THE ASHWOOD LEGACY

THE THREAT SURFACE'S

Chapter 17 — The Threat Surfaces

Vivienne's meeting location turned out to be a small café on the edge of the financial district, unremarkable enough that Elena almost walked past it twice before spotting Vivienne already seated at a corner table, sunglasses on despite the overcast morning, clearly trying not to be recognized.

"You actually came," Vivienne said, as Elena slid into the seat across from her. "I half expected you to ignore the message."

"I've had enough secrets kept from me in the last three days to last a lifetime. I'm not in the mood to add more." Elena studied the other woman carefully. "What do you know about Margaret's involvement in the rejection?"

Vivienne's jaw tightened. "I know that the timeline doesn't add up the way everyone assumes it does. Margaret didn't just push for the rejection to secure my family's alliance. She pushed for it three days after receiving a preliminary bloodline flag on your file — a flag she buried, and never told Damian about, because she needed the rejection finalized before anyone else in the council could raise questions."

Elena went very still. "She knew what I was. Before the rejection."

"I believe so, yes. I only found out myself two years ago, when my father mentioned it in passing during a discussion about our engagement's political value." Vivienne's expression was tight, unreadable. "I should have told you sooner. I didn't, because knowing gave me leverage I wasn't ready to give up."

"And now?"

"Now Ashgrove has publicly recognized your bloodline, my family is asking uncomfortable questions about why I haven't secured the marriage yet, and I'm starting to realize that the leverage I thought I had is about to get us both killed if we're not careful." Vivienne leaned forward, her voice dropping low and urgent. "Elena, there's a third party involved in this. I don't know who, exactly, but my sources indicate someone has been quietly gathering information about Ashwood bloodline rumors for months, well before your verification. Someone with resources significant enough to move against both Crimson Hollow and Ashgrove simultaneously if they decided your bloodline was too dangerous to let either pack claim."

Before Elena could respond, her phone buzzed violently against the table — not a text this time, but a call, Sable's name flashing across the screen with the kind of urgency that made her stomach drop before she even answered.

"El—" Sable's voice was ragged, panicked, background noise chaotic behind her. "El, I need you to come to Ravenshade General right now. I was attacked outside the hotel. I'm okay, I'm okay, but they—" Her voice broke. "They knew things, El. They asked about you specifically. About the bloodline. I think it was a warning."

Elena's blood went cold. "I'm coming right now. Stay on the phone with me."

Across the table, Vivienne's expression had shifted into something grim and knowing.

"That's the third party," she said quietly. "They're not waiting to see how this plays out, Elena. They're already moving."

Elena was on her feet before Vivienne finished speaking, phone pressed to her ear, Sable's shaky breathing the only thing keeping the rising panic in her chest from tipping over into something far worse.

Whatever fragile peace had existed in her carefully rebuilt life over the last three years was gone now, replaced by a war she hadn't asked for, over a bloodline she hadn't known she carried, and the people she loved were already paying the price.

She left cash on the table without waiting for change, already moving, already dialing the hotel's private security line before she'd cleared the café door. Rain had started somewhere in the last hour, fine and cold, and she barely registered it soaking through her blazer as she half-ran the six blocks to the hospital, Vivienne's warning about a third party circling in the dark repeating itself over and over beneath the rising panic.

Someone with resources significant enough to move against both packs at once.

She didn't know yet who that someone was. She only knew, standing in the hospital's fluorescent-lit entrance twenty minutes later, soaked and breathless, that whatever answer waited for her was going to cost more than she'd already paid.