Rikae didn't wait for morning. He strode into Silas's private quarters, his face a mask of pale, cold stone. When Silas saw him, he didn't even ask what was wrong-he just poured two glasses of neat bourbon.
"She's the architect, Silas," Rikae said, his voice sounding like it was coming from the bottom of a well. "Lisra. She isn't a victim. She's helping him dismantle us from the inside. My 'hacks'... they were backdoors. I handed her the keys."
Silas didn't shout. He didn't even look surprised. He just sighed and sat at his terminal. "I told you your heart was a blind spot, Rikae. Now, sit down. If she's playing a game, there's a reason. No one chooses a monster unless they see something the rest of us don't."
For the next four hours, the two best friends did what they did best: they hunted for the truth. Silas used his Alpha-level clearance to dig into the restricted archives of the Iron-Fang lineage-files that were sealed ten years ago.
"Look at this," Silas whispered, pointing to a grainy photo from a decade prior.
Rikae leaned in. It was Valerius, but he looked... different. His eyes were bright, his smile genuine. He was standing next to a small, ethereal-looking wolf with silver hair.
"His first mate," Silas explained, scrolling through the text. "Her name was Mira. By all accounts, Valerius was the most respected Alpha in the North. He built schools, he brokered peace, he was... well, he was a lot like you, Rikae."
"What happened?"
"A border skirmish with the Blood-Moon Pack. Their Alpha was a butcher. He didn't just kill Mira; he executed her in front of Valerius to break the Iron-Fang spirit." Silas's voice was heavy. "Valerius didn't break. He turned into a shadow. He wiped the Blood-Moon pack off the map in a single night. Since then, he hasn't been an Alpha-he's been a jailer. He collects 'mates' and vassals because he's terrified of being alone in the dark again."
Rikae looked at the photo, then at the recent audio logs of Lisra.
"She's not in love with a tyrant," Rikae realized, the logic finally clicking into place. "She's in love with the ghost of the man in that photo. She thinks she can bring him back. She's sacrificing our pack to give him the power he thinks he needs to feel safe."
"And in doing so, she's becoming a monster herself," Silas added. "She's not just a mate, Rikae. She's his enabler. And she will walk over your grave to keep him smiling."
Rikae felt the "Fated Bond" in his chest twitch. It was still there, pulsing with a sick, distorted energy. The Moon had paired him with a woman who was willing to destroy him for the sake of another man's trauma.
"He was a good man once," Rikae said, standing up. His eyes were no longer bloodshot; they were sharp, focused, and lethal. "But he's a plague now. And Lisra is the infection spreader."
"What's the move, Lead Beta?" Silas asked, his hand hovering over the "Lockdown" command for their servers.
"We don't lock down," Rikae said. "We feed the infection. If she wants the keys to our kingdom, we'll give them to her. But we're going to change the locks before she gets to the door."