He was a double agent.Working for someone else while pretending loyalty to Vincent.Gathering intelligence on pack operations, leadership structures, security protocols.
Conall blinked.
He’d known Gregory all his life.
The man was vicious.Cruel.And utterly loyal to Vincent.
Right?
He tried to dampen his skepticism, push it down so it wouldn’t travel along their connection to Nadine.
Who was he working for?he finally asked.
I don’t know.He died before he could tell me.
It hit him then, sliding into him despite Nadine’s own attempt to hide it.Nadine had a desperate need to believe her father had been one of the good guys.The alternative was too devastating to consider.
Tell me about your father,he said gently.Not Gregory Torrance the enforcer.Your father.
He wasn’t my biological father,she admitted, the words coming out in a rush.My mother died when I was small.Car accident, nothing supernatural about it.She was human, worked as a teacher in a small mountain town in Colorado.
How’d you end up with Torrance, then?
Gregory found me in the foster system when I was seven.He said my mother had asked him to look after me if anything happened to her, but—She swallowed hard.I think that was a lie.I think he just saw a kid who needed protecting.
He adopted you?
Informally.Took me to live in the mountains, far from pack territories.He hired a human nanny to look after me, but he came to see me regularly.Taught me everything—hunting, fighting, survival skills.How to track, how to hide, how to read people’s intentions.Her voice grew stronger as she remembered.He was a good father.Strict but fair.He never let anyone hurt me.
Sounds like a good childhood, overall.
He never talked about his time with the Sunburst Pack,she continued.Said it was a part of his life he wanted to protect me from.But sometimes, late at night, I’d catch him making phone calls.Worried conversations about ‘developments’ and ‘protocols’ and ‘keeping the children safe.’
Children?
Pack cubs.Young shifters.He was protecting them somehow.Even after his exile from Sunburst, he was still working to keep young wolves safe from something.
Conall nodded, drawn into her narrative despite himself.From Chimera.
Maybe.Or from whoever’s behind the current operations.She leaned forward, urgency bleeding into her voice.Dad died trying to expose this network.He found something, learned something that made him a target.
And you think we killed him for it.
I found where he died,she whispered, the memory still fresh enough to make her nauseous.Blood everywhere.Signs of a struggle.Tracks leading back toward Sunburst territory.
But you never saw us there.
No, I never saw you.Just the tracks.Just the evidence that pointed to your pack.
What if the tracks were planted?Conall’s voice carried his growing conviction.What if someone wanted you to believe we were responsible?
But why?she asked, her voice barely audible.Why frame your pack?Why target me?
Because we’re all thorns in someone’s side.Conall’s certainty grew stronger.Your father was investigating corruption.You’re continuing his work.My pack is actively hunting Chimera assets and building alliances to counter their operations.
He knew his logic was sound.Terrifying but sound.
We’re all threats to the same organization,she said.