't imagining the danger closing in around me.

I was finally starting to see the actual shape of it.