The intelligence arrived through Ryker, which meant it arrived carefully.
Ryker was not a man who delivered information carelessly. He waited until he had verified it through two separate sources, until he had considered its implications thoroughly enough to anticipate the questions it would generate, and until he had chosen a moment that gave the recipient the best possible conditions for receiving it well. In this case, that meant finding Kael in the late afternoon when Marcus was napping and Lyra was in the healing rooms for her weekly assessment with Eleanor, so that Kael had neither his son's presence to perform composure for nor his mate's watchful concern to manage.
He found Kael in the small courtyard off the east wing, working through a series of combat forms that had no practical application in his current life and that he performed anyway because his body needed the outlet that ordinary pack life didn't provide.
Ryker sat on the low wall and waited for him to finish.
