Just a few horses ahead in the grim line, Kaleb’s knuckles turned a bloodless white. His fingers gripped the leather reins with unnecessary force, so harsh that his stallion let out a sharp, panicked neigh, tossing its massive head in protest.

Kaleb gritted his teeth, his jaw muscles leaping under his skin as he cut his eyes toward Kat riding directly at his flank. His amber gaze was wild, flicking like unstable lightning.

"You are going to regret opening your mouth," he growled, the vibration low and menacing in his throat. Inside his skull, his beast was a raging storm, tearing at his sanity. "I will make sure you bleed for this, Kat."

Kat didn’t look at him. She kept her spine rigid, her pale hands cradling the heavy swell of her belly as she kept her gaze pinned to the dark path ahead. "Let me survive this journey, Kaleb. I am too drained to argue with you," she said, her voice dropping into a hollow whisper of pure exhaustion.

Kaleb scoffed, a sharp, bitter sound that cut through the rhythmic thud of hooves. "You are already tired? It is far too early for that," he sneered, his profile hardening into stone. "You will know no peace from this moment onward. I just lost my command, my title, and my Beta, and every single drop of that failure is your fault."

"Just be quiet, Kaleb." Kat finally snapped her head around, her eyes hollow but burning. "With every word you bark out here, you are only wrapping the executioner’s rope tighter around your own neck."

"Nonsense!" Kaleb hissed, his wolf pacing in a restless, bloody frenzy, demanding to be let loose on the clearing.

"Be quiet, Alpha," Elder Seraphine called out from the front, her deep voice slicing through the dark. She shook her head in sheer disgust.

"Don’t command me," Kaleb shot back, his nostrils flaring as his scent turned sour and hostile. "I want to return to my packhouse. If the Council has any true authority left, you should be releasing me from this pathetic circus. I have a right to return to my own lands."

Elder Magnus didn’t just speak. He turned in his saddle, his eyes blazing a piercing, silver-gray that flashed like winter ice through the mist. "There is only one territory that requires your presence, Duskbane, the only place you will exist until this Council decides what happens next," he snapped, his voice ringing with absolute dominance. "And that is the Grand Council Headquarters!"

Kaleb’s teeth ground together so hard the bone groaned, but he forced his tongue flat. He said nothing. Slowly, his venomous gaze drifted backward, tracking the heavy shadows until it locked onto Adam.

The BloodVeil King sat tall in his saddle, his face an unreadable mask of dark stone. Kaleb’s amber eyes narrowed into slits. Damn you to the veil, Adam Thorne.

Kaleb whipped his head forward again, scoffing under his breath. But as his horse shifted, he caught the judgmental stare of Daniel riding parallel to him. The former Beta’s thick brows were pulled into a tight, fractured knot.

"A missing royal heir. A fake grave," Daniel muttered under his breath, his voice thick with a sudden, crushing disillusionment. He shook his head, his broad shoulders sagging as if a mountain had just settled on his spine. "How the hell did I get myself involved in this? What exactly have I been fighting for all these years?"

"I need to rest." Kat’s sharp cry cut through the steady rhythm of the horses. Her face had gone pale in the moonlight. "I feel the world is spinning."

Every wolf in the procession halted, their ears twitching. Elder Magnus lifted a single, leather-gloved hand, stopping the vanguard. "Let us take a brief respite by the ridge ahead," he commanded. "Water the horses and let the Luna rest."

—

Minutes later, the heavy beasts were lining the edge of a rushing mountain river, the sound of cold water churning over rocks filling the dark air.

Rhea slid from her mount, her silver eyes instantly tracking Adam where he stood at the riverbank, completely isolated from the others. She took a slow, heavy breath. The rigid tension in his massive shoulders, the distant, haunted look in his amber eyes, it was suffocating. He knew the truth about her son, and the weight of the secret was visibly eating his beast alive.

She moved silently through the damp grass, her boots making no sound until she stopped at his shoulder. "Adam?" she called out softly.

The BloodVeil King turned his head toward her, his dark hair catching the wind, but he kept his jaws sealed.

"Will you tell me what you know now?" she pleaded, her voice dropping into a desperate, raw register. "We are away from the rest. Please."

Adam pulled his gaze from her, staring out across the rushing, black water. "You already know my answer, Rhea."

Acting on pure, maternal instinct, Rhea reached out and grabbed his forearm. The moment her palm pressed against his sleeve, his entire body went rigid as iron, his scent of cedarwood exploding.

"Please," she whispered. There was no rage left in her, no fire, no shields. Just the broken, bleeding desperation of a mother. "Please, Adam. Don’t do this to me."

For the first time since they had broken into the valley, the stone mask on his face cracked. A flicker of profound torment passed through his amber eyes. "I cannot."

"Why?" she choked out, her eyes burning with hot, unshed tears as River let out a miserable howl in the back of her mind. "If you care for me at all, why?"

Adam’s jaw tightened until the muscles ticked violently under his skin. "Because if I give you anything now, Rhea, you will rush into the dark, and you will never hear the whole truth."

"What—?"

"Alpha Thorne!" Elder Magnus’s voice boomed from the horse line, shattering the moment.

Adam didn’t hesitate. Before she could even process the implications of his words, he pulled his arm from her grip and strode away into the fog, leaving her standing entirely alone by the water.

Before her racing mind could even catch its breath, the air around her turned toxic. The suffocating scent of musk and rain-soaked earth hit her nostrils, and inside her head, River rose to her paws, snarling with a feral, murderous rage.

Kaleb had stepped into her space. Rhea kept her back to him, refusing to even grant him the courtesy of her gaze.

"Rhea," Kaleb said, his tone unnaturally calm. "I know you have no desire to speak to me right now. But whatever lies they tell you at the headquarters, you need to remember exactly who you swore your blood vows to before the Goddess. And if you dare betray those sacred vows—"

Rhea snapped her head around so violently her dark hair whipped across her face. The sheer, unbridled hatred in her silver eyes stole the breath right out of his lungs, cutting his threat short.

"Get the hell away from me, Kaleb!" she spat through clenched teeth, her voice vibrating with a terrifying malice. She stepped directly into his space, her fangs practically pushing past her lips as River bared her teeth inside her mind. "There is only one weak-willed person in this forest who can be manipulated by your pathetic words, and that person is not me."

Kaleb’s thick brows pulled tight, his head tilting as his ego flared. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

Rhea looked down at his chest, then back to his unstable amber eyes, her gaze cold enough to freeze the river at their feet. "You are dead to me, Kaleb. Your bond is a decaying corpse. And trust me, you should be grateful to the moon goddess that is my choice instead of ripping your throat out." 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Without waiting for his response, she whirled around and stormed back toward the horses, her cloak billowing behind her.

Kaleb stood frozen by the rushing water, watching her retreat into the mist. Slowly, the corner of his lip curled into a dark, arrogant sneer. He adjusted his collar, his chest expanding with a delusional pride.

"You’re just a she-wolf, Rhea," he murmured into the wind. "And at the end of the day, there will only ever be one Alpha in your world. Me."