Chapter 8: Buried Secrets

Zane's POV

It was as if time stopped. Alpha Thorne's face drained of color like water flowing from cracked stone. I had seen wolves face death before but this was different. This was a man watching his carefully constructed empire crumble. Dr. Lorett's words hung in the air like smoke, poisoning everything they touched. I'd heard whispers about Thorne's first mate disappearing years ago, but wolves whispered about many things. Most were lies. Some were worse than lies—they were truths nobody wanted to face.

Dr. Lorett climbed down from the roof with steady hands, her rifle never wavering from Thorne's chest. She moved like someone who'd waited years for this moment, practiced it in her mind until every step was muscle memory. The battlefield had become a courtroom, and she was the only witness who mattered.

"Her name was Elena," Dr. Lorett said, her voice carrying to every wolf present. "Beautiful, intelligent, kind. She discovered you were embezzling pack funds, Marcus. Selling pack territory to human developers for personal profit." She paused, letting the accusation sink in. "She threatened to expose you to the Council. Three days later, she was dead. Killed in a 'rogue attack' that somehow happened inside pack borders, inside your own home."

Thorne's warriors shifted uneasily. I watched their faces change, watched doubt creep in like frost. A mate-killer was the worst kind of wolf—worse than rogues, worse than traitors. We might be animals, but we had codes. Lines we didn't cross.

"I examined her body," Dr. Lorett continued. "The wounds were wrong. Too precise. Too calculated. Rogues kill in frenzy—these wounds were surgical. And there was this." She pulled something from her pocket—a photograph, yellowed with age. "Bruises on her throat in the exact shape of your hands, Marcus. From where you choked her before staging the attack."

Gasps rippled through the crowd. Several of Thorne's warriors backed away from him, their eyes wide with horror. This wasn't pack politics anymore. This was murder.

"Lies," Thorne spat, but his voice shook. "She has no proof."

"I have the original autopsy report. The one you paid me to falsify." Dr. Lorett's smile was cold. "You threatened my daughter, Marcus. Said you'd make sure she never found her mate if I didn't cooperate. So I rewrote the report and hid the original." She looked at the gathered wolves. "I've been waiting twenty-three years for enough witnesses to make my confession matter."

"Why now?" I asked, though I thought I knew.

"Because I'm dying. Cancer. Six months, maybe less." Her laugh was bitter. "And I'll be damned if I die with his sins on my conscience."

Several of Thorne's warriors shifted back to human form, naked and vulnerable but refusing to fight anymore. A mate-killer didn't deserve loyalty. Didn't deserve a pack.

"Stand down," one of them said, a grizzled older wolf I recognized as Thorne's head warrior. "I won't fight for a murderer."

"You'll fight because I command it!" Thorne roared, his Alpha aura pulsing outward.

But something strange happened. The power faltered, flickered like a dying light. I'd seen it before—when wolves lost faith in their Alpha, the supernatural bonds that gave him authority began to fray. An Alpha's power came from his pack's belief in him. Without that, he was just another wolf.

More warriors dropped their fighting stances. Some actually stepped toward our side, their choices clear on their faces.

Jade pushed through the crowd, her face twisted with desperate denial. "It's all lies! Dr. Lorett is old and confused! My Alpha would never—"

"I saw the autopsy photos, Jade," Dalton's father said quietly. His voice carried weight—former Beta, respected warrior. "Years ago, when I first became Beta. Marcus showed them to me as a warning. 'This is what happens to wolves who betray me,' he said. I thought he meant rogues had killed her for helping him. I never imagined..." He trailed off, looking sick.

Tehila stood frozen, watching the man who had judged her so harshly reveal something far worse. I saw the realization dawn in her eyes. Thorne had called her a bond disruption, her public accusation was a threat to pack order. But his order was built on murder and lies.

"All of it," she whispered. "Everything you said about honor and duty and pack law. All of it was just to protect your own crimes."

Thorne's eyes found hers, and I saw pure hatred there. He had been backed into a corner, his secrets had been exposed, and now his power was crumbling. A cornered wolf was the most dangerous kind.

I saw him move before anyone else did. Not toward Dr. Lorett with her rifle. Not toward his retreating warriors but to Tehila.

If he was going down, he would take her with him.

I stopped him mid-lunge, our bodies colliding with bone-crushing force. We hit the ground and rolled but the rage I felt didn’t move me. He shifted beneath me, his wolf massive and desperate. I shifted too, letting my larger form dominate.

We tore into each other with serious intensity. This wasn't a dominance fight or a territory dispute. This was primal, final. One of us would walk away and the other wouldn't.

His teeth found my shoulder, ripping deep. Pain exploded through me, but I used the momentum to throw him sideways. We crashed through the safe house wall, wood splintering around us. Wolves scattered as we rolled into the yard, dirt and our blood mixing.

Thorne fought with the madness of a wolf who had lost everything, well he has. No technique, no strategy just pure, desperate violence. But desperation made you sloppy. I was stronger, faster, and I wasn't clouded by panic.

I caught his throat in my jaws and drove him into the ground. My claws pinned his shoulders, my teeth pressed against his jugular. One bite and it would be over.

He shifted back to human beneath me, gasping. I kept my wolf form, my teeth still at his throat.

"Do it," he wheezed. "Just end it."

Every instinct screamed at me to kill him. He had murdered his mate, corrupted his pack. Nearly killed Tehila. The world would be better without him.

But something in his eyes stopped me. Not fear. Something worse.

Relief.

He wanted to die, he wanted it to end before more secrets spilled out.

"What are you hiding?" I growled, my voice distorted by my wolf form.

"Nothing," he said too quickly.

I pressed harder, drawing blood. "Lie again."

His laugh was broken glass. "Kill me and you'll never know about the breeding program."

Everything went cold.

"What breeding program?" I demanded.

"The one that's been tracking bloodlines for decades." His smile was terrible. "You think your brother's attack was random? You think Tehila's bond with the Beta's son was a coincidence?" He coughed, blood flecking his lips. "They're coming for her bloodline next."

"Who is 'they'?"

"Kill me and find out. Or let me live and I'll tell you everything." His eyes gleamed with desperate cunning. "But choose fast, Rogue King. Because they're already here."