"Do not make this difficult for yourself," one of the elder war councilors growled, standing up to meet her defiance. "You touched the royal heir of an Alpha King. No one breaks that ancient law without consequences."

"But they did it to me!" Rhea screamed, her voice cracking with the raw, agonizing grief of a mother who had lost everything. She glared at the entire table, her chest heaving violently. "They slaughtered my pup in a ditch, and not a single one of your precious Elders said a goddamn thing! Why is their royal blood sacred while my son’s was treated like nothing?"

A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the room.

"Rhea, stop being unreasonable," Adam murmured, his voice dropping lower, anchoring her, though his jaw remained set in iron.

Rhea turned her sharp gaze onto him, her lips curling into a bitter sneer. "What is the matter, Alpha Thorne? Are you suddenly terrified of another war? Have you lost your nerve?"

Adam let out a low, terrifying growl that vibrated the stone floor beneath their boots. He rose to his full, towering height, his shadow swallowing her completely. "I have never feared a slaughter in my life, little wolf. But I do not fight useless wars, especially not over that child."

"Then I will remove the problem from your house," Rhea declared, her voice chillingly calm as she took a step backward, breaking the hold of his gaze. "I brought the boy here, and I will take him away. This will no longer be BloodVeil’s burden to bear."

Adam and the councilors stared at her. No one spoke.

Rhea turned on her heel to storm out, but she paused at the threshold, looking over her shoulder at the bruised messenger. "You ride back to Ironfang right now," she ordered.

"You tell Kaleb that he will only hold his son again when he tells me exactly what he did to mine. And tell him he only has until dawn, because when the sun breaks over these mountains, I will vanish with his heir, and he will look at an empty cradle for the rest of his miserable life."

Before anyone could draw a breath to stop her, she turned toward the doors, slamming them shut behind her.

Outside the council room, Rhea paused, pressing her back against the cold stone wall to steady herself. Her chest heaved, the suffocating pressure of the packhouse pressing down on her lungs. Hot tears burned the backs of her eyes, but she blinked them, refusing to smell like defeat.

"I am right here with you, Rhea. That is all you will ever need," River growled softly within her mind, though the wolf’s voice was laced with sorrow.

Rhea pushed herself off the stone, her fingers curling into tight fists. "I hope you are right, River. I just hope to the goddess you are right," she whispered as she forced herself to keep moving.

River went quiet as she navigated the dim corridors, her mind fracturing with a thousand desperate thoughts.

She reached the master servants’ wing, her pulse hammering against her throat as she approached the heavy wooden door. She shoved it open, stepping toward the bed, ready to scoop the Ironfang heir into her arms and flee.

Her jaw dropped.

The bed was empty. The boy was gone.

"He betrayed us!" River roared instantly inside her skull, her phantom fangs baring in a savage frenzy. "He took our leverage!"

Just as the sheer horror of the empty mattress began to settle into her veins, the door clicked behind her. The young maid stepped into the room. Rhea whirled around, blurring across the space until she was inches from the girl, her silver eyes flaring a dangerous, blinding white.

"Where is he?" Rhea demanded, her voice a lethal hiss that made the maid flinch. "Where is the boy?"

The servant swallowed hard, her throat bobbing as her scent spiked with submissive terror. "I am so sorry, my lady," she stammered, bowing her head. "The Alpha. He sent the enforcers to take him while you were in the council chamber."

"Take him?" Rhea shot back, her blood turning to pure ice. "To where? Speak!"

The maid remained paralyzed, dropping her gaze to the floor in absolute silence, her lips sealed by the crushing weight of her Alpha’s command.

Rhea stared at her for one agonizing second, and then she whirled on her heel. She brushed past the girl, her heart slamming violently against her ribs as she retraced her steps through the fortress.

Inside her, River paced restlessly, scratching violently against her ribs to be let out.

Moments later, Rhea threw her weight against the heavy oak doors of the war council room. They banged against the stone walls with a crack. Every eye snapped to her, the room plunging into silence.

"Where is he?" Rhea demanded, her voice cutting through the heavy alpha auras in the room like a silver blade. She marched straight to the edge of the granite table, glaring at the head of the pack. "Tell your men to hand the boy back to me right now!"

Adam leaned back in his massive carved chair, his rugged features completely unreadable. His dark amber eyes tracked her frantic movements, his brows drawing together into a tight knot. "You are not thinking clearly, Rhea," he said, his deep baritone dripping with an agonizing calm.

"I do not give a damn what you think about my sanity, Alpha Thorne! Just hand the boy back, and I will walk out of your territory and never return!" Rhea shot back, her chest heaving violently.

"That is not going to happen," Adam replied, his tone remaining flat.

Rhea’s knuckles turned white as her fists clenched hard enough to draw blood. The sharp, bitter scent of her heartbreak filled the air between them.

"I trusted you," she said, her voice dropping into a dangerously quiet register that trembled with raw betrayal. "I stood by your side, and you stabbed me—"

"I had to put my pack first," Adam interrupted. He straightened his massive frame, his chest expanding as his dominant musk flooded her senses, grounding yet suffocating. "BloodVeil means more to me than your vengeance quest. I will not let your hunt for secrets cost me the lives or the loyalty of my pack."

Rhea let out a mocking laugh, shaking her head as she stared at him. "I cannot believe I actually trusted you, despite knowing your history," she whispered, her silver eyes burning into his soul. "I should have known. Kings don’t protect strays."

Adam’s jaw hardened into iron, a low, tectonic growl escaping the back of his throat that made the guards in the room stiffen. "I have never betrayed you, little wolf."

"Then prove it!" Rhea shouted, leaning across the granite table. "Hand over the boy!"

"He is no longer in BloodVeil," Adam declared, his amber eyes locking onto hers with a heavy, devastating finality.