A painting of Vincent Foley, along with the shirt the former alpha wore in it displayed like a trophy.Photographs from Vincent’s reign.Training manuals for interrogation techniques.
This isn’t storage,she breathed.This is a shrine.
Conall examined documents.Asset placement reports.Behavioral modification protocols.This goes back decades.
The folder markedOmicron Protocolmade her hands shake.Inside were detailed plans for simultaneous activation of neural interfaces across dozens of packs.
Gregory found this information too,she said.He discovered Chimera’s endgame.
The final piece came in a handwritten note, Gregory’s script familiar but shaky:
If you’re reading this, I’m probably dead.
You should know Chimera isn’t simply infiltrating packs—they’re planning simultaneous activation of all assets.They want control over shifters, but first they need to get rid of all of us who know about them.
I’ve been playing both sides for years.Let Chimera think I was their asset while building my own network.But the new Sunburst leadership threatens to expose my operations before I can execute my plans.
They must be eliminated.All of them.
My daughter will be the perfect weapon—her skills, her motivation, her need for justice.By now, the Stewart twins should be dead by your hand.Good.Continue the work.Take out the rest of the leadership—Malcolm, Larissa, Anders.They’re all threats to everything I’ve built.
The rot goes deeper than you think.Don’t trust anyone who knew about Vincent’s special medical programs.
Sometimes you have to work with monsters to destroy them.
But which monsters serve which masters?
Even I’m not always certain anymore.
—G
Nadine sank into a folding chair, the note trembling in her hands.
He was planning to use me,she said, her voice hollow.All of it—sending me after you and Quinton, making me believe you’re the ones who killed him.He expected me to have murdered you both by now and then continue killing the rest of your leadership.
She paused, a terrible thought forming.What if he killed himself?What if Gregory orchestrated his own death to make sure I’d have the motivation to hunt you down?
Conall knelt beside her chair, his hand covering hers.You didn’t know.How could you have known?
I should have questioned why the evidence pointed so specifically at you two.Why it was all so convenient.She stared up at him, pain and confusion warring in her chest.The blood trail, the scents at the scene—what if he arranged it all?Set up his own murder to look like you were responsible?
That’s ...Conall blinked and paused, as if struggling with the implications.That’s an incredibly elaborate setup.
But it would explain everything.Nadine’s voice grew stronger as the pieces clicked into place.He needed me angry enough, motivated enough to become his weapon.What better way than making me believe the people I was supposed to kill had murdered my father?
It has a certain kind of twisted logic,Conall agreed.Though I don’t get why he’d kill himself to get you to come after us rather than simply trying to take us on himself.
Nadine rubbed a hand across her eyes.You’re right.And there’s more I still don’t understand—was he working for Chimera or against them?He says he was playing both sides, but for what purpose?
The note makes it sound like he had his own agenda,Conall said.Using Chimera’s resources while pursuing his own goals.
But what goals?And why eliminate your leadership if he was trying to fight Chimera?Nadine shook her head.None of it makes sense.He says not to trust anyone who knew about Vincent’s programs, but he was Vincent’s enforcer.
Maybe that’s exactly why he knew not to trust Vincent.Our last alpha wasn’t exactly a good guy.
Or maybe he was compromised by Vincent.Frustration threaded through Nadine’s tone, and she blew out a harsh breath.He says he doesn’t even know which monsters serve which masters anymore.How are we supposed to figure out his true loyalties if he couldn’t?
At least now we know you were hunting the wrong people,Conall said.Whatever Gregory was planning, whether he staged his own death or someone else killed him, it had nothing to do with us actually being his murderers.
