_Kaelen’s POV_

The numbers didn’t lie.

I had spent the better part of the morning in the estate’s home office with the pack’s financial manager, going through accounts I had trusted Rowena to handle for three years without once sitting down to understand them myself. That had been comfortable and. A Luna managing domestic and financial affairs while her Alpha focused on external pack business was standard.

What was not standard was discovering, column by column, exactly how much of what I had assumed was Moonreign’s financial base had actually been Ashthorne money the entire time.

"You knew, don’t act surprised." Shade said.

"I knew some of it."

"You knew enough. You chose not to look at the rest."

The financial manager, Greaves, who had served our Varkos family since before my father died, set a spreadsheet in front of me and pointed to a highlighted column without comment. He’d worked here long enough to know when not to editorialize.

The Ashthorne transfer on the day of the wedding had cleared four outstanding debts, funded operational costs for two full years, and established the medical account that kept my grandmother’s treatments running. Since then, Rowena had personally authorized forty-three separate expenditures from her family’s accounts to cover gaps in pack funding.

Forty-three.

I had known about perhaps just six of them.

"Now that’s comfortable," Shade said again, with a particular flatness that meant he was done being subtle about it.

"That’s enough," I said.

Greaves gathered his papers.

"How long before we feel the account freeze?" I asked.

"Vendor commitments are covered through month’s end," he said carefully. "Payroll runs two more cycles on the existing authorization. After that..." a brief pause "...we’ll need to restructure. Significantly."

I dismissed him and sat with it.

The decree had arrived that morning. My attorney had called at eight and explained it in careful, ridiculous terms that boiled down to: Alpha King Alaric had signed it, the fourteen-day window was running, and contesting it meant petitioning the Alpha King directly with grounds that — given the unconsummated status of the marriage — were difficult to establish.

Rowena had gone to Alaric.

I didn’t know how she’d gotten the meeting. I didn’t know what had been said. What I knew was that she had moved faster and more deliberately than I had given her credit for, and I had been sitting across a table from her yesterday thinking she was bluffing.

"Once again, she told you," Shade said. "Multiple times. As much as I hate to say this, I think you need to let Virella go. She’s not even our mate. When she gives birth, you can get your child and she can go around finding her mate or something." Shade added, and I felt irritation take over.

"Not one word from you again, Shade. I love Virella and I must marry her."

The knock at the office door interrupted whatever I was about to say again to him.

"Come in."

Elvira appeared in the doorway. She had the bright, purposeful look she wore when she’d thought of something she was pleased with.

I was immediately wary. My sister was crazy, there was no denying it.

"I’ve been thinking," she said immediately as she marched in, closing the door behind her.

"About what."

She sat down across from me without being invited and folded her hands on the desk with the energy of someone presenting a plan they were proud of. "Rowena’s dowry inventory. The physical assets, the pieces she brought into this house when she married. Furniture, jewelry, some equipment stored in the east annex." She paused. "Technically, once she files for divorce, or once the decree goes through, those assets could be considered disputed. If we move them into pack inventory before the dissolution is finalized — "

"No." I cut her short before she could finish.

She blinked. "But Kaelen...."

"No, Elvira." My voice came out harder than I intended, and she leaned back slightly. "Those are her assets. Her family’s assets. They were never pack property."

"But if she’s leaving...."

"Then they leave with her," I said. "Whatever else happens, we don’t touch her property."

Elvira’s expression tightened. "The pack needs....."

"The pack needs to sort its own finances," I said. "Not steal from a woman on her way out the door."

"It’s not stealing, it’s....."

"Then what is it, Elvira?" I let the Alpha come through in my voice, just enough. She stopped. "Listen to me carefully. If you touch one item from Rowena’s inventory — one — you will have created a legal liability for this family that we cannot afford. Her attorney is already engaged. Alaric’s office is watching this dissolution. Any interference with her assets will be treated as a breach of the King’s decree." I held her gaze. "Do you understand what that means for us?"

The bright, pleased energy had gone out of her face.

"It means Moonreign loses standing," I said. "It means we don’t just face financial difficulty, we face sanctions. From the King’s office." I stood up.

"Whatever you were planning, stop. Today."

Elvira sat very still for a moment. Then she stood, smoothed her jacket, and walked to the door.

"This is her fault," she said, without turning around.

"Leave it alone, Elvira."

She released a long sigh and left.

I stood at the desk and looked down at Greaves’ spreadsheet. Forty-three expenditures. Three years of gaps quietly filled by a woman I had dismissed as decorative.

Shade didn’t say anything anymore. I’m sure he was tired of this.

But he didn’t need to talk.

I had one thought that I turned over and couldn’t put down: if I had come home and actually looked — at the accounts, at the work, at her — how much of this would have gone differently?

I didn’t have an answer.

What I had was a fourteen-day window and a decree with the Alpha King’s seal on it, and the slow, specific understanding that I had built this problem myself, one assumption at a time.

My phone buzzed on the desk.