CHAPTER 7

ETHAN'S POV

The camera sits on my desk like an accusation, small and black and absolutely not supposed to be in my private quarters. I stare at it and try to make sense of what it means, who would plant it, why they would risk discovery. Military-grade surveillance in an Alpha's bedroom is not just bold, it is suicidal if caught. Whoever did this either has massive confidence in their ability to avoid detection or they do not care about consequences.

Neither option is comforting.

Lucas knocks once and enters without waiting for permission, the way he has since we were teenagers and formality seemed stupid between best friends. He looks alert despite the early hour, already dressed for the day in tactical pants and a tight black shirt that probably has at least three concealed weapons. My Beta takes security seriously, which is one of the many reasons I trust him with my life.

"You said it was urgent," he says, closing the door behind him. His eyes land on the camera and his expression shifts to something sharp and focused. "Where did you find that?"

"My bedroom. Hidden in the corner where the ceiling meets the wall, pointed at my bed." I lean back in my chair and watch Lucas pick up the camera, turning it over in his hands with the careful attention of someone who knows what he is looking at. "Someone has been watching me. Watching us."

"Us meaning you and the Muani girl." It is not a question. Lucas knows about the mate bond because he was in the room when it snapped into place, watched me fight against every instinct I had while Kaye stood there looking terrified. We have not talked about it since because what is there to say? Fate decided to tie me to the daughter of the man who destroyed my pack. The universe has a sick sense of humor.

"Yes."

Lucas examines the camera more closely, his fingers finding seams and panels I did not notice. He pops something open on the side and peers at the internal components, his frown deepening. "This is not standard pack surveillance. This is professional grade, the kind of equipment that costs more than most wolves make in a year."

"Can you trace it? Figure out who planted it?"

"Maybe." He sets it down carefully. "But Ethan, this is Veilkeeper technology."

The bottom drops out of my stomach. "What?"

"Veilkeepers. The organization that monitors supernatural threats and hunts down rogue operatives who develop weapons or conduct illegal experiments." Lucas meets my eyes and I see concern there, real concern, which is rare for him. "They use this exact model for surveillance operations. I have seen it before when they were investigating that pack in Oregon three years ago, the one experimenting with forced bonds."

Veilkeepers. I know the name, every Alpha does. They operate in the shadows of the supernatural world, supposedly keeping everyone safe from threats that would expose us to humans or destroy us from within. Most packs view them as a necessary evil, well-funded and highly trained but also unaccountable and sometimes brutal in their methods. They answer to no Council, follow no pack law, and if they decide you are a threat they eliminate you with extreme efficiency.

"Why would Veilkeepers be surveilling my pack?" I hear myself ask. "We are not doing anything illegal. We are not experimenting on wolves or developing weapons or—"

"No, but you are harboring the daughter of Kieran Muani." Lucas sets the camera down and crosses his arms. "Think about it. The Moonstone Alpha was accused of orchestrating a massacre. His daughter has been running for six years with a warrant from the Council. Then she shows up here, in your territory, and you do not immediately execute her or turn her over to Council authority. From the Veilkeepers' perspective, that might look suspicious."

"So they are what, making sure she is actually imprisoned? Confirming I am not secretly working with her?"

"Or they are investigating whether there is more to the story than the official version." Lucas picks up the camera again, turning it over thoughtfully. "Six years ago both Moonstone and Blackwater burned the same night. That is not normal pack conflict. That is coordinated. Veilkeepers might suspect something bigger was happening and they are using Kaye as a way to investigate."

It makes sense in a horrible way. If the unofficial story is true, if both packs died from a plague instead of fire, the Veilkeepers would definitely be interested. That is exactly the kind of supernatural threat they exist to stop. And if they think Kaye knows something about who created the plague or why it was deployed, they would want to watch her closely.

"Can you trace where the feed is being transmitted?" I ask.

