Perhaps we should take this somewhere more private,Larissa suggested smoothly, though her tone made it clear this wasn’t really a suggestion.Council only.For now.
The coalphas’ pack council members relocated to the meeting hall, the same room where the fake Nadine had spun her lies just hours earlier.The irony wasn’t lost on Conall as he found himself defending the real woman to the same audience that had rejected her impostor.
Start from the beginning,Malcolm said once they were seated around the conference table.Everything.
So Conall told them.About tracking Nadine to the miner’s cabin, about the drugged darts, about waking up in the concrete cell.
He left out the mate bond, the protective instincts that had driven him to seek her out in the first place.Some truths were too dangerous to share.
Nadine remained silent through most of it, her expression carefully blank.But he could feel her tension through the bond—the way she cataloged every face, every reaction, looking for signs of guilt or deception.
And you escaped how, exactly?Anders asked, his analytical mind picking apart the story for inconsistencies.
Ambushed the guards,Nadine said quietly, speaking for the first time since they’d entered the room.Our captors were sloppy.
It was close enough to the truth.She didn’t mention the way they’d worked together with seamless coordination, the trust that had developed between them in those desperate moments.The way the mate bond had made them move like two parts of a single organism.
Interesting,Larissa mused.And these operatives—you have no idea who they were working for?
Not Chimera,Conall said.Different equipment, different methods.Corporate, maybe.Or private contractors.
Shifters?Malcolm asked.
Conall shook his head.Humans.
Someone with significant resources,Nadine added, her tone guarded.And specific intelligence about both of us.
The room fell silent as everyone processed the implications.An unknown enemy with the capability to track and capture pack members.The security breach that represented was staggering.
There’s something else,Nadine said suddenly, her gaze finding Malcolm’s.I need to discuss my father’s death.And my suspicions about infiltration within your pack.
Infiltration?Larissa asked, her eyebrows rising in disbelief.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.Hostile gazes fixed on Nadine from all directions, the pack’s protective instincts activated by the implied threat.
Careful.Malcolm’s voice carried the rumble of alpha displeasure.You’re making serious accusations.
I’m stating facts.She met his stare without flinching, and Conall found himself admiring her courage even as he worried for her safety.Gregory Torrance was murdered.The trail led back to Sunburst territory.Someone in this pack wanted him silenced.
That’s impossible,Larissa said sharply.We exiled Gregory and Hannah after their attempted coup.We don’t execute our own people.
Maybe you don’t.Nadine’s gaze swept the room, lingering on faces Conall had known his entire life.But someone does.Someone with access to Sunburst intelligence and resources.
Around the table, the council members shifted uncomfortably, the seeds of suspicion taking root.
Conall’s wolf paced restlessly beneath his skin, torn between loyalty to his pack and the growing certainty that Nadine was telling the truth.Not about him and Quinton being the killers—that wasn’t true.But about there being more to Gregory’s death than anyone had realized.
Do you have proof of these claims?Malcolm asked, his tone dangerously calm.
Nadine’s jaw tightened.Physical evidence from the mine where Gregory died.I treated it as a proper crime scene.
The silence stretched until Larissa leaned forward.What kind of evidence?
Fur samples.Scent markers.Gregory’s blood, mixed with blood that wasn’t Gregory’s.Nadine’s voice remained steady, professional, but Conall could feel the pain underneath through their developing connection—the clinical detachment she used to protect herself from the emotional weight of what she’d discovered.Signs of a struggle involving at least three wolves in shifted form.
Malcolm’s expression darkened.And you believe this implicates members of our pack?
The scent trails led back toward Sunburst territory.The fur samples…She hesitated, and Conall sensed her internal battle between the need for truth and the knowledge that her next words would be devastating.The fur samples match the Stewart twins’ scent and color.
