Chapter 27 The Traitor Revealed

Chapter 27 The Traitor Revealed
Clara's POV

"The package moves at dawn. North route through the forest."
I hear Kael's voice clearly through the small speaker Damon handed me. We're hidden in a supply closet near the underground bunker, me, Damon, and three other warriors. Waiting.
"This feels wrong," I whisper to Damon. "Using me as bait."
"It's not real bait if you're not actually in danger," he whispers back. "The 'package' is just empty boxes in a van. If someone takes this information to Marcus, we'll know who the traitor is."
We've been down here for two hours. Kael's been feeding false information to different pack members all day, each getting unique details. Whoever shows up trying to access the "package" route maps will reveal themselves.
The bunker is old, built during some previous pack war I don't know about. Stone walls, dim lighting, and air that tastes like dust and secrets.
"Movement," one of the warriors says softly.
Through a gap in the closet door, I see someone enter the bunker. They move quickly to the map table where Kael left the route information.
My breath catches when I recognize him.
Samuel. The old healer. The one who's hated me since day one.
He's holding a phone, taking pictures of the maps. His hands shake slightly, and I wonder if it's age or guilt making them tremble.
"Now," Damon says quietly into his radio.
The bunker's exits seal with heavy mechanical locks. Samuel spins around, eyes wide with panic.
Kael steps out from the shadows on the far side of the room. He must have been waiting there the whole time.
"Hello, Samuel," Kael says calmly.
The old healer's face goes through several emotions, surprise, fear, then resignation. "I suppose it was only a matter of time."
"How long?" Kael asks. "How long have you been feeding information to Marcus?"
"Three months. Since the human arrived." Samuel sets his phone down on the table carefully. "I did what was necessary."
"Necessary?" Kael's voice goes hard. "Two of our wolves are dead because Marcus knew our patrol routes. Reed lost his arm. Sofia…"
"Sofia's death is on you!" Samuel's composure cracks. "You brought that human here knowing what would happen. Knowing the curse would destroy her like it destroyed all the others."
We emerge from the closet. Samuel sees me and his lip curls with disgust.
"There she is. The latest sacrifice to the Arden curse." He laughs bitterly. "Do you even know how many women have died trying to save him, girl? Do you know what you're walking into?"
"I know about Catherine and Maria and Jessica," I say quietly.
"Do you know about Elizabeth?" Samuel's eyes fill with tears. "My daughter. Twenty-five years old. She tried to bond with Kael's father. Lasted six weeks before the madness took her. She threw herself from the cliff on the western border. I found her body."
The pain in his voice makes my chest tight. "I'm sorry…"
"Your sorry means nothing!" He slams his fist on the table. "The Arden bloodline is cursed. Every Alpha doomed to watch his mate die or go mad. And yet they keep trying. Keep dragging innocent women into their tragedy."
"So you betrayed your pack?" Kael asks. "Killed your own people to get revenge?"
"I'm trying to end it!" Samuel shouts. "The curse was meant to punish your family, not ours. But every time an Arden Alpha takes a mate, the whole pack suffers. Warriors die protecting her. Resources go to finding cures that don't exist. The pack fractures fighting over whether she should stay or go."
He looks at me with something almost like pity.
"I'm not working for Marcus to help him win. I'm working with him to end this cycle. If Marcus takes you, uses you to steal the curse-breaking power, maybe it finally dies with Kael. Maybe the next generation can be free."
"You think killing me will free anyone?" I ask.
"I think you're already dying. Just slower." Samuel's voice goes soft. "I was there for Catherine's last days. For Maria's. For Jessica's. I watched them waste away while Kael desperately searched for answers that don't exist. I won't watch it again."
"So you'd rather I die quickly? Become Marcus's prisoner?"
"I'd rather you never came here at all." He looks at Kael. "You should have learned after Jessica. Should have accepted that some curses can't be broken. But you're selfish, like your father. Like all the Arden Alphas. You take what you want and let others pay the price."
Kael's face is stone, but I feel his pain through the bond. Samuel's words are hitting wounds that never healed.
"My father made mistakes," Kael says carefully. "I'm sorry about Elizabeth. Truly. But that doesn't justify betraying the pack."
"Doesn't it?" Samuel spreads his hands. "What is a pack, Alpha? People bound by loyalty and blood? I've been loyal for seventy years. Healed your father's wounds, your grandfather's. Delivered you into this world. But loyalty has limits. Elizabeth was my daughter. My only child. And your father killed her as surely as if he'd pushed her off that cliff himself."
"Elizabeth chose to try the bond," Damon says from beside me. "No one forced her."
"She was in love. Young and stupid and convinced she could be the one to break the curse." Samuel's laugh is broken. "Just like this one." He gestures at me. "Just like all of them. Love makes people foolish."
"So you told Marcus everything?" Kael asks. "Our patrol routes, our defenses, our weaknesses?"
"Not everything. Just enough to pressure you into sending her away. I thought if Marcus became enough of a threat, if enough wolves died, you'd finally do the smart thing and let her go." Samuel looks tired suddenly. "But you didn't. You never do. The curse makes you stubborn as much as it makes you unlucky."
"And the attack on Clara? The Bloodfangs who killed Sofia?"
"That was Marcus improvising. I told him where Clara would be gathering herbs. I thought he'd scare her, maybe kidnap her for a day. Force you to take security seriously." Samuel's voice cracks. "I didn't know he'd send a kill team. Didn't know Sofia would die."
"But you didn't stop working with him after," I say.
"No. Because Sofia's death proved my point. The human stays, more wolves die. Simple math." He looks at me directly. "You should leave, girl. Tonight. Run as far as you can and don't look back. It's the only way to save yourself and this pack."
"I'm not leaving."
"Then you're a fool. And when you're dead, when Kael's broken by guilt, when the pack tears itself apart, remember I tried to warn you." Samuel turns to Kael. "Do what you have to do, Alpha. Execute me, lock me up, whatever satisfies your wounded pride. But know this: I'd do it all again. I'd betray you a thousand times if it meant saving one woman from the fate my daughter suffered."
Kael is quiet for a long moment. Then: "Take him to the cells. Silver restraints. No visitors except me."
Warriors move forward to grab Samuel. The old healer doesn't resist, just lets them lead him away. But at the doorway, he pauses and looks back at me.
"Three weeks until the blood moon," he says. "That's all you have left, Clara Veyron. Three weeks before you have to choose transformation or death. I hope you choose wisely."
Then he's gone, and I'm left standing in the bunker with Kael and the weight of Samuel's words.
"He loved his daughter," I say quietly.
"Yes." Kael's voice is hollow. "And that love turned him into a traitor. Made him willing to destroy everything to prevent someone else from suffering the same loss."
"Do you blame him?"
Kael looks at me, and I see the answer in his eyes. "Every day I blame myself for what happened to Elizabeth. To Catherine. To all of them. Samuel's just making me face what I've been trying to ignore, that loving me is a death sentence, and I keep handing it out anyway."
"Kael…"
"We should go. There's still a traitor among the Bloodfangs to deal with. And three weeks until..." He doesn't finish.
Three weeks until the blood moon. Until I have to decide who I want to be.
Or if I want to be at all.