Marked By My Enemy Alpha

Episode 15

Annalise

“My mother’s diary,” I echoed, my voice trembling just a bit. “What do you know about it?”

Corwin’s face was infuriatingly calm, the same composed demeanor he’d had since stepping into the moonlight, like a man who had been waiting for this moment forever and was finally savoring it.

“More than you might think,” he replied. “News travels fast in a pack house, Annalise, even in one that belongs to your enemies. Servants chat. Guards keep tabs. And a girl sneaking off to the ruins of Crest haven to dig up a hidden diary? That’s bound to raise some eyebrows, whether she means to or not.”

My heart sank. I hadn’t breathed a word about the diary to anyone except Hunter. Not Rosalind, not Elias, and definitely not this cold, calculating Elder who seemed to know way too much about a night I had barely managed to survive.

“How do you know what’s in it,” I pressed, “if you’ve never laid eyes on it?”

“I never said I haven’t read it,” Corwin replied, his tone matter-of-fact.

Next to me, Hunter tensed up.

“Explain,” he said, his voice dropping to a dangerously low whisper.

Corwin clasped his hands behind his back, taking his time, far too composed for someone caught in a confrontation that was quickly spiraling out of his control.

“Your mother,” he said, turning his gaze to me, “wasn’t just an acquaintance of Hunter’s mother, as Rosalind probably told you. They were much closer than that. Confidantes. Their friendship endured even the strain between rival packs because both women understood something their husbands didn’t.” He paused for effect. “The peace between Crest haven and Silver crest was always more delicate than anyone cared to admit, and there was someone out there who wanted to shatter it.”

“Someone like who?” Hunter shot back.

“That,” Corwin said, “is the very question your mothers spent years trying to unravel, quietly, without their husbands catching wind of it, because raising the alarm too soon could have sparked the very war they feared.”

I couldn't shake the diary entry that was etched in my mind. If Hunter Bane shows up, I need to tell him the truth before it’s too late.

“She knew,” I said, my voice steady but slow. “My mother sensed something was coming. She wrote that if you ever came, I should share the truth with you.”

“And what truth would that be?” Hunter asked, turning to face me fully, a flicker of something raw and desperate breaking through his calm facade.

I shook my head, frustration creeping in. “I don’t know. The diary doesn’t elaborate. It just... stops. Like she ran out of time to finish her thoughts.”

“She did run out of time,” Corwin said softly. “The night of the invasion took that choice from her, just like it took nearly everything else.”

His tone sent a tightness through my chest.

“You were there that night,” I said slowly, the realization hitting me like a cold wave. “Not just at Silvercrest thirteen years ago. You were there the night my parents died too.”

Corwin’s silence spoke volumes.

“You’ve known this whole time,” Hunter said, his voice trembling now, thirteen years of bottled-up rage finally breaking free. “You knew there was more to both of these deaths, and you let me wage a war on half the truth.”

“I let you wage a war,” Corwin replied, a hint of grief softening his weathered features for the first time, “because the alternative was telling a grieving thirteen-year-old boy that his parents’ deaths were meaningless, that they were pawns in someone else’s game, and that avenging them would require patience and investigation you weren’t ready for at that age. So yes, I let the story stand. I let you hate Crest haven, because your anger kept this pack strong and united during your most vulnerable years, and because I truly believed, for a long time, that the truth would only lead to more bloodshed.”

“And now?” I pressed. “What’s changed?”

Corwin’s gaze shifted between us, something calculating and weary lurking behind his eyes.

“Now,” he began, “you’re bonded. Whether you want it or not, you’re tied to the one person who can finish what your mothers started. And whoever set that first attack in motion thirteen years ago hasn’t stopped watching. They clearly haven’t stopped protecting their secret, especially considering how quickly Wren was whisked away tonight the moment you got too close.”

His gaze turned steely. “This means that by simply asking questions, you’ve already put targets on your backs, whether you meant to or not. I’d rather you hear the truth from me, even if it’s incomplete, than stumble blindly into the hands of whoever is still pulling the strings in all of this.”

“Then tell us everything,” Hunter insisted. “All of it. No more half-truths.”

Corwin studied him for a long moment, weighing his words.

“I don’t know everything,” he finally admitted. “That’s the truth, whether you choose to believe it or not. I know your mothers suspected there was a third party involved, someone who had a motive to weaken and divide both packs. I know Wren claimed to have seen a stranger near the pack house before your parents died, and whoever kept her quiet for all those years clearly thought that sighting was dangerous enough to lock her away instead of letting her speak freely.” He paused for a moment. “And I know Camille has connections that neither of you have really looked into. Family ties that stretch beyond Silver crest, beyond what any of us bothered to question when her father first vouched for their standing here.”

My breath hitched.

“Camille’s family,” I asked. “Where are they originally from?”

Corwin’s expression darkened.

“That,” he replied, “is a question I strongly suggest you ask her directly, Alpha, before she has a chance to vanish like Wren just did.”

He turned to leave, his silhouette moving toward the pack house, but paused after a few steps, glancing back at us with a hint of reluctant respect.

“For what it’s worth,” he said, “I really don’t think either of you are the enemies this feud has painted you to be. I find myself believing that more and more each day. Don’t let whoever set all this in motion sway you from the truth before you uncover it.”

With that, he melted into the shadows, leaving Hunter and me standing alone in the moonlight, the weight of his words hanging heavily and unresolved between us.

“Camille’s family,” Hunter said slowly, a dark fury brewing behind his eyes. “I need to dig up everything about their background. Tonight.”

But just as we were about to move, a sharp, panicked scream sliced through the stillness, coming from the direction of the pack house...high, terrified, and unmistakably human, sending a chill racing down my spine.

Hunter’s head whipped toward the sound, his whole body tensing up.

“That’s Ava,” he said, his voice tight. “That’s Ava’s voice.”