Chapter 33
DEREK
Elena had denied cheating on me with Logan. But she hadn’t denied that Aiden was his.
The realization had settled into my ribs like a slow, festering wound, burning through every rational thought I had left.
She could have corrected me. Could have told me I was wrong.
But she hadn’t.
That was all the confirmation I needed.
I had spent years believing she was gone forever. That she had died in some nameless rogue ambush, her body never found. I had grieved. I had broken myself apart trying to understand how the world could have been so cruel—how fate could have given me something so precious only to rip it away before I could even mark her.
And then she had come back.
But not to me.
To him.
I stood in my office, staring at the map spread across my desk, barely seeing the lines that marked the territories. My hands curled into fists at my sides, tension coiling tight in my chest.
I wasn’t a fool.
If Logan had been in her life before she regained her memories, if he had been the one to find her after she disappeared, then there had to be a trail.
And I was going to find it.
Joe stood across from me, waiting. He had worked with me long enough to know when I wasn’t in the mood for unnecessary questions.
"Find out everything," I said, my voice hard. "I want to know exactly how long they’ve been together. Where she was before she came back to Moonstone. Who she was with."
Joe nodded once. "I’ll have our people start pulling records. If there’s something there, we’ll find it."
I turned away, jaw clenched. I had to know.
Had Logan been there the whole time? Had he held her, comforted her, played the part of the devoted mate while I was drowning in my grief?
Had he taken my place before she even knew what she was choosing? The very thought made my vision darken at the edges. I needed to keep my mind clear.
There was more at stake than just Elena.
The letter from the Alpha Council sat on my desk, the wax seal already broken, its contents as heavy as the ink that described them.
An Emergency Alliance Summit.
Rogue attacks were increasing. Packs were struggling to hold their borders. And whoever was leading the largest rogue faction—whoever was behind these strategic, calculated attacks—was growing bolder by the day.
We were on the verge of war. The Council wanted Silverclaw and Moonstone at the table.
It made sense. Our packs were two of the largest in the region, both capable of shifting the tide of war. If an agreement could be reached, if we stood together, the rest of the packs would follow.
But I wasn’t naïve. This wasn’t just about stopping the rogues. It was about power. About leverage.
And if I played this right, I could use it to my advantage.
Silverclaw and Moonstone had to be key players in this summit, there was no other choice. And that meant I would have access to Elena’s world—her father, her pack, her.
It was the in I had been waiting for. Even if it meant standing across from her father. Of dealing with Mason, whom I’d had more than enough of for one lifetime.
Even if it meant pretending the sight of her didn’t gut me.
I reached for the letter again, running my thumb over the edges of the parchment, weighing my options.
Then, a knock at my office door. I exhaled, already irritated. "Come in."
The door opened, and I immediately regretted the invitation.
Cassandra stepped inside first, her dark eyes sharp with something unreadable. Behind her Caroline followed, both of them wearing identical expressions of barely concealed disdain.
I already knew what this was about. I sat back in my chair and waited.
"She’s a rogue," Caroline was saying, her voice clipped with annoyance, as if the very topic exhausted her.
"She’s Moonstone," I corrected, sipping my whiskey. "Try again."
Cassandra leaned against my desk, arms crossed, her gaze careful and assessing. "She wasn’t always."
“Actually, she was,” I said, my voice level. “Even when she was running with the rogues she was still the Moonstone Princess. She just didn’t know it.”
Cassandra scoffed. “God, yes, her memory problem. It’s all a little too calculated.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Caroline stepped forward, her lips pressed into a thin line. “What if she was pretending the whole time? What if she was a Moonstone plant, trying to infiltrate our pack?”
“For what purpose?”
“Who knows? Who knows what they have planned? A hostile takeover? Taking us down from the inside?”
They didn’t know about the uptick in rogue attacks like I did. They didn’t know that the Alpha Council was about to ask us to throw our lot in with theirs for the sake of every other pack in the territory. They didn’t know that I’d already agreed.
Cassandra clucked her agreement. “They’re the only pack that could take down Silverclaw, Derek. They’re the only ones with enough power.”
She wasn’t wrong. But if our pack was going to fall, it was coming from somewhere other than Moonstone.
I thought about Elena, about those nights in her arms. About how my teeth had ached to sink them into her neck and mark her. About how I hadn’t because of an old oath I’d made to Cassandra.
And my patience was wearing thin.
I set my glass down with a little too much force, letting the sound crack through the room like a warning. "She’s the daughter of the Moonstone Alpha. She’s their rightful Princess. And she’s not going anywhere."
Silence settled, thick and tense.
Caroline’s lips pressed into a thin line, but she didn’t argue.
I could feel Cassandra bristling beside her, words she wanted to say burning on her tongue. I didn’t give her the chance to spit them out.
"This is not a discussion," I said, voice low and final. "Elena is Moonstone. She is their heir. And she is not your concern."
Caroline tensed, but she had enough sense not to push me further.
"Dismissed."
Caroline made a displeased sound, but she turned to leave.
Cassandra lingered.
She tilted her head, watching me with something too close to amusement. "You sound like you’re trying to convince yourself," she murmured.
I exhaled through my nose. "Don’t push me tonight, Cassandra."
She smiled, but there was no warmth behind it. Then, she turned and walked out the door.
I barely had time to enjoy the silence before it was broken again.
The door swung open for the third time, and my Gamma stepped inside, his expression dark.
"What now?" I muttered.
The Gamma hesitated. "We caught a rogue on patrol."
I leaned back in my chair, rubbing a hand over my jaw. I wondered if they were testing defenses. "And?"
He glanced toward the doorway, then back to me.
"She has some interesting information."
I sat up straighter. "On what?"
His eyes flicked to the door again, as if debating whether or not he should check it to make sure Cassandra was really gone.
"On Logan," he finally said.
A pause.
"…And Elena."
Something cold slithered down my spine.
I set my glass down slowly, every muscle in my body going still.
"Bring her in," I said, my voice calm.
Too calm. Because whatever this rogue had to say—whatever truths she was about to spill—
I had a feeling they were about to change everything.
