Chapter 74 The Luna's Choice
The interrogations had been going on for seventy-two hours. Every pack member, every staff member, every ally who'd been on territory during the Ghost Wolf infiltration—all questioned under protocols I never thought we'd have to use. The pack was fracturing under the weight of suspicion, and I could feel it through every Luna bond I'd formed.
"This has to stop," Roman said, entering my office where I'd been reviewing interrogation transcripts. "Three families have already requested transfer to other packs. People are afraid to trust their own neighbors."
"Would you rather we miss a Ghost Wolf and have them destroy us from within?" I asked, exhaustion making my voice sharper than intended.
"I'd rather we find another way," he replied. "The Sage I know wouldn't tear the pack apart to save it."
He was right, and we both knew it. But the knowledge that my own twin brother had walked among us, replaced Gregory, held our people hostage—it had shaken something fundamental in me.
"Luna," Elena appeared at the door, urgency in her voice. "You need to see this. We found something in the archived security footage."
In the security center, she pulled up footage from three weeks ago. It showed the pack house kitchen at 3 AM, empty except for someone I recognized immediately—Maria Santos, our head chef who'd been with River Pack since its founding.
"Watch her hands," Elena said, zooming in.
Maria was preparing what looked like normal meal prep, but her movements were too precise, too practiced. She was adding something to specific meals—meals I realized with a chill were designated for leadership only.
"Toxicology ran tests on preserved samples," Gregory said, looking haggard from his own ordeal. "Micro-doses of a compound that affects decision-making. Not enough to be noticed, just enough to make someone more... susceptible to suggestion."
"She's been drugging us?" Mason asked, his voice dangerous.
"For weeks, possibly months," Gregory confirmed. "It would explain why none of us questioned certain security changes, why some decisions felt right despite being tactically unsound."
"Bring her in," I ordered.
"Already done," Thomas said. "She's in interrogation room three. But Sage... she asked for you specifically. Said she'll only talk to the Luna."
The walk to the interrogation room felt like a funeral march. Maria had been at our wedding, had made Rory's birthday cakes, had been as trusted as family. If she was compromised, then truly no one was above suspicion.
She sat calmly at the metal table, her weathered hands folded, looking every inch the grandmother she was to her four grandchildren who lived in the pack.
"Hello, Luna," she said, her voice carrying an accent from her native Mexico. "I suppose you have questions."
"Why?" I asked simply.
"Because they have my son," she replied, tears suddenly streaming down her face. "My youngest, Diego. He was traveling in South America when he disappeared six months ago. Then I received a message—do what they say, or he dies."
"Why didn't you come to us?"
"With what proof? A voice on the phone? Messages that self-deleted? They said if I breathed a word, they'd send me pieces of him."
I wanted to be angry, but all I felt was a deep sadness. Another pawn, another victim of the Architect's games.
"What did they want you to do?"
"Small things at first. Report on conversations, note routines. Then the compounds in the food—they said they were harmless, just to make you more 'receptive.' I swear, I didn't know about the Ghost Wolves, about the attack. I thought... I thought if I cooperated, they'd let Diego go."
"Do you have any proof Diego is still alive?"
She pulled out a phone I didn't recognize, showing me a video dated two days ago. Diego Santos, clearly beaten but alive, begging his mother to keep cooperating.
"Every week, they send proof of life," Maria said. "Every week, I betray the pack that gave me home."
Mason entered the room, having watched from observation. "We can help. We can find Diego—"
"No," Maria interrupted. "They said they have people everywhere. In the Council, in the human government, even in the Mexican cartels. If you try to find him, he dies."
"So we're supposed to just let them use you?" I asked.
"I'm supposed to give you a message," Maria said, pulling out a sealed envelope. "They said once you read this, you'd understand the real game being played."
I took the envelope with careful hands, noting it was old-fashioned paper, expensive, with a wax seal bearing a symbol I didn't recognize. Inside was a single sheet with elegant handwriting:
"Dear Luna Grey,
By now you've discovered some of my pieces on the board. Maria, the Ghost Wolves, even your brother—all serving their purposes. But you still don't understand the scope of what's happening.
River Pack was never about integration. It was an experiment. Can traditional pack structure evolve? Can humans and wolves truly coexist? Can the old bloodlines adapt to a new world?
