The room froze when Carter's words dropped like a bone in a silent den. He'd been a ghost to the Boltons for years an illegitimate pup raised abroad, the kind of bloodline that left an itch at the edge of the pack's pride. Everyone expected him to be a rumor, not a storm. Yet here he was, sitting like a predator who'd come home to claim muscle and teeth.
They'd always kept him at the periphery, worried he'd sniff out enough weakness to stake a claim on the family's scent. But when Carter, cool and dangerous even in that chair, announced he would take the line, everything shifted. Adam's face went dark as thunder. "Take over? Who do you think you are?" he spat, claws of anger bared.
Carter didn't rise to the bait. He turned to Jeffrey and said something that sounded almost intimate, something I'd never expected to hear in that room: "What do you say, Dad?"
The sound of that single word Dad moved something in Jeffrey. He, who had scorned Carter for years, surprised me. Tears pooled at the edges of his eyes, and for a breath I saw the man beneath the elder's hard crust. It was a crack, brief and dangerous; it made my spirit tilt.
"Get a room ready for him," Jeffrey ordered, waving a hand in that way only a true alpha could. The servant scrambled, panic written into every movement. Adam barked a protest, red-faced and furious, but Jeffrey shut him down like a wolf snapping its jaws. "He's your brother. What's wrong with that? He's made his own path abroad without my help. Look at the mess your own son has made."
Mention of Caleb's name landed like glass. Jeffrey's old anger, the one that had never fully healed after Adam's choosing of Sheila, flared into flame. He hauled words like weapons. "And I saw those rotten howls online calling Isabel a fraud. Are you going to let them tear your mate's name to shreds?"
Caleb's defense was small and bitter. "Grandpa, Isabel left for Cloudville without telling anyone. She's been unreasonable. She needs to learn "
"Learn?" Jeffrey barked, voice hoarse with a rage that lived in the bones. "If you hadn't slunk away from the altar, would she have fled? You forget how she begged Andrew to pull us from the dark when the pack nearly collapsed. Without her, the Sanders might have starved. You ungrateful pup maybe I should beat that stubbornness out of you."
The elder's words were half threat, half raw grief. Adam, ever the mediator, tried to explain, to soothe, but the old alpha's patience had gone like the tide. "Get your mate back!" he finally spat, a command that rang with finality.
Carter watched all of this with a flat look. When Jeffrey stood and gave the order, Carter rose to the moment, not with gratitude but with the slow indifference of one who already expected to be obeyed. "Mm," he replied, and the air tightened.
The room thinned. People dispersed like deer at the first winter wind. Sheila fussed, smoothing Serena's hair, making sure the girl's scent was intact. Serena clung to the thread of attention, already a practiced puppet, preening under the family's glow as if the world belonged to her.
Caleb hovered, head bowed, the weight of lashes and shame settling into his shoulders. Adam lifted him, voice low and sharp. "He went too far," he said, worry etching his features as he ordered a healer to the manor. Someone rushed to fetch the family medic, the urgency of their steps sounding like a hunt.
I paced the cold corridor, every footfall a small echo of an old life. My skin felt raw, as if the pack were trying to strip me bare with their words, to skin me of identity until only bones remained. They used me as bait and stepstone, and no one flinched at the cruelty. They were making me a sacrifice in broad daylight, trading my name to lift Serena higher in the pack's hierarchy.
Inside, Caleb lay recumbent, wrapped in bandages where the whip had eaten the skin. The medics pressed salves into the wounds, binding flesh with practiced, professional hands. He made little noises shifts in his breath, the soft curse of a wolf who suddenly knows the cost of his missteps. Outside, the wind moved the bare branches like fingernails scratching at a tomb.
I wanted someone to find what was left of me, to carry me away with respect, to let my wolf sleep. Instead they argued about reputation and power, and I burned with the bitter knowledge that the pack would rather polish another's name than cradle my memory.
When would you understand, I wanted to howl at him, when would you realize I am already gone?
But the room hummed with plans and orders, family alliances knitting tighter around a living altar. They bent to preserve line and legacy, not to mourn the wolf who had loved too much. My howl died in the throat of the air, unheard, and I brooded in the shadows while the family made their deals survivors and predators all, circling, waiting, and never, not once, thinking they owed me mercy.
Adam's voice thundered in the den, each word carrying the weight of an alpha's judgment. "Isabel is a worthy she-wolf. She's stood at your side, loyal and devoted, through every storm. Whatever fire burns in you for Serena, douse it. You are bound now. Stay with Isabel. Honor your mate."
Caleb's head jerked up, his eyes flashing defiance. "Why do you believe there's anything between me and Serena? She's my sister!" His tone carried desperation, but his body betrayed him tense, guilty, as though even he couldn't deny the pull.
Adam's stare pierced him, the look of a wolf who had already scented the truth. "Tell me, Caleb, when was the last time you truly thought of Isabel? Every time Serena howls, you abandon everything your hunts, your vows, even your mating ceremony to run to her side."
"That's because her health is fragile," Caleb growled back, trying to hold ground. "She's always at risk."
Adam's snarl shook the walls. "Fragile? How many times has she claimed danger, yet nothing ever came of it? She uses your instincts against you. Each false cry keeps you tethered to her while Isabel lies cast aside."
The words struck like claws, stripping Caleb bare. His shoulders slumped, shame darkening his gaze.
"So you all believe I care more for Serena than Isabel?" His voice cracked, part anger, part sorrow.
Adam's lips curled. "Isn't it the truth?"
The silence after was suffocating. Adam finally stepped closer, his hand heavy on Caleb's shoulder, dominance pressing down. "You've been with Isabel too long to treat her as a passing flame. Bonds may dull, but they must not be broken. Put pups in her belly. Root yourself in the family before it's too late. Bring her back from Cloudville now. Carter has returned, his fangs bared for the inheritance. Your grandfather favors Isabel. If you keep provoking his wrath, you'll hand everything to Carter without a fight."
Caleb's jaw clenched. The words sank deep, heavy with truth. He pulled out his phone and called Roy. "Book me a flight to Cloudville at dawn."
"Yes, Alpha."
"And wipe the pack's channels of every rumor about Isabel."
There was hesitation, the scent of uncertainty hanging in the air even over the line. "Alpha… if we clear the threads about Lady Isabel, should we also silence those about Serena?"
Even Roy had seen it that Serena's name had always been shielded by Caleb's teeth.
Caleb's voice cut like a lash. "Are you saying Serena's honor weighs more than my mate's?"
"N-no, Alpha, I only thought "
"If you ever doubt me again, you'll be cast out," Caleb snapped before ending the call, chest heaving.
For a moment, his fierce mask cracked, and guilt flickered in his eyes. He tried calling me again, but my phone remained silent, lifeless.
His hand trembled slightly as he muttered, "With that temper, you're still not as gentle as Serena."
Those words would have once gutted me, left me bleeding inside. But now, after all that's happened, I was numb. My heart no longer ached it was only a hollow shell. All I wanted was for him to reach Cloudville, to see the truth of my death, and finally let me go.
The phone rang again Roy's voice cautious, subdued like a wolf who had been beaten once too many. "Alpha, your trip is arranged. But… the rumors about Lady Isabel they're already gone."
Caleb stiffened. "Gone? Who erased them?"
"I tracked it. A wolf from inside the Bolton bloodline. They spent millions, burned through coin like kindling seven and a half in a single night. Every trace destroyed. Only an elder wolf could command that kind of power."
The color drained from Caleb's face. His heart thundered like a drum of dread. Only two could have done this.
His grandfather.
Or him.
And that thought alone made his blood run cold.