Lena's POV
Bastian confirmed the timeline within two days, and what he found did not ease the particular unease that had settled into me since Zack's visit.
The courier Sienna used had been engaged four months before the selection ceremony, according to the household ledger Bastian had quietly reviewed, the same ledger that recorded payments for services the family did not want appearing in the formal accounts. Four months. Before the ceremony had even been announced to Crestfall, before Damien's arrival had been anything more than a coming obligation on the pack calendar.
I sat with my notebook open in the reading room and wrote the date down twice, once in my own careful hand and once beside the other dates I had already gathered, the pattern Rourke had described, the timing of Aldric