"I can try, but Veilkeeper encryption is notoriously difficult to crack. It will take time." Lucas pockets the camera. "In the meantime, you need to decide what you are doing with Kaye. The pack is already unstable about her being here. When they find out someone tried to kill her and you saved her, that you brought her to your private quarters and kept her there overnight—"

"I know." I cut him off because I do not need him to spell out how bad this looks. The mate bond is not a secret anymore, not after I carried Kaye through the packhouse in front of dozens of wolves. They saw their Alpha holding the Muani girl like she mattered, like she was someone worth protecting instead of someone who deserved to suffer. "I will move her back to the basement. It will be safer for everyone."

"Will it be safer for her?"

I look at Lucas sharply. "What are you implying?"

"I am not implying anything. I am asking a direct question. Someone in this pack tried to kill your mate. That person is still here, still walking around, still a threat. Moving Kaye back to the basement, away from your protection, gives them another opportunity." He holds up a hand before I can respond. "I am not saying you should claim her or complete the bond or any of that. But you need to acknowledge the reality that whoever is watching you clearly wants to see what you will do when she is in danger. You saved her once. What happens when they test you again?"

My wolf snarls at the implication that anyone would get a second chance to hurt our mate. I push him down but it is getting harder to maintain control, harder to separate my own feelings from his instincts. The bond has been pulling at me constantly since I carried Kaye out of the freezer, my wolf insisting we stay close to her, protect her, make sure she is healing properly.

Touching her made it worse. I felt it the moment I picked her up, the bond flaring stronger, settling into something that felt almost comfortable despite the circumstances. My wolf recognized the rightness of holding our mate even if I was furious about the timing and the reason and the fact that she is the one person in the world I should not be tied to.

"I will handle it," I say, which is not an answer and we both know it.

Lucas nods slowly. "Just, be careful, Ethan. Whoever is behind this, whether it is Veilkeepers or someone else, they are playing a long game. Do not let them manipulate you into doing something you will regret."

After he leaves I sit at my desk and stare at nothing for five minutes, trying to organize my thoughts into something that makes sense. Someone planted a camera in my bedroom. Someone tried to kill Kaye. Someone is watching to see how I react to my mate being in danger. And now there is a possibility that the fires six years ago were not what I thought they were, that my parents did not die in a territorial attack but in a calculated plague deployment by someone who is still out there.

The name Tulip sits in my mind like a splinter. Kaye's father told her to remember it, to find someone who could explain what it meant. That suggests Kieran Muani knew he was in danger, knew something bad was coming, and tried to give his daughter a way to find the truth.

Maybe I was wrong about him. Maybe he did not order the attack on Blackwater. Maybe he was a victim too, just one who made terrible choices trying to protect what he loved.

I do not want to consider that possibility because it means I have spent six years hating the wrong person, blaming a dead man for crimes he did not commit. It means everything I built my pack on, every decision I made, was founded on a lie.

But I cannot ignore the evidence anymore. The camera, the plague theory, Kaye's father's warning. Something larger is happening here and I need to figure out what before more wolves die.

I find Kaye still in the guest room, sitting on the edge of the bed and staring at her bandaged wrists. She looks up when I enter and I see resignation in her expression, like she knows what I am about to say and has already accepted it.

"You are moving back to the basement," I tell her.

"I figured." Her voice is flat, emotionless. "The pack did not like seeing me in a real room."

"It is not about what the pack likes. It is about—"

"Safety. I know. You said that already." She stands slowly, testing her legs. "Can I at least eat something before you lock me back up? I have not had food in four days."

Four days. She has not eaten in four days because Miriam was withholding meals as additional punishment and I did not notice or did not care enough to stop it. The shame of that sits heavy in my chest.

"You will eat three meals a day from now on," I hear myself say. "And you will not be working in the kitchen anymore. I will find other tasks that do not involve wolves who want you dead."

Kaye looks at me like she is trying to figure out if I am being serious or cruel. "Why? What changed?"

