Chapter 4 — The Letter He Never Read
1592 Words
IRIS
I don't know whether I'm laughing or crying.
Maybe both.
My hand goes to my stomach.
Nothing is different.
Everything is different.
“Roman.”
His name comes out before I can stop it.
Mara's face hardens.
“What about him?”
“He has to know.”
“He had to choose you yesterday too.”
“This isn't about us.”
“It will become about you the second a Blackwood knows there's a child.”
Fear cuts through me.
The Alpha House.
Gideon.
The separation order.
Vivienne with the Luna crescent.
Roman telling me he could give me a house.
A safe place.
A hidden place.
I bend over, suddenly nauseous again.
Then something stirs inside me.
Not the baby.
Too early.
Nyla.
Faint.
Wounded.
But there.
Pup.
I cover my mouth.
“Oh God.”
Mara crouches in front of me.
“What?”
“Nyla.”
“What about her?”
“She came back.”
My sister wraps both arms around me.
I cry into her shoulder.
Not because everything is okay.
Nothing is okay.
But my wolf is here.
And there is a tiny life inside me that didn't do anything wrong.
When I finally pull away, I wipe my face.
“I'll tell him.”
Mara studies me.
“You're sure?”
“No.”
“Good. You sounded too confident.”
Back at the border house, I ruin two sheets of paper.
The first letter is angry enough to qualify as a weapon.
The second is worse.
It begins with I loved you.
I tear that one fastest.
On the third sheet, I write:
Roman,
Elara confirmed today that I'm pregnant. The baby is yours.
I stop.
My vision blurs.
Mara quietly puts tea beside me.
I continue.
I'm not asking you to change what you chose yesterday. I'm telling you because you have the right to know this child exists.
I will not come back to be hidden. If you want to speak to me about the baby, send word through Mara. Please don't send your father.
Iris.
That's it.
No speech.
No legal argument.
No pretending I know what happens next.
I fold Elara's confirmation slip inside.
Mara reads it.
“Better.”
“Better than what?”
“Your first draft threatened his reproductive organs.”
“I was emotional.”
“You used anatomical terminology.”
“I am a healer.”
The courier arrives before sunset.
Young.
Gray Silvercrest uniform.
He looks at the envelope.
“Roman Blackwood?”
“Directly to him.”
“I can mark it private.”
“Do that.”
Mara points at him.
“Not a secretary. Not a councilor. Not Gideon.”
The courier's eyebrows rise.
“Understood.”
I don't release the envelope immediately.
For one ridiculous second, I want it back.
If Roman knows, everything changes.
If he doesn't know, I'm deciding for both of them.
I let go.
The courier drives toward Silvercrest.
At 4:23 p.m., my phone vibrates.
A delivery confirmation.
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE RECEIVED — ALPHA HOUSE.
I read it twice.
Mara looks over my shoulder.
“Delivered.”
I stare at the word.
Roman knows.
At least, that is what I believe.
* * *
ROMAN
At 4:23 in the afternoon, Nox catches the rogue at marker twelve.
“Search him,” I tell Felix.
The rogue’s eyes flick toward me.
“You’re Roman Blackwood.”
“Bad day to recognize me.”
Felix pats him down and pulls a folded sheet from inside his coat.
He opens it.
The humor leaves his face.
“Roman.”
I take the page.
Silvercrest patrol rotation.
Marker numbers. Departure times. Convoy changes.
The new route Nolan mentioned at the clinic is circled in black.
At the bottom is an internal security code.
Only patrol command, the Council office, and the Alpha House security desk should have had access to this version.
The rogue watches me understand.
“Who gave you this?”
He spits blood into the snow.
I grab the front of his coat.
“Who?”
He smiles.
“Ask your own house.”
Nox surges.
My hand tightens before I force it open.
Felix steps between us just enough to remind me that killing a prisoner is not leadership.
I hate that he has to.
“Take him to holding,” I say.
Two warriors haul the rogue to his feet.
He keeps smiling until they put him in the vehicle.
Felix looks at the patrol sheet again.
“This wasn’t stolen from a filing cabinet months ago. Nolan changed the route yesterday morning.”
