Chapter Five
AIDEN'S POV
I run out of the Silver Moon Pack's main building, rage and disbelief sloshing through my veins like poison. My wolf prowls frantically beneath my skin, desperate to spin on our heel and defend what’s ours. Five years. Five fucking years without realizing I had sons.
"Alpha Aiden!" Delta Ross screams, running over to greet me as I finally get to the border of the territory. "What happened? You seem prepared to rip someone to shreds.”
“Get the car,” I bark, my voice not human. "We're leaving. Now."
Ross looks around at my tone, but he knows better than to challenge me when I’m like this. He rushes to get our vehicle, as I remain frozen, processing what just occurred.
The twins are mine. Mine. The smell had beckoned to me the second I crossed onto the pack grounds, but seeing them in closer proximity had validated it. Those lads are as clear Fenrir blood as it gets. Identical copies, as I’d told that fraud of a father.
Xavier Carters. Just saying his name makes my canines grow. His arm around Haylee the way he had claimed my sons as his own — the recollection causes my wolf to howl in rage.
“The car’s ready, Alpha,” Ross says, tearing me from my murderous thought.
I get in the passenger seat and slam the door hard enough to make the whole truck rattle. Ross stammers away and
drives us toward the Silver Lake Inn without saying a word.
"Did you know?" I finally say, watching the trees pass by through the window.
"Know what, Alpha?"
That Luna Haylee was pregnant when she left.
Ross’s odor suddenly changes to anxiety and guilt.) My head snaps toward him. "You knew?"
“I... I had an idea,” he says, tightening his grip on the steering wheel. “Her scent was different weeks before she went missing. But with everything going on with the pack rebellion and Lady Eliza's claims..."
“You should have told me,” I say, the tone of my voice dangerously, throaty low.
“Would it have made a difference? Ross dares to ask. “You believed Luna Haylee had sold you out. You wouldn’t hear otherwise from anyone.”
His words struck with the force of a blow. He’s right — we both know it. I was a different Alpha five years ago — arrogant, manipulatable and judgemental. I had fallen for Eliza’s lies about Haylee plotting against me with foreign packs. I had publicly confronted my mate, I had humiliated her, I had rejected her.
“They’re my sons,” I say, to myself more than Ross. “And they refer to another man as ‘Daddy.’ "
Ross parks in the inn’s lot and kills the engine. "What are you going to do?"
I'll do whatever it takes to get what's mine,” I answer, my determination solidifying. “My sons will know their real heritage. And Haylee. Here I pause, the image of her lovely face scrunched up in fury playing across my mind. “Haylee will know what it’s like to be my mate.”
Well, Alpha, with all due respect, this Xavier appears deeply rooted in their lives. The boys obviously love him."
I get out of the car, slamming the door once more. "He's not their father. I am."
I've checked into the largest available suite at the modest little inn—still nothing compared to what I'm used to, but since I've lost Alpha status, the Shadow Pack's resources have been a little thin. Another mistake I plan to fix.
“Get me everything you can on Xavier Carters,” I tell Ross when he comes in with our bags. “I need to know when he met Haylee — how he became the Alpha of Silver Moon and what kind of relationship he has with my sons.
“Immediately,” Ross nods, already pulling out his phone.
Alone in my room, I pace like the caged predator I am. The twins’ faces keep me awake — photocopies of my own baby pictures. Kael and Lior. Even their names carry strength. What would they be called, if I had known? The question inspires an unexpected grief.
My phone rings and breaks my train of thought. Elder Malek, smirking, one of the only Shadow Pack council members who still backs me.
“Elder,” I reply, the word coming out of my mouth flat, my head a mess.
“Aiden,” he says, omitting the pleasantries, as is his wont.
“Did you reach out to Luna Haylee?”
"I have."
"And? Have you had any luck making her breathe even closer to our petition to the High Council?”
I hesitate, choose my words carefully. Should I announce the twins too early, the elders will swarm like vultures, viewing the boys as pawns to elevate our pack to its former glory.
“There’s been a… complication,” I finally say. “Luna Haylee is now engaged to Alpha Xavier Carters.”