"Nothing changed. I am just, making adjustments to ensure my prisoner does not die before I figure out what to do with her." It sounds weak even to my own ears. The truth is I cannot stand the thought of her being hurt again, of feeling her pain through the bond and knowing I allowed it to happen. But I cannot tell her that because it sounds too much like I care and I cannot care about the daughter of Kieran Muani.

Even if she is my mate.

Even if my wolf howls every time she is out of my sight.

I escort Kaye back to the basement personally, hyperaware of every wolf we pass, watching for threats or suspicious behavior. Most pack members avert their eyes when they see us together, uncomfortable with the dynamic but not willing to challenge their Alpha openly. A few stare with barely concealed hostility. I make note of who they are.

The basement feels colder than I remember, darker. Kaye walks to her room without prompting and I follow, checking the space for anything that might be dangerous or uncomfortable. The mattress is terrible, the single blanket inadequate. I make a mental note to have better bedding brought down.

"Thank you," Kaye says quietly. "For saving me, I mean. You did not have to."

"Yes I did." The words come out harsher than I intend. "You are my mate. My wolf would not have let you die even if I wanted to."

"Right. The bond." She sits on the bed and looks at her hands. "Must be frustrating, being tied to someone you hate."

"I do not hate you." The words surprise us both. "I hate what your father did. I hate that you are connected to the worst thing that ever happened to my pack. But I do not, I do not hate you specifically."

Kaye looks up and for a moment we just stare at each other, the mate bond humming between us, pulling in a way that makes me want to cross the room and touch her again just to see if it feels the same as it did in the freezer. I do not, because that would be stupid and dangerous and exactly what whoever is watching probably wants.

"I will send food down in an hour," I say instead. "And Lucas is working on tracing the camera. If we figure out who planted it, we will deal with them."

"Okay."

I turn to leave and I am almost to the hallway when Kaye speaks again.

"Ethan?"

I stop but do not turn around. "What?"

"Your Beta. Lucas. Does he, has he always smelled like that?"

Now I do turn. "What do you mean?"

"His scent. It is wrong somehow. Not bad wrong, just, off. Like it does not quite match the rest of him." She is frowning, clearly trying to figure out how to explain something she does not fully understand herself. "Maybe it is nothing. Maybe my wolf is just paranoid because I have not shifted in so long. But it felt important enough to mention."

I want to dismiss it, to say she is imagining things because she is traumatized and exhausted and not thinking clearly. But I have learned to trust my instincts and right now my instincts are screaming that I should pay attention to what she is saying.

Lucas has been my best friend since we were eight years old. He survived the fire with me, helped me rebuild, stood by my side through every impossible decision I had to make. If there is one person in this world I trust absolutely, it is him.

But what if I am wrong?

What if the person watching me is not some random pack member or external threat?

What if it is someone I trust completely?

I walk back to the basement entrance and I am about to head upstairs when I notice movement in the hallway. Lucas stands there, twenty feet away, watching me with an expression I cannot read. He is too far for normal wolves to overhear conversations from Kaye's room but not too far for an Alpha or Beta with enhanced hearing.

How long has he been standing there?

How much did he hear?

Lucas sees me notice him and his expression shifts into something friendly and familiar, the same easy smile he has worn since we were kids. "Everything okay? You look tense."

"Fine," I say, but I am studying him now, really looking at him, trying to see what Kaye saw. His scent is normal, pine and earth and wolf. His posture is relaxed but alert. Nothing seems wrong.

But Kaye's words echo in my mind: wrong somehow, like it does not quite match the rest of him.

"I need to handle some things," I tell Lucas. "Can you make sure Kaye gets food in the next hour?"

"Of course." He does not move from where he is standing. "You know you can trust me, right? Whatever is happening, we will figure it out together. Like we always do."

"I know," I say, and I want it to be true.

I want it to be true so badly.

But as I walk past him toward the stairs, I cannot shake the feeling that something fundamental has shifted, that I am missing something crucial, and that the person I trust most in the world might be the last person I should trust at all.