GIDEON
She was waiting.
Not impatiently. Isla never waited impatiently.
She waited the way she did everything, with that particular quality of stillness that collected information while it sat.
Her eyes on mine. The mug still in her hands. The question hanging in the space between us exactly as she’d placed it.
“Did you know? About the bloodline. Before Dorian told you.”
I looked at her for a moment.
Then I crossed to the window and stood beside her, both of us facing the forest below, the morning mist still threading through the tree line.
“No,” I said. “I didn’t know.”
She didn’t respond. Waiting for the rest.
“The night of the induction,” I continued, “Dorian told me there was a girl. Ashford’s secret. Beta bloodline, no Pack affiliation. He said she was a potential complica
