Lucian
That single circled payment—E.C.—had clawed its way under my skin like a parasite. By the time the sun finally came up, the jolt of adrenaline had soured into a cold dread sitting behind my ribs. I kept replaying the image of the ledger on my mother's desk: the six-figure payment, too big to be recorded, too old to explain, and too private to be innocent.
It wasn't for Pack budgeting. It was a bribe. A payoff. A burial. And the fact that it dated back to my father's last year alive made my skin feel too tight.
The Alpha Lodge, usually a place of humming power, felt small and watchful. After hours of digging through dusty archives, my eyes were burning, and I had found nothing. Just the kind of silence that meant someone had worked hard to make something disappear.
There was only one person I trusted for the unfiltered truth:
Elias.
I found him in the armory, sharpening a ceremonial blade. He looked like he'd been waiting for disaster. I held the ledger up like a weapon.
"Elias. The payment. 'E.C.' Five years ago. What the hell does it stand for?"
He froze. That half-second pause was enough. He set the blade down slowly. "Alpha, the year of that payment… that's the year of the Great Purge."
"I know that," I snapped, raw with fatigue.
"No," he corrected, his voice dropping into something grim. "Your father… he built something before he tore it down. The Enforcement Committee."
I stared at him, the letters suddenly heavy. E.C.
"They were your father's black ops," Elias continued. "Unrecorded. Untraceable. They did the work no one wanted to claim. They made threats disappear."
"Disappear," I repeated.
"Permanently," he corrected.
"Assassinations," I stated, my jaw tightening.
He looked regretful. "When your father ended them, everything was burned. Files. Names. Orders. All of it."
"So why is there a payment in my mother's safe?" I demanded.
Elias's answer was slow, painful. "Because someone didn't follow the burn order. Someone paid them after they were disbanded. And that someone was either your father… or your mother."
My mother. Helena Vale. The image of her ordering a kill, driven by her sharp, cold ambition, came far too easily.
"Find who received the payment," I said, my voice feeling distant. "And Elias—Lyra does not leave your sight." If Helena used the Committee, then the target mattered. And the only person Helena seemed actively interested in eliminating right now was Aria. My wolf pushed against my skin, screaming: Protect. Mine. Dangerous.
I had a Council meeting to prepare for and a mother I no longer trusted. And somewhere inside this Lodge was the woman whose life had just become a ticking bomb.
Aria
Being dressed by Helena's staff felt like being prepped for a crime scene. Everything was too perfect, too engineered. Lyra watched me from the mirror, her expression fragile under her new Luna chain. The mate bond was hitting her hard, and I tried to breathe normally.
"Mom, can you hold still?" she murmured. "You're twitchy."
I lied, saying I was excited for her. My reflection looked like someone trying desperately not to think about the Alpha she'd kissed, the same Alpha who'd touched her throat and breathed dangerous words.
When Elias knocked, I opened the door immediately. He looked stern in his formal Beta blacks, but his eyes held something protective—especially for Lyra.
Before we moved down the hall, I caught his sleeve. "Quick question," I whispered. "I heard Lucian and Helena arguing about old codes. Something about E.C…"
I watched Elias's calm expression falter. It was like seeing a stone crack from the inside.
"Aria," he said, voice low, "don't ask about that."
"What does it mean? Elder Council?" I pushed.
"No," he whispered. "Much worse."
A chill traveled down my arms. "Does it affect Lyra?"
"It affects the Pack," he answered carefully. "Which means it will affect Lyra if we're not careful. That's all I can say."
"If it ever threatens her bond—or her safety—I want to know." I held his gaze. His silence was not a lie, but it felt like something fragile shifting underfoot.
"Let's go," he said.
I followed, my heart knocking against my ribs like a frantic warning.
———-
The Grand Hall was suffocating. Lucian was already at the head table, carved out of shadow. People were congratulating him, but he barely responded. He just stood there, controlled and scanning.
Lyra walked in. Everything in him sharpened. Softened. Intensified.
His eyes found mine.
That second part felt like a physical punch. Our eyes locked for less than a breath, dragging the world into a dangerous tunnel. I felt something heavy and unspoken from him, like a pulse under my skin.
Helena noticed. Of course, she did. She sat at his left, smiling like composure was her invention. After the toast to Lucian and Lyra, she turned her glass towards me.
"And to Aria Hale," she announced, her voice smooth but sharp enough to cut. "We appreciate her temporary presence during this transition. She will, naturally, return to the Delta community once the official bonding is complete."
Heat shot up my neck. She'd humiliated me, publicly making it clear I was being removed. I kept smiling.
But before I could step back, Lucian moved. He steadied Lyra with one hand, then slid his other hand, slow and deliberate, to the small of my back.
My breath caught. The touch was claiming, protective, dangerously intimate—and public.
"Mother," he said, his voice carrying easily, calm but edged with steel. "Aria remains in the Lodge. Under my protection. Until I say otherwise."
Helena's smile cracked. The crowd gasped.
Lucian didn't remove his hand. That gesture alone made things worse, because it made one thing unmistakably clear: I wasn't being protected because I was Lyra's mother. I was being protected because I was his problem.
His threat. His secret.
And his mother wasn't the only one who knew it.