012 ~ The first secret ~

Sleep never came.

Selene lay awake long after the Mansion had fallen silent, staring at the carved ceiling above her bed because every time she closed her eyes, Ryker's voice returned.

"I never believed the story they sold us."

"I wasn't the only one."

She turned onto her side.

The moonlight spilling through the window painted pale lines across the room, but it did nothing to shut the storm inside her up

It was not the first time she'd been called a murderer or the first time she'd questioned her own memories.

But it was the first time... Someone had suggested the truth hadn't died five years ago.

Her fingers curled around the edge of the blanket as she whispered into the darkness, "If you're lying... I'll never forgive you."

The following afternoon, the Mansion came alive with preparations for another round of alliance discussions.

Servants moved faster than their legs could carry them through the halls, carrying ledgers and sealed correspondence. Council elders disappeared into meeting chambers with Victor and the visiting Alphas, their voices fading behind heavy doors.

No one noticed Selene or stopped her as she walked in the opposite direction towards Victor's private study.

She paused outside the door, it was locked of course. Victor trusted no one, not even his own household.

A bitter smile that didn't reach her eyes crossed her lips. Five years as his Luna had taught her many things including where he hid the spare key.

She reached beneath the stone ledge beside the doorway, feeling the cold metal that brushed against her fingertips.

"There you are."

The lock clicked open and she stepped inside, shutting the door quietly behind her.

The room smelled of ink and Victor-- Cedarwood and smoke.

Sunlight filtered through tall windows, falling across overflowing bookshelves and an enormous desk covered with official documents.

Everything was orderly just as Victor wanted it. At this point, she just had to be very careful so that he wouldn't know someone came in.

As Selene tiptoed across the floor, careful not to make a sound, the only thing on her mind was finding anything connected to the Blood Moon Massacre.

She opened the first drawer.

It was filled with tax records, the second with trade agreements. The third with military inventories and nothing else.

She kept searching, shelf after shelf. All she found were council minutes, land disputes, border reports.

Her heartbeat slowed, maybe Ryker had been playing games and she'd let one conversation awaken hope that should have stayed buried.

She let out a slow breath. "Stupid..." And turned toward the door then stopped.

Something wasn't right.

Her eyes shifted back to the bookshelf. One section had gathered noticeably less dust than the others which meant someone had touched it recently.

She stepped closer, running her fingers along the spines.

History, treaties, council law. Then... One book refused to move with the others.

She frowned, pulling harder. Instead of sliding free, it clicked, followed by a dull mechanical sound that echoed through the room.

Selene stepped back as a narrow compartment opened inside the bookshelf, hidden away.

A chill crawled beneath her skin as every instinct told her to step back.

Inside the compartment was a single leather folder, lying undisturbed, nothing else.

She stared at it as the thought of what Victor might be hiding there rang loud in her head.

With trembling fingers, she lifted the folder out and carried it to the desk.

The leather was worn with age and it had no title or seal.

Opening it, dozens of reports, council correspondence, and investigation records welcomed her.

Her breath got caught up in her lungs as she read the "Blood Moon Incident," on top of each page.

Her hands began turning pages faster to find witness interviews, patrol routes, autopsy summaries... None of it made sense.

She'd never seen any of them before. Why had they been hidden?

She swallowed hard and continued reading as questions piled upon each other in her mind.

Until— her eyes stopped on one name and her fingers stopped moving.

"No..."The whisper barely escaped her lips.

She leaned closer, certain she'd read it wrong. It was a witness Statement submitted by 'Gareth Hale'

The letters blurred before her eyes as she read again, "Gareth.' She knew Gareth. In fact, everyone in the eastern patrol had known Gareth.

It was hard not to know that loud, stubborn wolf who always laughed too hard at his own jokes.

He'd carved little wooden wolves whenever patrol became boring and promised to teach her one day.

The memory hit so suddenly she almost smiled. Then another memory followed and the smile cleared from her face.

There was Blood... So much blood.

His body was lying beneath the old oak tree and his eyes... They stared into nothing.

She had knelt beside him, pressed both hands against the wound in his chest screaming. "Stay with me!"

She could still hear the sound of her voice, "I'll get help!" Fresh like it happened just yesterday.

And Gareth... Even with Death's one hand on him, he tried to smile. "It's too... late..." And then... Nothing.

His hand had slipped from hers as she watched the light leave his eyes.

She'd cried until someone pulled her away, she had watched Gareth Hale die.

Her gaze dropped back to the report.

She had to remind herself to breathe. "No..."

She turned the page and there it was... His statement.

It was so detailed and precise, he claimed he'd seen Selene attack members of the patrol before fleeing the scene with every sentence stabbing deeper than the last.

"No..." Her head almost broke through her neck's grip. "You were dead..."

The room seemed to close in around her as she searched desperately for another explanation.

She clung to the hope that it was another Gareth or some terrible mistake, but the moment she saw his signature, she knew it just had to be him.

She knew that signature by heart, from the crooked "G" to the long stroke beneath his surname, and it could belong to no one else.

Unless...

Then she saw the date beneath the signature, and the world seemed to tilt as the paper drifted from her hands. "No..."

She grabbed it again, reading it once, twice, then a third time, but the numbers never changed.

it was dated three days after the massacre, three days after Gareth's death, three days after she'd held his lifeless body in her arms.

A violent shiver raced through her as her hands trembled so badly the page shook between her fingers.

"No..." she whispered, her voice cracking as she stumbled backward until the edge of the desk struck her legs.

The room spun as reality dawned upon her. Dead wolves didn't leave witness statements, sign official reports, or condemn the innocent.

Unless... It had never come from Gareth in the first place, but from someone pretending to be him.

Her ribs seemed to close around her lungs as the horrifying truth settled in: every official record, every council meeting, every accusation, and every judgment had begun with this impossible statement.

She searched the rest of the folder in a rush, uncovering missing pages, ignored witnesses, incomplete patrol logs, scratched-out names, altered dates, and mismatched ink.

With every page she turned, her breathing grew faster.

"This isn't an investigation..." The realization escaped in a broken whisper. "It's a script."

She realized then that every answer had been decided, every conclusion reached long before she ever had a chance to defend herself.

The folder slipped from her lap with the papers inside it scattered across the floor like fallen leaves.

Selene sank into the chair, her eyes burning not with tears but with rage as this impossible signature shattered the foundation of five years of humiliation, whispers, and a crime that had stolen everything from her.

A knock sounded outside the study and she froze.

"My Lord?" A servant voice broke through the air. "We're ready for the afternoon meeting."

As she realized Victor was coming back, her heart dropped into her belly

She dropped to her knees, gathering the scattered documents with shaking hands. As footsteps approached the door, she reached beneath the desk for the page, her fingers brushing its corner.

"Fuck..."

She snatched the page free, shoved the entire folder back into the hidden compartment, pressed the mechanism closed, and returned everything exactly as she'd found it.

The lock clicked into place just as Victor stepped through the study door, his gaze snapping to her at once.

And for one terrifying heartbeat... Neither of them spoke.