Kaleb did not spare her another word. He pulled away so fast that the sudden dissipation of his scorching alpha heat left Kat feeling a cold, hollow emptiness. He whirled on his Beta, his golden eyes flashing with a ruthless light.

"Get the vanguard ready. We leave right now," he barked. "I want her back. Dead or alive."

"How many men do we need, Alpha?" Daniel asked, his posture straightening. "She might not be alone. This could be our perfect window to ambush Alpha Thorne and make BloodVeil pay for the border pass."

Kat’s eyes widened, a sudden spike of panic souring her pheromones. Dead? He wanted her dead? "She is alone!" she screamed, her voice cracking. Every warrior in the room snapped their gaze to her. "I made sure of it. She no longer trusts Alpha Thorne."

Kaleb didn’t even look at his Luna. His focus remained entirely pinned on Daniel. "I don’t trust a single word that comes from her mouth. Bring every goddamn able-bodied fighter we have left. I want them positioned strategically through the ridges," he growled, his deep baritone vibrating the stone floor. "If we notice so much as a shadow out of place, we kill Rhea where she stands."

"I am going with you," Kat demanded, stepping forward, though her cautious tone betrayed her trembling knees.

Kaleb finally turned his gaze, but not to her. He locked eyes with a towering guard by the threshold. "Drag her down to the northern dungeon. If a single thing goes sideways at the border, slit her throat," he ordered, his voice flat, hollowed out of all human emotion.

Kat’s breath caught in her throat. She opened her mouth to scream, to invoke the unborn heir in her womb, but Kaleb stormed past her, his heavy cloak brushing her shoulder like a shroud.

Daniel and the rest of the elite warriors blurred after him, leaving only the executioner behind. As the massive guard stepped into her space, his iron grip reaching for her arm, Kat bared her fangs, a low, feral hiss ripping from her chest as her inner wolf surged to the surface.

"Touch me, and one of us will feed the crows today," Kat hissed, her golden eyes flashing a dangerous, untamable light. "And I promise you, it will not be me."

—

Out in the woods, the midnight mist hung low and thick over the valley, smelling of damp cedar and ancient rot.

Rhea moved through the dense brush like a ghost, using the pitch-black shadows as her cover until she reached the jagged clearing of the old burial grounds. She slipped behind the thick trunk of a weeping willow, her heart hammering a fierce, irregular rhythm against her ribs as her silver eyes scanned the clearing, making sure the perimeter was clear.

She triggered her wolf instincts, straining her ears against the whistling wind while her nostrils searched the air currents for the metallic, heavy scent of Ironfang. She looked specifically for Kaleb’s toxic, dominant pheromones, but found nothing but the quiet dampness of the forest.

Drawing one slow, stabilizing breath, she stepped out from the treeline, her gaze locking onto the small mound of dirt. As her boots sank into the mud, Kat’s desperate voice echoed through the chambers of her mind, a haunting refrain.

I didn’t kill him. He’s not dead, Rhea. Eli’s not dead.

Rhea swallowed hard against the bitter lump in her throat, hot tears burning the backs of her eyes as she closed the distance. She collapsed onto her knees in front of the small grave, the freezing mud soaking through her woolen trousers.

River whimpered softly within their shared consciousness, her phantom ears pinning back against Rhea’s skull. "We cannot trust the parasite’s words, Rhea. She has spun webs of lies for too long," the wolf murmured, her voice heavy with an unbearable, ancient grief. "We must see the truth with our own eyes. Tear it open."

Without another thought, Rhea drove her fingers deep into the loose, wet earth. Claws threatening to burst past her skin, she began to claw desperately through the dirt, throwing clumps of mud behind her in frantic, jagged motions.

Tears spilled over her lashes, burning her cold cheeks and dropping into the hole as she silently prayed to the Moon Goddess for the earth to be empty, prayed that for once in her miserable life, her sister had told the truth.

Suddenly, her fingertips froze against something rigid.

River lifted her head with a sharp, agonizing gasp as Rhea’s hand brushed a hard object buried deep in the soil. Rhea’s stomach completely dropped into a hollow void.

"No. Please, no," River whimpered, her spirit fracturing inside their bond.

Rhea dug faster now, her breathing turning into ragged, panicked gasps as an agonizing ache bloomed in her chest. Shoving the mud aside, she saw it. The pale, unmistakable flash of a bone embedded in the earth.

The tears came down in blinding sheets now, and River began to wail, a sound of absolute, unhinged pain inside her mind.

Rhea paused for a fraction of a second, her pulse faltering painfully. She couldn’t stop. She couldn’t leave it half-buried. She drove her hands into the grave one last time, scooping a heavy mound of earth into her palms. But as the dirt neared her face, a sharp, foreign scent pierced through the smell of rot.

River’s wail cut off instantly, replaced by a low, vibrating growl. "They are here."

Rhea dropped the mud, her silver eyes instantly widening as she scanned the treeline using her enhanced wolf vision. Far down the ridge, the shadows were shifting. Masses of dark, powerful shapes crossing the border under the cover of the fog. And drifting on the wind was the faint, unmistakable crest of the Ironfang vanguard.

"We have to hide in the brush now, Rhea!" River urged, her claws scratching to shift.

Rhea shook her head fiercely, refusing to move. Just then, Kaleb’s personal scent, ozone, expensive leather, and bitter dominance, hit her nostrils, making her heart skip a violent beat.

"He’s here," she whispered, her voice barely a breath against the wind. "But I cannot leave it like this. Help me, River."

Rhea dug with a manic, supernatural speed, her claws bursting past her fingertips as she tore through the final layer of earth. Her heart fractured with every inch she cleared. She threw the last handful of mud aside and froze, her breath catching in her throat as her gaze locked onto the bottom of the shallow pit.

There were small, skeletal limbs resting in the dirt. But they did not belong to a human child or a wolf pup. They were the cloven hooves and fragile ribcage of a lamb.

Her heart hammered a chaotic rhythm of agonizing confusion and overwhelming relief. The grave was a farce. Her son’s bones were not rotting in the mud.

But as the relief washed over her, a terrifying question echoed in the silence of her mind. If Eli is alive, who has him? Where is my boy?

"Rhea, pull back now!" River growled urgently, her voice sharp with survival instinct. "Their scouts are entering the clearing. They are almost on of us!"