“The Pack Lords await in the throne room,” Miriam announced, her voice composed.
Silence lingered.
“Alpha…” she prompted gently.
Vargr lifted his gaze at once, the weight of thought pressing behind his eyes.
Miriam stepped further into the study, her presence steady but cautious.
“What troubles you, my lord?” she asked.
“A great many things, Miriam. News has reached me—unsettling news—and it weighs heavily on my mind.”
She seated herself across from him, hands folded neatly in her lap.
“When you were in service to my mother,” he began, “did she ever speak of Lydia Voss bearing a hidden child?”
A pause.
The fire cracked in the hearth.
“No,” Miriam replied slowly. “Why do you ask such a thing?”
“Word has come to me of a creature—half wolf, half mage. A hybrid. And it is said the
