Chapter 171: The Traitor Within

Kaelen's POV

"I thought anyone could be a traitor. Damien's too smart, too well-informed. Someone's feeding him intelligence." I laughed, bitter and sharp. "Turns out I was right about the spy. Just wrong about who it was."

"So instead of trusting me—your ally and old friend—you wasted three days playing detective." His voice was quiet. Dangerous. "While the real threat was back in Shadowmere."

"Yes."

"You fucking idiot."

I flinched. Couldn't help it.

"If you'd told me the truth from the start," Zephyr continued, each word precise and cutting, "if you'd said 'I killed someone I thought was Damien but now I'm not sure,' we could have coordinated. Could have compared intelligence, tracked movements, figured out the deception together."

"I know—"

"We could have sent scouts to Shadowmere. Could have warned your Beta to increase security around your mate." He was in my face now, fury radiating off him in waves. "But instead you played spy games. Questioned my loyalty. Treated me like a suspect while your pack was under attack."

Every word landed like a physical blow because they were all true.

"I fucked up," I said.

"You think?" Zephyr turned away, ran both hands through his hair. "Christ, Kaelen. I called you here to help. To share information. And you threw it back in my face because you couldn't get over your trust issues for five goddamn minutes."

"I was trying to protect my pack—"

"By alienating your allies?" He whirled back. "By making decisions based on paranoia instead of evidence? How the fuck did that work out for you?"

I had no answer. Just stood there, taking it, because I deserved every word.

Zephyr stared at me for a long moment. Then his shoulders dropped, some of the anger draining away.

"Your mate," he said quietly. "Do you know where Damien took her?"

"Not yet."

"Then you need to get back to Shadowmere. Fast." He moved to the door. "I'll give you the fastest route and an escort to the border. Horses are quicker than cars through the forest passes."

"Zephyr—"

"Don't." He held up a hand. "Don't apologize, don't explain. Just go get your mate back. And when this is over, when she's safe..." He met my eyes. "We're going to have a very long conversation about what it means to be allies. Because this shit? This doesn't happen again."

I nodded. Couldn't manage anything else.

"One more thing," Zephyr said as I turned to leave. "When you find whoever's feeding information to Damien? When you catch your traitor?" His expression went cold. "Make it hurt."

---

Kaelen's POV — Present

The memory faded, leaving me in the destroyed office with blood on my hands and my Gamma dead on the table.

I'd burned three days because I couldn't admit I'd made a mistake. Three days while Damien circled my mate like a shark. Three days while Sera called and called and finally stopped calling because she thought I'd abandoned her.

Three days that cost Orion his life.

I looked down at the green notebook, still miraculously intact amid the wreckage. Sera's handwriting on the inside cover: Our story.

I'd promised her we'd fill it together. Promised her safety, partnership, a future.

And I'd left her alone to face her nightmares.

A knock at the door. Lucian's voice: "Alpha. We need to talk."

I grabbed the towel he'd left earlier, pressed it against my already-healed knuckles just to have something to do with my hands.

"Come in."

He stepped over the debris without commenting, moved to stand by the window. "Vespera's story has holes. Big ones. I think she's working with Damien."

The words should have shocked me. Instead, they just felt like another piece falling into place.

"Walk me through it," I said.

"She claims Sera threatened her into helping reach Ironfall. But Sera doesn't trust Vespera—wouldn't ask her for help if her life depended on it." Lucian turned from the window. "And Vespera supposedly obeyed because she's just a lowly omega who can't refuse Luna's orders? That's bullshit. She hates Sera. She'd have told us immediately if Sera approached her with something that dangerous."

I nodded slowly. "What else?"

"Damien killed Orion. Carved a message into his back. Took the time to collar Sera with silver and inject her with sedatives." Lucian's jaw clenched. "But he left Vespera alive. Just injured enough to be believable."

"He heard you coming. Had to retreat."

"That's what she said. But Kaelen..." Lucian met my eyes. "Killing Vespera would have taken five seconds. Less. And it would have eliminated the only witness. Why leave her breathing?"

The implications settled over me like ice water.

"Unless he wanted her to tell us a story," I said slowly. "Unless she was part of the plan."

"She's been here for years. Knows our defenses, our patrol routes, our weaknesses." Lucian's voice was carefully neutral, but I could hear the anger underneath. "And she has every reason to want Sera gone. You humiliated her, Kaelen. Publicly chose Sera over her. Some people don't forgive that."

I thought about the attacks. The way Damien's forces always seemed to know exactly when and where to strike. The precision of tonight's ambush.

"You think Vespera's been feeding him information," I said.

"I think it's possible. I think we need to confirm it before we make any moves to rescue Sera." He paused. "Because if there's a traitor in our pack, then every plan we make gets reported back to Damien. Every strategy becomes a trap."

My wolf snarled, wanting to tear apart the world until Sera was safe in my arms. But Lucian was right. I'd already made one catastrophic mistake by acting on emotion instead of strategy.

I couldn't afford another.

I looked at Orion's body, at the message carved into his back. For Kaelen. A taunt from a man who knew exactly how to hurt me.

And maybe a message from a woman who'd been hurting for years.

"How do we prove it?" I asked.