Rikae couldn't sleep. Silas's warning echoed in his head, but his wolf was restless, pacing the confines of his soul. He retreated to his private terminal, clicking on the "Ghost Frequency" to the micro-chip on Lisra's mirror.
He expected to hear her crying. He expected to hear her praying for rescue.
Instead, he heard the low, rhythmic hum of a woman brushing her hair. And then, he heard a voice. A man's voice.
"You look beautiful tonight, Lisra," the voice drawled. It was deep, gravelly, and carried the unmistakable weight of Alpha authority. "Valerius".
Rikae's hand gripped the edge of his desk so hard the wood splintered. He waited for Lisra to scream, to pull away, to show the terror she had displayed in the conservatory.
"Thank you, Valerius," she whispered.
There was no fear in her voice. There was... softness.
"The Silver-Claw Beta was sniffing around again," Valerius said, his voice closer now, likely leaning over her shoulder. "He thinks he's clever. He thinks I don't see the way he looks at what belongs to me."
"He's a boy playing at being a man," Lisra replied. Each word felt like a silver dagger twisting in Rikae's chest. "His 'fated' nonsense is exhausting. He doesn't understand what we have. He doesn't understand the power of a bond that is earned, not just given by a moon that doesn't care about us."
Rikae froze. A bond that is earned?
"Soon, my love," Valerius murmured, and Rikae heard the sound of a kiss-a slow, lingering one against her neck, right on the mark. "The Council will meet. We will finalize the expansion, and the Silver-Claw will be the first to fall. Their 'Gold Standard' Beta will be the first trophy on our wall."
"I know," Lisra said, her voice dropping to a chilling, steady tone. "I've already planted the seeds. Rikae thinks he's hacking your accounts, but he's actually opening the backdoors to his own pack's servers. He's so blinded by me, he's handing us the keys to his kingdom."
Rikae felt the world tilt. The "logic" he took such pride in had been his undoing. He looked at his screen-the red lines, the "hacks," the "Economic Warfare."
He wasn't draining Valerius. He was being lured.
Lisra wasn't just a victim. She was the architect. She had lied to him in the conservatory, played the part of the "terrified mate," and used the fated bond as a lure to get Rikae to drop his guards.
"One more week," Lisra whispered through the speaker, her voice sounding hauntingly sweet. "And the Silver-Claw will belong to us. I'll enjoy watching the light go out of his perfect grey eyes."
The line went dead.
Rikae sat in the darkness of his office, the silence ringing in his ears. His wolf wasn't howling anymore. It was silent, shivering in the cold realization that the mate it had waited twenty-three years for... was the enemy.