Chapter 9

Three Years of Regret

Two Weeks After Grace's Banishment

Jace's POV

I found Kyle behind the pack house, scrubbing the stone steps with a fervor that bordered on obsessive. He'd been doing menial labor non-stop since that night, as if he could wash away his guilt along with the dirt.

"Kyle," I called out, my voice rougher than I intended.

He flinched, nearly dropping his brush. "A-Alpha Jace. I was just cleaning the—"

"Stop." The word came out as a command, and Kyle immediately froze. "I need to ask you something, and I want the truth. Not the story Amber coached you to tell. The truth."

Kyle's face went white as fresh snow. "I don't know what you—"

"Did Grace ask you to drug her that night?"

The question hung in the air between us like a loaded weapon. Kyle's hands shook as he gripped the brush, and I could smell the terror rolling off him in waves.

"Please," he whispered. "She said if I told anyone, she'd make sure I was cast out. Omegas don't survive alone. You know that."

Something cold settled in my stomach. "She who, Kyle?"

"I can't. I can't tell you. She'll know, and then—"

"I'm your Alpha," I said, putting every ounce of authority I possessed into my voice. "And I'm ordering you to tell me the truth. Now."

Kyle crumpled like a house of cards, tears streaming down his face. "Amber," he sobbed. "It was Amber. She gave me the drug and told me to put it in Grace's drink. She said it would just make her relaxed, but then when Grace got sick, Amber said I had to lie or she'd blame everything on me."

The world tilted on its axis. "What exactly did Amber tell you to say?"

"That Grace asked for the drug because she wanted to... to seduce me. That she came on to me after she drank it. But it wasn't true!" Kyle looked up at me with desperate eyes. "Grace never touched me. I helped her to the bedroom because she was falling down, but that's all. I swear on my life, that's all that happened."

My wolf, silent for weeks since the rejection, let out a howl of anguish that echoed through my very soul. Grace had been innocent. Completely, utterly innocent. And I had destroyed her for a lie.

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.

"Because I'm nobody," Kyle said brokenly. "Who would believe an omega over Amber? Over the future Luna? I thought... I thought maybe it would just blow over, but then you rejected her, and she ran, and now..." He dissolved into fresh sobs.

I left Kyle there on the steps and walked to my father's office like a man heading to his own execution. Each step felt like it took an eternity, and by the time I reached his door, my hands were shaking.

"Come in," Dad called before I could knock.

He was sitting behind his desk, reading through what looked like patrol reports. When he looked up and saw my face, his expression immediately shifted to concern.

"Jace? What's wrong?"

"I need to tell you something," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "About Grace. About what really happened that night."

Alpha Storm's POV

By the time Jace finished telling me what Kyle had revealed, I was gripping the edge of my desk so hard the wood was creaking under the pressure. The rage building in my chest was unlike anything I'd felt since the rogue attack that had killed Grace's parents.

"Let me make sure I understand this correctly," I said, my voice deadly quiet. "Amber orchestrated the entire thing. She drugged Grace, manipulated Kyle into lying, and you rejected your innocent mate based on fabricated evidence."

Jace couldn't meet my eyes. "Yes."

"And now Grace—a girl who just lost her parents, who was already traumatized and vulnerable—is out there alone in the wilderness because of this conspiracy."

"Yes."

I stood up slowly, every movement controlled to keep from shifting and tearing my own son's throat out. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"I know I made a mistake—"

"A mistake?" The roar that came out of my throat rattled the windows. "You didn't make a mistake, Jace. You committed an atrocity. You rejected an innocent girl based on lies, cast her out to die, and for what? To protect your precious reputation?"

Jace flinched as if I'd struck him. "I was angry. I wasn't thinking clearly—"

"You weren't thinking at all!" I slammed my fist down on the desk, sending papers scattering. "That girl was your mate. Your responsibility. And you threw her away like garbage."

"I want to fix this," Jace said desperately. "I'll send out trackers. I'll find her and bring her back. I'll explain everything—"

"You'll do no such thing." The command in my voice stopped him cold. "You've done enough damage. I'll handle this myself."

One Week Later

Alpha Storm's POV

Connor returned from the search with grim news. "We found her trail," he reported, standing in my office with mud still caked on his boots. "Followed it for three days northeast toward the mountain territories. But then we lost it completely."

"How do you lose a trail completely?" I demanded.

