The news did not come from Derek.
It never did anymore.
I heard it first from the pack.
Whispers moved faster than messengers, faster than sealed letters and council summons. They slipped through corridors, clung to the edges of conversations, followed me like a second shadow.
By the time it reached my ears clearly, it already carried weight.
A name.
Tanaia.
I had never met her, but I knew her reputation the way one knows the taste of iron before blood reaches the mouth.
Female Alpha. Eastern territories. Old bloodline. Ruthless where politics were concerned, polished where violence was required. She ruled her pack without a mate, without apology, and without mercy. Wolves said she had never bowed to anyone, not even the Council.
Especially not the Council.
“She’s ambitious,” one
