"It makes no sense," Kaleb muttered, his brows drawing into a tight, frustrated knot as his gaze locked onto the fabric in his hands.

The wind whipped through the forest, but he stood entirely rigid, staring at the material as if he could force it to change color. "This has to be a mistake. A stray piece from a border runner. Anything else."

"With all due respect, Alpha, this does not look like a mistake," Daniel countered, his voice low and tight with a warrior’s pragmatism. He stepped into Kaleb’s line of sight, forcing his Alpha to look up. "On the exact same night an intruder breaches our inner vault, we find a piece of a BloodVeil uniform snagged on our border briars? The timeline fits too perfectly."

Kaleb’s head snapped up, his golden eyes flashing with a dangerous, unstable heat. "Do you even know what you are suggesting, Daniel?" he snarled, though his fingers tightened around the cloth, crushing it into his palm. "No. There has to be another explanation."

"Well, from where I’m standing, there is only one logical conclusion," Daniel said, refusing to back down, the leaves rustling around them. "And we cannot afford to take chances. We aren’t talking about a stolen winter ration, Alpha. We are talking about our master war strategies, the literal blueprints keeping this pack safe."

A frustrated groan tore from Kaleb’s throat, his shoulders sagging beneath the weight of the realization. He exhaled a ragged breath and looked up, his gaze darting past the treeline, fixing directly toward the distant, jagged mountains of the BloodVeil territory.

"My uncle has always looked at Ironfang land with hunger," Kaleb murmured, his voice dropping to a venomous whisper. "Adam has wanted to extend his borders for a decade. The war plans he stole tonight might just be the first step toward an invasion."

Daniel nodded, his hand instinctively dropping to the hilt of the blade at his thigh. "What do you need me to do, Alpha?"

Kaleb’s jaw set, his expression hardening into something cold and final. "We are going to BloodVeil," he declared, the sheer weight of his Alpha authority settling over his men like iron. "I need to look my uncle in the eye and demand answers. I just pray for his sake that this is nothing but a tragic mix-up."

Daniel gave a sharp nod, signaling the rest of the scouting party. Together, they lined up behind Kaleb, turning their backs on the empty graves and heading directly toward the forbidden border.

"And what if it isn’t a mix-up, Alpha?" Daniel asked as they marched, their heavy boots crunching rhythmically against the forest floor.

"Then the blood we share will no longer matter," Kaleb replied curtly, his voice echoing with a chilling finality. "I will gladly sever the peace we have spent years pretending was feasible."

Deep within the thick shadow of the ancient oak, Rhea watched them go until the thick forest entirely swallowed their scents. The moment the danger passed, the heavy, suffocating pressure of Adam’s aura eased, allowing her to draw a full breath.

She turned her gaze up to him, her eyes tracking the rigid line of his profile. Even in the dark, she could see how tight his jaw was, the muscle pulsing beneath his stubble.

"What do you plan to do now?" Rhea asked, her voice hushed but demanding as she stepped out of his embrace. "You heard Kaleb. He is marching straight to your gates."

"Nothing," Adam replied simply. He didn’t look at her. He merely turned on his heel and began walking back toward his own territory.

"Nothing?" Rhea demanded, her temper flaring as she scrambled to keep pace with his massive steps. She grabbed his arm, the thick fabric of his coat rough beneath her fingers. "How can you say nothing? It is bad enough that you and your men were sloppy enough to leave a trail behind in the first place, but—"

Adam stopped slowly. Then he looked at her. "You think I made a mistake?" The air in the forest instantly grew heavy again as his eyes blazed a lethal, glowing amber in the darkness. "Interesting."

He leaned down, his face inches from hers, his hot breath fanning across her cheeks. "You honestly think I would leave a trail without a calculated plan? Your ex-husband may have been an easily manipulated fool, but I am not him."

"I don’t need the reminder," Rhea shot back, her chest heaving as she refused to back down from his suffocating Alpha pressure.

She took a step closer, the damp earth sinking beneath her boots. "I was simply stating a fact. Kaleb is paranoid, and he will not rest until he gets answers. Even if you won’t admit it, leaving that cloth behind was not the right call."

Adam let out a low, frustrated groan, the sound vibrating in his chest before he turned his back on her. "Well, he will not get the answers he wants," he replied, his deep voice carrying a dismissive finality.

"But he is heading straight for your border as we speak!" Rhea pressed, her heart hammering against her ribs as she hurried to keep up with his long, effortless strides. "He is going to march up to your gates and demand an audience."

The corner of Adam’s mouth twitched, a dark, dangerous amusement flickering across his hard features. "No one shows up to my house uninvited, Rhea. My border patrols ensure that, and I would expect my nephew to remember the cost of trespassing on BloodVeil land."

"So that means you’re just going to do nothing?" Rhea asked, her brows drawing tight as a knot of pure confusion tightened in her stomach.

Adam didn’t reply. He simply kept walking, his broad shoulders cutting through the low-hanging forest mist like a specter.

Rhea slowed her pace, her frown deepening. The heavy scent of pine and rain-soaked earth faded slightly as she stopped, her gaze instinctively drifting back toward the small, neglected mound of dirt in the clearing.

"We can’t leave him," River growled inside her mind, a raw, agonizing ache pulsating through their shared bond. "We cannot abandon our pup to the wild."

"Stop looking back," Adam called out over his shoulder, his voice cutting through the rustling leaves without him even breaking stride. "There is nothing left for you in those woods."

Rhea snapped her head around, her eyes flashing a sharp, lethal silver. "You need to know something, Alpha," she shot back. "Until I see my son’s body with my own two eyes, I will never believe that he is dead."

Adam stopped. For a moment, he said nothing. Then he glanced back at her. "Good." His gaze lingered for half a second. "Because dead things don’t usually disappear."

Then he turned and kept walking.

Rhea’s breath caught. Her brows pulled together tightly as she desperately tried to read between the lines of his cryptic response. Her analytical mind spun, mapping the gaps in his story, but the pieces refused to fit. There was something he wasn’t telling her.

Turning back to the tiny grave one last time, a heavy sigh escaped her lips. The cool wind brushed against her cheeks, catching the tears she refused to let fall.

"I will be back for you, my sweet boy," Rhea whispered into the wind, her fingers curling into tight fists. "But first, I am going to make every single person who did this bleed."