C11

The text sent to Nia telling her to meet him that day was done completely by my design.

"Fine, be like that," Kellan grunted, standing up. "All pack business, no fun." He threw the scroll onto my desk. "Let's talk about work then. I tracked down some secret information on the old Devereux leader."

"The one you illegally slaughtered," I grumbled, reminding him what a giant mess he started. He always had to stir the pot.

Unknowingly, with his rash decision, Kellan set more things in motion than I was prepared to handle. I didn't want the wrong council elders digging too deep into Malik's secrets for a very good reason. I hated all those bastards too, but in order to protect Zuri and Nia, I fought our territory battles differently. Not execution style in the woods, but by slowly tearing down their alliances from the inside. Kind of like Jabari Rowe, the alpha who ran the entire northern valleys alongside Zane Holloway, the hidden son of the old rogue king. Zane hated his father just as much as his younger pack brothers did.

Now with Malik Devereux gone, his youngest son Darius Crowne became the leader of the Shadowfang clan. And if I knew Darius, he would also refuse to traffic wolves. But if the rogue alliance or the old council elders found out about Nia's true bloodline, she would instantly become a massive target for every bad wolf in the world. Nobody knew about her secret connection—which would make Nia the ultimate prize of the underworld—no one except me. She didn't even know it herself, but her name was already being whispered in the dark forest.

It was the main reason I came back from the northern borders earlier than planned. Malik's execution caused a total disaster and a massive shitstorm to deal with. We made it look like a rival wild pack did the killing, but that lie wouldn't last long. Darius Crowne, the only living son left, wasn't stupid, and it would be a huge mistake to underestimate his power. Besides, I wasn't sure if he knew about Nia yet, and I was completely unwilling to let her be an open target for his claws.

So there were multiple benefits to my early return—I put my final plans in motion to get Nia Whitmore back into my bed, keep her safe from the dangerous monsters of the wolf world, and lastly, I saved our latest land acquisition. My pack managers almost ruined the deal. Needless to say, I stripped them of their ranks immediately. Silvermoon Hollow would forever be mine, and my pack would be safe here.

"The old jackass deserved to die," Kellan muttered.

The Devereux and Adeyemi families had been locked in a bloody war for over forty years. The eldest Devereux son cost our father his life ten years ago. We made him pay for it with his head. But the tension remained deadly high. Our dominion grew and expanded; our recent takeover of key hunting grounds down south added massive fuel to the fire. My brother liked to spill blood. As I said, I preferred to squash my competitors by taking everything they owned.

But the Devereux clan kept trying to hunt outside their own borders, so I stayed a step ahead of them. I owned the valley, and it made it impossible for them to expand their dark network. They better watch their own borders; otherwise, I would end up owning their southern lands too.

"What exactly did you find?" I finally asked my brother. Clearly, my little brother would drag this out forever unless I made him spit it out right now.

"Apparently, there is a strong rumor that old man Malik had a hidden daughter."

I snapped my head up from my screen. "That can't be right," I told him, my heart stopping for a fraction of a second. How were the puzzle pieces already moving? "Unless you mean his known relatives."

"Actually, no. I'm talking about Malik Devereux. He has a twenty-six-year-old daughter," Kellan explained, leaning in. "She hasn't been part of his clan. Her mother kept her completely hidden in a soft pack, and he only recently learned about her existence. My sources tell me he found out about her five years ago."

"Name," I demanded, my voice turning lethal. I had to know what the Shadowfang clan knew. And exactly how much Kellan had uncovered. I didn't know what I would do yet, but it was always crucial to keep dangerous secrets in my pocket.

"Don't have a name yet, but my wolves are hunting it down in the archives."

"Kellan, no matter what happens, you do not make a single move or approach that female," I warned, letting my alpha aura fill the room. "Do you understand me?"

"Yeah, yeah." Kellan was sometimes way too impulsive and never thought about the consequences of his actions. Clearly! "I don't know why you don't just slaughter that entire family off the face of the earth. Especially after what they did to Father."

Our father had learned that Malik held vital information about the female he loved, and he walked straight into a deadly trap set by Malik's eldest son. My father made the fatal mistake of trusting a rival's word when they were actually just looking for a way to weaken the First Alpha Line. They desperately wanted to expand their borders so they could move captured wolves through our territory.

"And they paid for that debt with blood," I told him calmly. "If we slaughter all of them right now, another rogue family will just step up to fight for the crown. I'd rather keep the remaining Devereux wolves alive, knowing I have them completely under my control, than open the door for another power-hungry pack eager to take their spot. The Shadowfang clan can never compare to our strength. We own the lands above and the networks below. They just have scraps."

Not to mention Nia's hidden connection to them!

"Whatever. Guess that's why you wear the Moonborn Crown. I just want to rip their throats out." I shook my head at my brother. I loved him, but I wished he would think more about the strategy of winning a war rather than just being eager to kill. "I'm leaving the gossip scroll here for your enjoyment," he mocked, turning and striding out of the den.

The moment the heavy door shut, the Devereux clan and this entire bloody mess vanished from my mind. I reached for the scroll and searched out the section about Nia Whitmore. It wasn't hard to find because they dedicated a massive chunk of text to the couple.

Ex-couple, I added silently to myself.

I couldn't deny I was incredibly pleased with how my little plan turned out. The image of the two of them together at the lodge had grated on my last nerve. I still wanted to kill that warrior for ever putting his hands on her.

Pictures of Nia Whitmore and Callum Hayes filled several pages of the scroll, showing their last two years together. They were the main topic of the entire region, and I despised every single image.

She looked stunning—a painful, burning reminder of what I held in my arms and threw away. Nobody knew how much I deeply regretted the cruel words I spoke that morning five years ago. It made me the true, heartless bastard that people feared. I never cared about my cruel reputation, except when it came to her. I wanted her to see the good wolf inside me.

She tried, my mind mocked. And you tossed her to the wolves.

The fact was that she had seen the real me. The monster who crushed her heart was the ruthless alpha everyone feared. I never bothered with a conscience or regrets. Those were traits for weak wolves. But I hated the deep hurt I saw flash in her beautiful eyes that day. She didn't scream, cry, or demand a blood feud. She was completely unlike any female I had ever met before. She held her head high, carrying a soft grace that blew my mind.

Shoving those useless thoughts away, I focused on the scroll. In most of the photos, she avoided looking at the lens. There were only a few where the scout caught her full face.