Chapter 37
The exhaustion of maintaining appearances throughout the ceremony and formal lunch left me desperate for the sanctuary of my office. After hours of forced smiles and diplomatic deflections, I needed a moment of privacy to collect myself and process the morning's events.
I pushed open the heavy oak door—and froze.
My office had been transformed.
The personal items that had once filled the shelves were gone, replaced by Giana's possessions. My carefully curated collection of historical pack documents had been removed, my ceremonial Luna artifacts nowhere to be seen. Even the furniture had been rearranged to suit her preferences rather than mine.
As I stood there, rooted in shock, a young pack member hurried in carrying a box filled with yet more of Giana's belongings.
"Oh!" She stopped short upon seeing me. "Luna Aurora. I... didn't expect you here."
"Evidently," I replied, struggling to keep my voice even. "Would you care to explain what's happening?"
The girl shifted uncomfortably. "Delta Giana requested immediate transition of the space. Alpha Raymond approved the reassignment this morning."
"And my belongings?" I asked, though I already suspected the answer.
"They've been moved to the assistant's office down the hall," she replied, avoiding my gaze. "Delta Giana said you wouldn't mind the relocation, given your... reduced responsibilities."
I maintained my composure through sheer force of will, though my wolf bristled beneath my skin, incensed by the blatant disrespect. "I see. Thank you for informing me."
I walked with deliberate calm to the "assistant's office"—a glorified storage room with a single window overlooking the service yard rather than the forest view my former office commanded. Inside, my belongings had been carelessly piled in boxes, some items clearly damaged in the hasty transition.
My ceremonial Luna robe—passed down through generations—had been crumpled at the bottom of a box, the delicate silver embroidery crushed. Books that had been arranged by subject and historical period were now jumbled together without care. A framed photograph of my mother lay cracked at the bottom of another container.
I began methodically sorting through the chaos, restoring what order I could to my displaced life. As I lifted a heavy reference tome, a crumpled paper fell from behind one of the hastily emptied shelves—likely caught there during the careless packing of my things.
I smoothed it open, recognizing Giana's handwriting immediately. The note contained what appeared to be coded references—locations marked only by initials, times indicated through an unusual numerical pattern, and several names abbreviated to single letters.
"NB - midnight, third quarter. B, M, K confirmed. R remains obstacle. Leverage point identified."
I studied the cryptic message, certain these weren't innocent notes. The precision of the coding, the secrecy implied by the abbreviations—this was deliberately hidden communication.
Over the next week, I began tracking Giana's movements, noting patterns in her comings and goings. She frequently disappeared in the evenings, always with the same small group of young wolves from the outer territories—the ones who had shown her unusual deference at the ceremony.
On the third night of my surveillance, I followed Giana to an abandoned groundskeeper's cottage at the edge of pack territory. Concealed in the shadows, I watched as nearly a dozen wolves arrived in staggered intervals, each nodding to a sentry positioned discreetly in the trees before entering.
I crept closer, finding a position beneath an open window where voices drifted into the night air.
"The Delta position is secure," Giana was saying, her voice crisp with authority—nothing like the soft, vulnerable tone she adopted around Raymond. "Our timeline accelerates from here."
"The old guard remains resistant," replied a male voice I didn't recognize. "Marcus and Elena maintain significant influence."
"They're obsolete," Giana dismissed. "Relics of an outdated hierarchy. We're preparing for change—real change."
"And Raymond?" someone asked.
A pause followed, then Giana's cold laugh. "Raymond is... manageable. His weakness for me provides all the leverage we need."
"And the Luna?" The question sent a chill through me.
"A temporary inconvenience," Giana replied with casual dismissal. "She'll be dealt with when the time comes."
I began to edge backward, needing to report what I'd heard, when a hand clamped over my mouth. My wolf surged in panic, ready to fight, but a familiar scent stopped me from striking.
Kane.
He pulled me deeper into the shadows, releasing me only when we were safely out of earshot of the cottage.
"What the hell are you doing?" he whispered furiously. "Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?"
"I could ask you the same question," I countered. "Why are you here?"
Kane's expression was grim. "I've been tracking Giana's group for days. Their behavior doesn't match their supposed backgrounds. These aren't just random outer territory wolves—they move with military precision, maintain regular communication patterns, and have established a security perimeter around this meeting place."
"I found a note," I explained quickly, showing him the crumpled paper. "And just now I heard Giana talking about 'preparing for change' and me being a 'temporary inconvenience' to be 'dealt with.'"
Kane studied the note, his frown deepening. "This isn't good, Aurora. I've noticed similar patterns among her followers—they report to her, not Raymond, and they've been systematically gathering information about our pack defenses."
A twig snapped nearby, and we both tensed. One of Giana's sentries was making a perimeter check, moving systematically through the underbrush in our direction.
Without a word, Kane pulled me against him, backing us both into a hollow between the massive roots of an ancient oak. We remained absolutely still, barely breathing as the sentry passed within feet of our hiding place.
Only when the footsteps faded did Kane release me, though his expression remained tense. "We need a safer place to discuss this."
"My new 'office' should be secure," I suggested. "No one pays attention to it now that I've been demoted."
"Tomorrow, then," Kane agreed. "For now, we should leave separately. I'll create a distraction to draw the sentries' attention eastward. You head west and circle back to the main house."
He hesitated, then added, "Be careful, Aurora. I don't think Giana's threats are idle."
The next morning, I attempted to bring my concerns to Raymond, catching him alone in the training yards before his daily session.
"I need to speak with you," I began, keeping my voice low. "It's about Giana."
Raymond's expression immediately hardened. "What about her?"
"I've observed some concerning behavior," I said carefully. "Secret meetings with wolves from the outer territories, coded communications, discussions about 'preparing for change' and treating you as 'manageable' through your feelings for her."
With each word, Raymond's face grew darker. When I finished, he looked at me with naked contempt.
"Jealousy doesn't become you, Aurora," he said coldly. "Inventing conspiracy theories to undermine Giana's position? I expected better."
"This isn't jealousy," I insisted. "I'm concerned about pack security. These wolves answer to her, not you. They're gathering information about our defenses—"
"Enough!" Raymond's voice cut through mine like a blade. "You've been opposed to Giana since the beginning. Now that she's gained an official position, you're fabricating threats to turn me against her."
"I'm trying to protect the pack," I argued. "If you would just investigate—"
"There's nothing to investigate," he snapped. "Giana is helping integrate wolves from the outer territories, giving them a voice in pack governance—something you and your precious traditions never bothered with."
His dismissal was so complete, so absolute, that I realized further argument was futile. "Raymond, please. At least consider—"
"Consider what?" he interrupted. "That my Luna is so desperate to maintain her fading relevance that she'd resort to inventing threats?" He stepped closer, his voice dropping to a warning rumble. "Accept your diminished role gracefully, Aurora. Your alternatives are far less pleasant."
He walked away, leaving me standing alone with the knowledge that whatever Giana was planning, Raymond was too blinded by his feelings to see it—and too stubborn to hear warnings from the woman he'd already betrayed.
As I watched him disappear into the training facility, I made a decision. If Raymond wouldn't protect the pack from whatever threat Giana represented, then I would have to find another way—with or without the Alpha's approval.