By the time we return to the Alpha House, the Council corridors are full. Vivienne is waiting outside the chamber with the silver crescent still at her throat.
I stop.
She reaches for the clasp before I say anything.
“Take it off.”
“I was planning to.”
Gideon appears behind her.
“No.”
Vivienne’s hand freezes.
My wolf rises on instinct and Alpha power pushes into the corridor.
Three nearby guards lower their eyes.
Vivienne stiffens.
I pull the force back immediately.
“Sorry,” I tell her.
Her eyebrows lift.
“Today is full of unusual experiences.”
“Take it off.”
This time I keep the command out of my voice.
She does.
The silver crescent drops into her palm.
Gideon’s face hardens.
“The alliance is not secure.”
“The pass is open.”
“For now.”
Vivienne holds the necklace out to him.
“My father told me this morning that if I embarrassed him publicly, he would close the road again.”
I look at her.
“You knew about Iris?”
“That she was your mate? No.”
“You heard the room.”
“So did everyone.” Her mouth tightens. “I agreed to an alliance. I did not agree to stand beside a man while his mate broke on the floor.”
Gideon takes the necklace from her.
“You agreed to what your pack required.”
Vivienne looks at him.
“I am beginning to understand where Roman learned to confuse those two things.”
Then she walks away.
Felix makes a quiet sound that might be a cough.
I deserve that one too.
Inside the Council chamber, a legal aide sets the temporary separation order in front of me.
The same page Gideon pushed under the study door.
I did not sign it then.
I was too busy watching Iris leave.
Now the page waits beside the succession documents.
Seven days outside the Alpha House and ceremonial district.
No loss of residency.
No employment restriction.
No border ban.
No detention.
I read it again. Seven days. Iris’s name at the top.
“No,” I say.
Gideon sits across from me.
“Half the pack is arguing that your public rejection destabilizes the succession.”
“Then let them argue.”
“Three councilors are threatening to delay the transfer.”
“Then delay it.”
The words leave my mouth before ambition can stop them.
For one second, I almost feel relief.
Then Elder Morrow speaks.
“If command remains uncertain, Alpha Crowe can close the pass with one call. We recovered two more injured patrolmen this afternoon. The next grain convoy is scheduled in forty-eight hours.”
Felix drops the stolen patrol sheet onto the table.
“And someone is feeding our routes to the attackers.”
Everyone starts talking at once.
Gideon reads the page.
His expression does not change enough.
I notice.
I do not know what it means yet.
“Where did you get this?” he asks.
“Off a rogue at marker twelve.”
“That makes stability even more important.”
“Convenient.”
His eyes meet mine.
“Careful.”
I almost laugh.
Yesterday I would have heard my father warning his heir.
Today I hear a man who still owns too many doors.
The legal aide clears his throat.
“The temporary order can be amended.”
I look down again.
Seven days.
I can use seven days to keep the border house quiet while I get the pass secure, expose whoever leaked the route, and end the Crowe arrangement.
For one dangerous second, the plan almost feels workable.
My stomach turns.
“Add that no one approaches Iris’s residence without her consent,” I say.
The aide writes.
“Her clinic position remains hers.”
He writes again.
“No escort. No surveillance. No restriction beyond the central grounds.”
Gideon’s mouth thins.
“You are negotiating footnotes.”
“I am reading what carries my name.”
I sign.
Nox speaks for the first time in hours.
Coward.
My hand stops over the paper.
Felix sees my face.
He does not ask.
“Seven days,” I say. “Not one hour more.”
Gideon reaches for the file.
I keep my hand on it.
“Seven.”
“Of course.”
The Council confirms the transfer for the end of the seven-day period.
People congratulate me.
I feel nothing.
Felix finds me in the corridor with an evidence bag in his hand.
“The lab checked the patrol sheet.”
“And?”
“It was printed yesterday at 5:41 a.m.”
My pulse slows.
“From where?”
Felix turns the bag over.
A server identification code is taped to the back.
ALPHA HOUSE — INTERNAL ADMINISTRATION.
Someone inside my home gave our enemy the road.
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