Chapter 118: False Alarm
Sierra's POV
The rogues vanished before our guards could reach them. One moment they were there at the tree line, watching the pack house with those cold empty eyes.
The next moment they were gone like smoke in the wind. Adrian stood with his phone pressed to his ear, barking orders into the night. I sat in the rocking chair we had just been dreaming in, my hands wrapped around my belly. The baby kicked hard like they could feel my fear.
"Search every inch of that border," Adrian said. His voice was steel. "I want to know where they went and how many there were." He hung up and looked at me.
The softness from earlier was gone, buried under layers of Alpha authority and rage. But his hands were gentle when he pulled me up from the chair. "Come on. We're moving you to the safe room until we know what's happening."
The safe room was in the basement, reinforced walls and a door that could withstand anything. I hated it down there.
It felt like a cage, like admitting defeat. But I followed Adrian downstairs anyway because the baby's safety mattered more than my pride. Ben met us at the bottom of the stairs, his face tight with confusion.
"Alpha, the rogues are gone. All of them. Our trackers can't find any scent trails. It's like they were never there."
Adrian's jaw clenched. "That's impossible. Wolves leave traces. Always." Ben nodded but his eyes said he didn't understand it either. "We are reviewing the security footage now. Maybe the cameras caught something our guards missed." He paused, looking between us. "There's something else. During the lockdown, when all our guards were focused on the borders..." He stopped like the words were stuck in his throat.
"What?" Adrian's voice dropped to that dangerous quiet that meant someone was about to face his wrath.
Ben pulled out his phone and showed us a video. The timestamp said it was from thirty minutes ago, right when the rogues appeared. The footage showed the pack archives, the small building behind the main house where we kept all our records. The door was closed. Locked. Then a shadow moved across the frame too quickly to see clearly. The door opened and someone went inside.
My heart stopped. "Who was that?" Ben shook his head. "We don't know. They knew where the cameras were so they kept their faces hidden. But they were inside for exactly seven minutes. Then they left the same way they came."
Adrian grabbed the phone. "What did they take?" Ben's face went still. "Thats what we are checking now, but..." He looked at me and something in his eyes made my stomach drop. "The section they focused on was the old family records. Alliance documents from before Sierra came back."
The words hit me like a punch. Before I came back. Before I woke up in that hospital with no memory and no past. I felt the blood drain from my face. Adrian's arm came around my waist, holding me up. "Show me," he said. His voice was deadly calm.
We followed Ben through the house and out the back door. Guards surrounded us immediately, forming a protective circle as we walked to the archives. The night air was cold and sharp.
Every shadow looked like a threat. Every sound made me jump. The archive building looked normal from the outside. But inside, it was chaos. Filing cabinets stood open, papers scattered across the floor like someone had searched through them in a hurry. One guard stood in the corner, his face grim as he looked through what remained.
"They knew exactly what they wanted," he said when he saw us. "This wasn't random destruction. This was targeted." Adrian's hand tightened on my waist.
"What's missing?" He held up a folder. It was empty. The label read "Cruz Alliance Records - Wedding Documentation." My breath came in short gasps.
"That's... those are the files from when I first came here," I whispered. "From the arranged marriage. From before..." I couldn't say it.
That was before Adrian rejected me on our wedding night. Before I disappeared during the attack when everyone thought I was dead. My voice sounded far away like someone else was speaking.
The guard nodded slowly. "Everything about your original arrival. The alliance agreements between packs. Your family background from your home pack. The investigation reports from the night you disappeared. All of it. Gone."
The room started spinning. Adrian guided me to a chair, kneeling in front of me. "Breathe, Sierra. Just breathe." But I couldn't. Because suddenly everything made horrible sense. "Evelyn didn't just appear out of nowhere," I said. My hands were shaking. "She's been planning this for months. Maybe years. She knew about my past, the alliance and everything that happened before I lost my memory."
Adrian's face went hard. "What are you saying?" I looked up at him, tears streaming down my face. "The rogues were a distraction. She sent them to draw all our guards to the borders while someone broke in here. She wanted these files, my past." Ben stepped forward. "But why? What could she possibly gain from alliance records and old wedding documents?"
The question hung in the air. Then like pieces of a puzzle clicking into place, I saw it. "Because I don't remember what happened," I said slowly. "I don't remember the attack that made everyone think I died. I don't remember who was there or what I saw. That’s the only part I still can’t remember after gaining my memories. The trauma from that night has been too heavy." Adrian's eyes narrowed. "You think Evelyn was involved? That she knows something about that night?"
I stood up, my legs shaking but my voice was steady. "I was raised in a small pack. We weren't powerful or wealthy. But we knew things about the bigger packs. About their politics and their secrets. My family sent me here as part of an alliance to strengthen both our territories."
"What if someone wanted that alliance broken?" I continued. "What if the attack on me wasn't random? What if someone staged my disappearance?" But Marcus was the culprit in all of these. Why is this happening now?
Ben stepped closer. "We need to find out what was in those files. Who has copies? Your home pack? The alliance officials?" My blood turned to ice. "My home pack was small. They kept everything in one place. If someone wanted to erase the trail..." I couldn't finish. "They'd only need to destroy two sets of records," Adrian finished for me. His voice was hollow.