Lucas had once told me something I never fully forgot—something that now felt like a fracture running through the entire pack network.
Elliot wasn't just dealing with surface-level rivalries. He was digging into an old bloodline incident—one that had shattered his childhood pack formation. A kidnapping tied to a buried territory war, and a massacre that had also taken Anastasia's mother during the same night of chaos.
It wasn't just history.
It was unfinished pack justice.
And now Elliot was reopening it.
The realization settled in my chest like a tightening bond-mark. That was what Riley meant when he said the situation was no longer in his favor. It wasn't just influence slipping—it was exposure. If Elliot uncovered the truth behind that old incident, Riley wouldn't just lose status. He would be hunted down by every enforcement Alpha in the system and left to rot in containment for the rest of his life.
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