"Alone." Victoria's face had gone pale, her hands trembling at her sides.
"He wants me there without any of you," she said. "Which means he's already decided what happens next depends entirely on what I'm willing to do."
"You're not going alone," Lucien said immediately. "Not after what he threatened in that lodge."
"If I don't go, Corinne and your father die," Victoria said. "You heard the guard. He's holding both of them."
"Then we bring the council with us," the senior elder said, already moving toward the door. "Full guard, formal authority. Bartholomew Ashford does not get to dictate terms to this pack any longer."
"He'll kill them the moment he sees armed guards approaching," Marcus said grimly. "A man who's spent twenty years disappearing knows exactly how to read a threat befo