You've provided fascinating data, but the experiment is ending. In seven days, at the Coalition Summit, the truth will be revealed. Every pack leader, every Council member, every integration advocate will be there.
And they'll all discover what you've suspected—that the system is irreparably broken.
You have a choice, Luna. Stand with the old system and fall with it. Or join the new world we're building, where bloodlines like yours and your brother's will finally have the power they deserve.
Your parents died believing in integration. Don't make their mistake.
\-The Architect
P.S. Maria's son will be released if you make the right choice. Consider it a sign of good faith."
I set the letter down, my mind racing. The Coalition Summit was the annual gathering of all North American pack leaders, the celebration of five years of successful integration. If something happened there...
"It's a trap," Mason said immediately.
"It's more than that," I replied. "It's an ultimatum. Join them or watch everything burn."
"You're not actually considering—" Roman started.
"I'm considering everything," I interrupted. "Maria, what else did they tell you?"
"Nothing," she said. "Just to deliver the letter and... and to tell you that your brother left something for you. In your mother's grave."
The words hit like a physical blow. My mother's grave, the one I'd never visited because officially Patricia Blackwood never existed.
"How do you know about my mother?" I asked.
Maria looked confused. "I don't. I'm just repeating what they told me. They said you'd understand."
I stood abruptly. "Mason, increase security for the Summit. Thomas, deep background checks on every attendee. Roman, I need you to quietly investigate alternate venues in case we need to evacuate."
"Where are you going?" Mason asked.
"To find what my brother left me," I replied. "And maybe find some answers about who the Architect really is."
"Not alone," he said firmly.
"Not alone," I agreed. "Rory comes with me. This is Blackwood family business."
An hour later, Rory and I stood in a cemetery fifty miles from River Pack territory, in front of a grave marked simply "P.B. - Beloved Mother." The marker was weathered, clearly decades old, but fresh flowers lay at its base.
"Someone's been here recently," Rory observed.
I knelt, brushing aside the flowers to find a small metal box buried just beneath the surface. Inside was a flash drive and another note in handwriting I was beginning to recognize as Damien's:
"Sister,
If you're reading this, you're beginning to understand. The Architect isn't one person—it's a coalition of survivors. Children of bloodlines the Council destroyed, wolves who were experimented on, humans who discovered the truth and were silenced.
We're not terrorists. We're revolutionaries.
The drive contains everything—financial records, communication logs, proof of crimes that would destroy the current system overnight. But also proof of our own actions, our own crimes in pursuit of justice.
The Summit will be a reckoning. The question is: which side of history will you stand on?
Our parents died believing in peaceful integration. But they died, Sage. And their killers still walk free, some sitting on the Council, some running packs, some celebrated as heroes of integration.
The bloodlines were never meant to be extinct. We were meant to evolve, to lead, to bring our species into a new age. The Architect offers that chance.
Find me at the old Blackwood estate if you want to know more. Come alone, or don't come at all.
Your brother,
David"
"Mom," Rory said quietly. "This is bigger than just River Pack."
"I know," I replied, pocketing the drive. "The question is, how much of what they're saying is true?"
"Only one way to find out," she said. "We look at what's on that drive."
But I was already thinking ahead. The old Blackwood estate—I'd researched it years ago. It had been destroyed in the same fire that supposedly killed my parents. If Damien was using it as a meeting place, then either he'd rebuilt it, or...
"Or the destruction was faked," I said aloud. "Just like so many other things."
"Mom, what are you going to do?"
I looked at my daughter, so young but already carrying so much weight. "I'm going to protect our pack. All of it. Even if that means making choices that nobody else will understand."
"Even Dad?"
"Especially him," I said. "Because sometimes, the Luna has to walk in shadows so the Alpha can stand in the light."
As we drove back to River Pack, I made a decision that would change everything. I would go to the Blackwood estate. I would meet my brother. And I would learn the truth about the Architect.
But I wouldn't go as Sage Grey, Luna of River Pack.
I would go as Sage Blackwood, last daughter of a murdered bloodline.
And depending on what I found, I would either save the system we'd built, or help burn it to the ground.
The Coalition Summit was in seven days.
The clock was ticking.
And somewhere out there, the Architect was waiting to see which choice the Luna would make.