You can hear Malek suck in his breath over the phone. "The Silver Moon Alpha? That's unexpected. That would solidify both of their packs a great deal.”
“There’s more,” I go on, choosing to give just a little. “ I think I might have found a way to make everything different for the Shadow Pack. “But I need time to verify it.”
"What have you found?" Malek you ask, your inflection keen with interest.
Not over the phone," I reply. “I’ll reach out when I get further info. —“Keep the other elders busy for now, focusing on the territorial dispute with the Northern packs.”
I click off the call and walk out to my room’s balcony, breathing in the cool evening air. I can see the distant lights from Silver Moon territory from here. My life mate, my sons are somewhere in those woods living a life that I was supposed to be a part of.
My brooding is interrupted by a knock at the door. Ross comes in without waiting for an answer, tablet in his hand.
“I’ve got some information on Xavier Carters,” he announces and hands me the device. Five years ago, he challenged the previous Alpha and he has been Alpha of Silver Moon since. Rumors from pack mates say that he found Luna Haylee close to death in their territory and nursed her to health. When she recovered and had twins, he claimed them as his own.”
“Nice timing,” I mutter, scrolling through the information.
“There’s more, though,” Ross says, his tone causing me to glance up quickly. “It is not until Xavier becomes Alpha that he is able to have their head enforcer. Ope," Paused And Before That... He Was High Council Intelligence Operative."
"A spy?" But I’m immediately intrigued.
“Not an ordinary spy,” continues Ross. “He was trained in infiltration and intelligence extraction. He had been known for his ability to get close to targets without drawing suspicion.”
A sinking feeling settles in my gut. “You’re not implying her meeting Haylee was a coincidence?”
“I’m not implying anything, Alpha,” says Ross, gingerly. “But the timing is… interesting. “Luna Haylee leaves your pack, pregnant with your heirs, in disgrace, and conveniently drops on the border of a pack whose Head Enforcer has connections to the High Council?”
My imagination runs wild with possibilities, none good. “Get me everything on Xavier’s missions for the Council, especially any work that dates back over five years.”
“That will not be easy,” Ross cautions. "Those records are sealed."
“Find a way,” I snap, short on patience now. “And I demand surveillance on the Silver Moon Pack house. “I have to know their schedules, when the twins are alone, when they leave pack land, all of it.
Ross looks worried. “Alpha, you’re not going to —”
“I’m going to get to know my sons,” I interrupted. “Through the right channels if possible. But I won’t find out one way or another, I will be in their lives.”
"And Luna Haylee?" he dares to ask.
I think of her fierce beauty today, how the years have only deepened it, how she bears that physical power more, not less. The mate bond, inactive for so long, had ignited the second I laid eyes on her again. She had felt it too—I knew because of how she had responded to my presence, even with her abject hatred.
“The mate bond is unbreakable,” I finally say. “She can deny it all she wants, but she’s mine,” Haylee is mine. She always has been."
“How about her engagement to Xavier?”
A growl rumbles in my chest. "A temporary obstacle. When she hears what I think she doesn't know about her dear fiancé, it will be another story.”
Ross nods, although his scent is laced with doubt. He goes to get the arrangements I’ve asked for, and I’m back on the balcony, looking toward the distant territory that contains everything I’ve lost.
My phone pings with a message from an unfamiliar number. My heart skips when I open it, and see a picture of the twins playing in what looks like a park.
The message beneath it is straightforward: Want to meet your sons for real? Tomorrow. 2 PM. Silver Lake Park. Come alone.
I look at the screen, suspicion and hope fighting in me. Is this a trap? Or is someone in Silver Moon Pack giving me my chance?
Either way, I'll be there. There was nothing that could keep me from a chance to know my sons. Not even Xavier, not Haylee, not the potential of walking into danger.
What they don’t detect is that I’m already plotting—one that gives me access to my sons, and with luck, whatever game Xavier’s playing. And if I'm right about him, Haylee will have no choice but to see it.
The question that gnaws at me as night settles isn't if I will succeed — it's what Xavier will do when he learns I'm about to take down everything he has built on lies.