Chapter 13 Looming Truth
CHAPTER 13
ZANE'S POV
Aurelia didn’t say a word on the walk back, and honestly, that was okay with me. I wasn’t in the mood for conversation either.
Ever since the training ground, after she’d seen my hand near Davina’s jaw, it felt like this silence had taken on a life of its own. I wasn’t ready to address it, though because doing so would mean admitting something I wasn’t quite prepared to put into words.
“She’s trouble,” she said, her voice flat.
I kept walking. “My father's waiting,” I replied, not looking back.
The lodge buzzed with that familiar mid-morning chaos of wolves bustling between breakfast and duty shifts, conversations overlapping, boots thudding on the wooden floors. As I walked through, the noise softened just a bit, like when something’s gone wrong, but that subtle shift that always seemed to happen when I entered a room. Heads turned slightly, conversations dipped a notch, and I noticed two younger wolves by the fire straighten up without even realizing it.
Once, I would have felt the weight of that attention pressing down on me, but now, it was just something I had somehow gotten used to and I couldn't care less.
Across the room, Roan, one of the senior warriors, caught my eye and gave me a quick nod and I nodded back and continued on my way.
My father’s office door was already open when I arrived. He stood by the window, clearly having watched the training ground.
He didn’t turn around right away. Instead, he let me walk in, close the door, and stand there in silence.
Finally, he turned and handed me a document. I took it, and within just a few seconds, I understood what I was reading. It took another couple of seconds for the full weight of it to sink in.
Grayson had filed a formal complaint to the council this morning, under Article nine of the blood treaty. He was claiming that the Storm pack was holding a human against her will within our territory.
"He filed it at dawn," my father said, his voice steady.
I placed the document on the desk, feeling a knot tighten in my stomach. "He’s been planning this since that night at the shop."
"Longer than that." My father moved toward his chair but didn’t sit down. Instead, he rested his hands on the back of it, looking at me with a seriousness that made my heart race. "If the Council rules in his favor, we lose the Alpha claim. Everything comes to a halt, the succession, the ceremony, our standing in the regional council, all of it suspended while they investigate." He paused, letting the gravity of it hang in the air. "There’s going to be a hearing in three weeks."
"She’ll testify," I said, trying to hold onto a thread of hope.
"She’ll need to do more than just testify. She has to convince a room full of wolves who’ve already made up their minds that she doesn’t belong here." He held my gaze, his eyes intense. "That means she needs to walk in there fully aware of what she’s up against. All of it, Zane. Not the version you’ve been carefully crafting to spare her feelings."
I didn’t respond to that.
"Tell her about the bond," he urged. "Today, because she’s caught in the middle of a war, and she deserves to know the truth." He didn't say anything else and neither did I.
The compound had found its rhythm by the time I stepped back outside, that late-morning buzz where the serious work of the day was already in full swing. I could see three wolves running combat drills near the east fence, while someone was up on the roof of the equipment shed, hammering away. The sound echoed across the yard. Two of the older pack mothers were hanging laundry outside the family quarters, chatting about something that made one of them laugh so loudly it startled a bird from the nearest tree.
I paused on the lodge steps for a moment, taking it all in.
This is what I was really protecting, not just some idea of a pack, but this, the sound of hammers ringing, the smell of fresh laundry, the laughter echoing around us, and the wolves who stood a little taller when I walked by, trusting that I knew what I was doing. I just had to make sure I actually did.
"You look like you just received some really bad news or maybe something really complicated," Caspian said, suddenly appearing beside me as if he’d materialized out of thin air, just when I needed him most but couldn’t admit it. "Which one is it?"
"Both," I replied.
"Wonderful." He said, not bothering to ask where we were headed. "Training looked pretty interesting the other day and this morning."
"Don’t."
"I'm not doing anything! Just making an observation." He paused for a moment. "She’s good, you know."
"She is."
"She’s really good, she even got her elbow in your ribs the other day."
"Caspian."
"I'm just saying, that’s not nothing. I’ve seen guys train with you for six months and never get that close." He shot me a sideways glance. "You let her, right?"
I stopped in my tracks. "I didn’t let her. She earned it."
He gave me that look, the one that said he was choosing his words carefully because he knew they mattered. "Yeah," he said slowly. "That’s actually what I meant."
We resumed walking, and I filled him in on the Council complaint as we crossed the yard, keeping my voice low. I watched his expression shift, the easy humor fading away to be replaced by something more serious.
"Three weeks," he said when I finished.
"Three weeks."
He fell silent for a moment. Around us, the compound buzzed with activity. It felt like the whole place was running smoothly, as if nothing had changed. "And your father said to tell her about the bond."
"Yes, today."
Caspian nodded slowly. "He’s right."
"I know he’s right."
"She’s been here almost a week, still trying to figure out why everything feels so off, and that’s not fair to her." He glanced at me. "She’s going to be really angry."
"I know that."
"Do you think she'll understand or accept it at least?"
I thought about her on the training ground this morning. The way she looked at me after that last move, breathless and surprised by her own strength.
I knew she was brave and strong even though she needed serious training, but I didn't know to what extent that bravery stopped.
"I don’t know yet," I admitted.
Caspian nodded, as if that made total sense. We came to a path, one direction led to the east wing, while the other headed toward the border watch station.
He paused, looked at me, and said, “Jax had breakfast with Aurelia this morning.” It felt like an offhand comment, but there was more to it. “They were at a private table, and they stopped talking when I walked by.”
Suddenly, the hammering from the equipment shed felt like it was echoing in my ears.
“When did this start happening?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady.
“First time I’ve seen it,” he replied, holding my gaze. “But probably not the first time it’s happened.”
Without another word, he turned and walked toward the border station, leaving me standing on the path with the document from my father’s office still sitting heavily in my chest, and a colder question settling right beside it.
Jax and Aurelia. Individually, they were problems I could handle. But together? That was a whole different thing.
And they were my pack members, my family, and I just hoped that they weren't pl
anning anything that would make me act rashly.
I took a deep breath and headed toward the east wing.