Chapter 14 CHILDHOOD GHOST
LOGAN’S POV
The house is the same way I remember it.
Burned to charcoal and wood. There were burned timber and collapsed stone standing at the edge of Blood Moon territory like a monument to betrayal. Ten years haven't softened the ruins. If anything, time has made them worse. The walls were sagging inward, roof completely gone, weeds growing through what used to be the kitchen floor.
This was home once. Before everything went to hell. Before Vincent decided I was a traitor and destroyed my entire life with a single accusation.
I shouldn't be here. Blood Moon territory is hostile ground now, and I'm walking through it alone like an idiot. But after Kai's message about someone watching Alicia, about her being "the key" to something, I knew I had to come back. Had to search the ruins one more time.
Because if anyone has answers about Alicia's past, about why people are targeting her now, it's buried somewhere in the wreckage of my old life.
The mate bond hums quietly in my chest as I pick through debris. It's still new, still strange to feel someone else's emotions bleeding through. Alicia is scared right now. I can sense it even from miles away. Scared of the message Kai found, scared of the claiming ceremony looming in twenty-six days, scared of the corrupted bond slowly killing her and Ray.
I should be there. Should be helping protect her instead of ghost-hunting in enemy territory.
But the past and present are colliding, and I need to understand why.
I step over what used to be the front door. The main room is overgrown with vines now, nature reclaiming what fire left behind. My boots crunch on broken glass. Ten years ago, this floor was polished wood. My mother kept it spotless, took pride in their home even though we weren't high-ranking wolves.
Now it's just rot and memories.
The memory hits without warning.
FLASHBACK - TEN YEARS AGO
I was just eighteen. A young stupid boy, convinced that honesty mattered more than politics.
Vincent had called a special council meeting something about "internal security threats." I'd been invited because my father served on the council as a mid-tier warrior. I sat in the back, quiet, watching how pack leadership worked.
That's when I heard it. A whispered conversation between Vincent and his Beta about moving weapons across territory lines. About secret meetings with rogues. About payments being made for information on Dark Night Pack's patrol routes.
I was horrified. Blood Moon and Dark Night were trying to end the enmity between them at the time, fragile but holding but what Vincent was doing could start a war.
So I did the stupidly honorable thing. I told my father.
My father, loyal to a fault, immediately reported it to Vincent.
Within hours, I was arrested. Accused of stealing pack secrets. Of planning to sell information to Dark Night. Of being a spy and a traitor.
"We found evidence in your room," Vincent had said, standing over me in the holding cell. His eyes were cold, calculating. "Letters. Coded messages. Money you can't explain."
"That's impossible. I never…"
"You're young, Logan. Impressionable. Someone got to you, turned you against your own pack." His voice had dropped, almost sympathetic. "Tell me who you're working for, and I'll be lenient."
But there was no one. The evidence was planted. The whole thing was a setup to silence me before I could expose what Vincent was really doing.
I'd refused to confess to crimes I didn't commit. So Vincent exiled me for five years instead. My father, broken and ashamed, couldn't even look at me during the sentencing.
They burned our house the next day. A warning to anyone else who might think about crossing Vincent Rowe.
I was eighteen, homeless, branded a traitor by my own pack and left to wander alone for five years.
Even after returning to the pack, I didn't forget. I've spent the last five years trying to prove my innocence. I have been gathering evidence, following trails, and documenting Vincent's actual crimes.
All this while, knowing that the girl I'd played with as a child, Vincent's daughter Alicia, had no idea what kind of man her father really was.
PRESENT
I push deeper into the ruins, heading for what used to be my father's study. It was the one room that survived the fire partially intact because it was built into the hillside, half-underground. The walls were made with stones instead of wood.
If anything survived, it would be there.
The entrance is blocked by fallen beams. I shove them aside, muscles straining. The mate bond burns with warmth, like Alicia is encouraging me even though she has no idea what I'm doing.
The study door is jammed but not destroyed. I kick it three times before it gives way, groaning on rusted hinges.
Inside is a tomb.
Dust coats everything. Broken furniture. Mildewed papers scattered across the floor. The stone walls are blackened with soot, but they held. And there, in the corner, exactly where I remembered was my father's lockbox.
He'd shown it to me once. Said every warrior kept important documents secured in case of emergency. Birth records, debt notes, private correspondence. Things that couldn't be replaced.
The lock is rusted solid. I smash it open with a piece of broken timber.
Inside, papers have survived. Yellowed and brittle, but readable. I sort through them carefully, my parents' mating certificate, my birth record, property deeds that don't matter anymore.
Then I find it.
A letter. Folded carefully, sealed with red wax that's cracked with age. The seal bears Vincent's mark.
My hands shake as I unfold it.
The handwriting is elegant, feminine. Not Vincent's. The date at the top makes my blood run cold: twenty years ago. Five years after Alicia was born and a year before she died.
Vincent,
I've made my decision. The girl must never know the truth about her father. If she discovers what Ray's father and I did, if she learns about the council's involvement, everything we've built will collapse. Her entire identity depends on this lie.
You agreed to raise her as yours. To protect the secret. But I'm seeing signs that you're wavering. That your guilt is making you soft toward her.
Remember what's at stake. If the truth comes out, both packs will tear themselves apart. The council will have us executed. And Alicia will be destroyed.
Keep the secret. No matter what. The girl must never know.
\- Elara
I read it three times, my mind racing.