"She crossed into Silver Moon territory," Connor said carefully. "Marcus Silver's pack. Their border patrols would have picked up any intruders immediately."

I sat back in my chair, processing this information. Marcus Silver—Grace's grandfather. The Alpha who had cut ties with his daughter when she mated outside his pack. If Grace had made it to him...

"Did you make contact with Silver Moon?" I asked.

Connor shook his head. "Marcus Silver doesn't take kindly to unannounced visitors, especially from neighboring packs. His guards turned us away at the border without explanation."

Which could mean anything. Grace might have been turned away as well, left to wander deeper into dangerous territory. Or Marcus might have taken her in, keeping her presence secret for reasons of his own.

"Keep trying," I ordered. "I need to know what happened to her."

Three Years Later

Jace's POV

I stood at the edge of the training field, watching the latest group of recruits run through combat drills. Three years had passed since Grace's banishment, and the pack had settled into a new normal. A normal that felt wrong in every possible way.

The rank games had been postponed indefinitely after Grace's departure. Dad claimed it was due to "administrative complications," but I knew the real reason. The games were meant to establish hierarchy among unmated wolves, and with Grace gone, there was no point. She would have been eighteen by now, would have participated and probably been ranked at the bottom due to her lack of training.

Instead, she was out there somewhere—if she was still alive—and it was my fault.

"Still brooding?" Mia's voice cut through my dark thoughts.

I turned to find my sister approaching, her expression a mixture of concern and frustration that had become all too familiar over the past three years.

"I'm not brooding," I said. "I'm training."

"You're destroying yourself," she corrected. "When's the last time you slept? Ate a full meal? Had a conversation that wasn't about pack business?"

I didn't answer because we both knew the truth. I'd thrown myself into training and pack duties with an obsession that bordered on madness. Anything to avoid thinking about the mate I'd rejected, the girl I'd sent to her death over a lie.

"Dad's been getting inquiries," Mia continued. "Alphas from other packs wanting to arrange matings for you. You can't avoid this forever, Jace."

"I'm not avoiding anything," I lied. "I'm just not ready."

"You're twenty-one years old and the heir to this pack. When exactly will you be ready?"

*When I find her,* I thought but didn't say. *When I can make things right.*

But after three years of dead ends and false leads, even I was starting to accept that Grace was probably gone forever. Dead in some distant forest, or absorbed into a pack so far away that I'd never find her.

"The Silver Moon pack is hosting a gathering next month," Mia said carefully. "A summit for all the mountain territory Alphas. Dad's thinking of attending."

My head snapped up. "Silver Moon?"

"Yes. Apparently Marcus Silver is finally ready to start building alliances again after years of isolation." Mia studied my face. "Why? Does that mean something to you?"

It meant everything. Silver Moon was where Grace's trail had gone cold three years ago. If there was even a chance she was there...

"I'm going with him," I said.

"Jace—"

"I'm going, Mia. And I'm going to find out what happened to Grace, one way or another."

Even if it killed me. Even if she hated me. Even if it was too late to fix what I'd broken.

I had to know.

Present Day

Alpha Storm's POV

I watched my son pace the length of my office like a caged wolf, and my heart ached for him. Three years of guilt and regret had carved deep lines into his face, aging him beyond his years. He'd refused every potential mate that had been suggested, thrown himself into training until he was one of the strongest Alphas in the region, but none of it had brought him peace.

"The summit is in two weeks," I said quietly. "Marcus Silver will be there, along with every other Alpha in the mountain territories."

"I know," Jace said, his voice hoarse. "I have to go, Dad. I have to know what happened to her."

"And if she's there? If she's alive and happy without you? What then?"

Jace stopped pacing and looked at me with eyes that held three years of pain. "Then I'll leave her alone. But if she's not... if something happened to her because of what I did..."

He didn't finish the sentence, but he didn't need to. We both knew that losing Grace—really, truly losing her—might be the thing that finally broke him completely.

"We'll go," I said finally. "Both of us. But Jace?"

"Yes?"

"If we find her, if she's alive, you follow her lead. You don't get to decide what's best for her anymore. That right was forfeited the moment you spoke those rejection words."

He nodded, and for the first time in three years, I saw something that might have been hope flicker in his eyes.

Hope that terrified me, because I wasn't sure either of us was prepared for what we might find at Silver Moon.