_Rowena’s POV_

I was almost at the car when my phone buzzed.

Celeste sent a text. It was a single line: Check the regional pack registry. Moonreign filed something this morning.

I stopped walking.

Velvet nearly walked into me. "My Luna?"

"Give me a minute."

I opened the registry portal on my phone. It took thirty seconds to load, and another ten to find what Celeste was talking about, a formal filing, timestamped at nine forty-two that morning, while I had been sitting in Celeste’s office signing documents and believing, foolishly, that the next nine days would be straightforward.

The filing was a contested asset claim.

Moonreign Pack versus Ashthorne Estate.

Twelve items listed. Furniture, equipment, two of the investment vehicles my attorney had already documented as personal property.

And at the bottom, added almost as an afterthought, one item that made my stomach drop completely.

The Ashthorne medical research account. Listed as a pack operational asset on the grounds that it had been administered from Moonreign’s address for three consecutive years.

My mother’s account.

The one she had set up specifically, quietly, in my name before she died. The one that had nothing to do with Moonreign’s operations except that I had managed it from here because this was where I lived.

"Rowena," Kyra called out in shock.

"I know."

This wasn’t Kaelen.

No. The filing style, the specific items chosen, the framing, it had Maelis’s fingerprints all over it. Or Elvira’s. Someone who had been paying very close attention to which assets would hurt most to lose and had moved the moment my back was turned.

I put my phone in my pocket.

"Change of plans," I said to Velvet. "We’re going back inside."

I found Kaelen in the estate office.

He was at the desk with Greaves, both of them looking at something on the screen that they minimized when I walked in, which told me everything I needed to know about whether he’d known.

"Close the door," I said to Velvet, who had followed me in.

Greaves looked between us and made a quiet exit without being asked.

Kaelen leaned back in his chair. "Rowena...."

"The contested asset filing," I said. "Filed this morning. Did you authorize it?"

Something moved across his face. "I was informed about it after the fact."

"That’s not what I asked."

"No," he said. "I didn’t authorize it."

"But you knew."

A pause. "I found out an hour ago."

"And you were going to tell me when, exactly?"

He didn’t answer that.

I set my phone on the desk between us with the registry page still open. "The Ashthorne medical account is on this list, Kaelen. My mother’s account. The one she set up before she died, in my name, that has never had anything to do with Moonreign’s operations." I kept my voice level.

"Whoever filed this knew exactly what they were doing. They picked the items most likely to delay the dissolution. This is not a legitimate asset claim. It’s a stall."

"I know that," he said.

"Then pull it."

He was quiet.

"Kaelen." I looked at him directly. "Pull the filing. Today. Before my attorney responds formally and this becomes a legal dispute that costs both of us time and money and makes Moonreign look like it’s harassing a woman on her way out the door."

"It’s not that simple."

"It is exactly that simple," I said. "You’re the Alpha. You authorized nothing. Withdraw it."

He stood up and moved to the window, which was what he did when he was thinking something he didn’t want visible on his face. "If I pull it now, it looks like the pack is conceding every disputed item."

"The pack has no legitimate claim to any of those items," I said. "Conceding them is accurate, not weak."

"It sends a message."

"It sends the message that you run an honest pack," I said. "Which, right now, would be a significant improvement."

He turned from the window. His jaw was tight, but something behind his eyes was less certain than his posture suggested.

"Who filed it?" I asked. "Was it Maelis or Elvira?"

He said nothing.

"It was Maelis," I said. Not a question.

Still nothing. Which was confirmation.

I picked my phone up off the desk. "I’m giving you until five o’clock. If the filing isn’t withdrawn by then, my attorney responds formally first thing tomorrow. And I will make sure every detail of this claim, including the attempt to list my mother’s personal account as pack property, is part of the public record of the dissolution." I looked at him steadily. "Alaric’s office will see it. Every pack in this region with any interest in the King’s decree will see it." I paused. "Is that what you want?"

The office was very quiet.

Kaelen looked at me with the expression I had been seeing more frequently over the past two weeks, the one that sat between anger and something more complicated, something he hadn’t found a name for yet or wasn’t willing to use.

"You’ve thought all of this through," he said.

"I’ve had time," I said. "Three years of it."

I turned to leave.

"Rowena."

I stopped. Didn’t turn around.

"The account," he said. "Your mother’s. I didn’t know it was on the list."

I stood there for a moment with my hand near the door.

"I know you didn’t," I said. "That’s the only reason I’m giving you until five."

I walked out.

In the corridor, Velvet fell into step beside me. My phone was already in my hand, Celeste’s number pulled up.

It rang twice.

"I saw it," Celeste said, before I could speak. Her voice was flat and very focused. "My lawyer is already drafting the response."

"Hold it until five," I said. "He might pull it."

She paused. "And if he doesn’t?"

I looked down the corridor toward the estate’s main entrance, the fountain through the front windows, the gates, the city beyond it. Nine days. It was supposed to be nine clean days.

"Then we stop being careful, and crush them."