Chapter 26

Elara's POV

Soren brought the news to us just after breakfast, his expression caught somewhere between wary and confused, the kind of look that told me whatever he was about to say wasn't going to be simple.

"There's someone at the border asking to see Elara," he said.

"Alone, if she's willing. He says it's urgent, and he says he's not here on his father's business."

My stomach dropped before he even said the name, some old instinct already recognizing the shape of what was coming, and when Soren finally said it.

Ryker, I felt Kael go rigid beside me at the breakfast table, his jaw tightening in a way I recognized from the very first morning at the border weeks ago.

"Absolutely not," Kael said. "Not alone. Not after everything we've just learned about his father's involvement with Mathis."

"He might be here because of that involvement," I said carefully, though my own pulse was racing at the thought of standing in front of Ryker again, at the memory of the clearing still sharp enough to sting even now.

"Think about it, Kael. If Alpha Cross has been feeding information to Mathis for weeks, and Ryker just found out, that letter Vesna mentioned, it could have gone to Ryker by accident. He might know things we don't."

"Or it could be a trap," Kael said. "Designed to get you alone, away from anyone who could protect you, precisely when we're already dealing with one betrayal inside these walls."

"Then don't let it be alone," I said. "Come with me. Stand close enough to intervene if something feels wrong, but let me hear what he actually has to say.

If it's nothing, if it's just him trying to win back something he already lost, I'll know in the first minute, and we'll send him away without wasting any more time on it.

But if it's real, if he actually knows something that could help us against Mathis, we can't afford to turn that away out of pride."

Kael studied me for a long moment, something conflicted moving behind his eyes, before he finally nodded, slow and reluctant. "I'll be close. If anything about this feels wrong, we're done, and he doesn't get a second chance to ask for an audience."

We met Ryker in the same clearing near the border where Alpha Cross had confronted us weeks before, and the moment I saw him standing there, travel worn and clearly exhausted from what must have been a hard, fast ride.

Something strange settled in my chest, not the old ache I expected, but something quieter, almost like looking at a stranger who happened to wear a familiar face.

"Elara." His voice was rough, uncertain in a way I'd never heard from him during all the years we'd grown up together. "Thank you for agreeing to see me. I know I don't deserve it."

"You don't," I agreed, keeping my voice steady, Kael a careful, silent presence a few feet behind me. "But Soren said this was urgent, and I'm inclined to believe it's not about us. So say what you came to say."

Something flickered across his face, maybe disappointment that I hadn't softened more than that, though he recovered quickly, and when he spoke again, his words came out fast, like he'd been rehearsing them the entire ride and was afraid he'd lose his nerve if he slowed down.

"My father is working with someone inside Nightfall Hollow," he said. "An elder. I found a letter meant for him, about feeding information regarding your mother's arrival in Ashwood, about building a case to discredit any legal claim you might have within the King's court. I don't know everything they're planning, but I know it's meant to hurt you, and I couldn't just let that happen without telling you, whatever you think of me now."

Beside me, I felt Kael go very still, and I knew he was cataloging every detail, confirming what Vesna's letter had already suggested weeks before, though hearing it confirmed directly from Ryker's mouth carried a different weight entirely.

"The elder's name," Kael said, stepping forward for the first time. "Did the letter name him."

Ryker's eyes flicked to Kael, wary, clearly recalculating who exactly he was speaking to now that the Lycan King had made himself known, but he answered steadily enough. "Mathis. The letter was signed by someone named Mathis."

The confirmation settled heavy in the clearing, and I watched Kael's expression harden into something colder and more certain than I'd seen from him yet, the last thread of doubt about his old advisor's loyalty finally snapping clean.

"Why are you telling us this," I asked Ryker quietly. "You could have stayed silent. Let your father's plan play out without risking whatever standing you have left in your own pack."

"Because I already made the mistake of listening to him once," Ryker said, and there was something raw in his voice now, something that sounded almost like the boy I used to know before pride and pack politics had hardened him into someone else entirely. "I stood in that clearing and called you weak because he told me it was necessary, because I was too much of a coward to question him before it was too late to take it back. I'm not doing that again. Whatever's left between us, whatever you think of me, you deserve to know the truth instead of walking into a trap because I stayed quiet a second time."

I studied him for a long moment, searching for the manipulation Kael clearly still suspected, but found only exhaustion and something that looked genuinely like regret, worn into the lines of his face in a way that hadn't been there the last time I'd seen him.

"Thank you," I said finally. "For telling us. I mean that, Ryker, even after everything."

Something eased slightly in his expression, though the sadness underneath it didn't fully lift. "I don't expect anything from telling you this. I just needed you to know, before whatever they're planning gets further along than it already has."

He turned to leave, and I let him go, watching him disappear back into the trees toward Ashwood territory, and it wasn't until he was fully out of sight that Kael finally spoke again, his voice quiet but resolute.

"We have what we need now," he said. "Confirmation, from two separate sources, that Mathis is working against us, and now proof that his reach extends beyond this court into Ashwood pack itself." He turned to me, something fierce and protective settling into his expression. "It's time we stopped watching quietly, Elara, and brought this in front of the full council instead."