The knock came just after midnight.

I knew it was Jacob before I opened the door. I could feel him through the bond—what was left of it. A cold, heavy pressure against my ribs, like a hand pressing down on my chest.

I set down my tea and walked to the door.

He was standing on the porch with Fiona beside him. She had her hand on his arm. Her eyes were red, like she'd been crying.

"The ledgers," Jacob said. "Hand them over."

I didn't move. "They're pack records. I'm the Luna. I have access."

"They're Alpha property," he said. His voice was flat. "You're holding them without authorization."

Behind him, Fiona made a small sound. A whimper. Jacob's hand moved to her shoulder, steadying her.

I felt my wolf stir. Not pacing this time. Something sharper.

"Come in," I said.

I stepped back and let them enter. Jacob walked in first, scanning the room like he was looking for something. Fiona followed, staying close to his side.

I walked to the desk and picked up the folder Jovie had brought me. The one with the wolfsbane evidence. I opened it and pulled out the first page.

"Before you take the ledgers," I said, "you should see this."

I laid the page on the table between us.

It was a patrol schedule. Dates. Times. Courier names. Shipment weights. All cross-referenced with the main inventory logs.

Jacob looked down at it. His jaw tightened.

For a moment—just a moment—I saw something flicker in his eyes. His wolf, pushing forward. Recognizing the truth in the numbers.

Then Fiona gasped.

"Jacob," she whispered. Her voice broke. "She's—she's making this up. She's trying to destroy me because she's jealous."

She started crying. Real tears this time, or at least they looked real. Her shoulders shook. She pressed her hand to her mouth.

"I would never—" She couldn't finish. She turned into Jacob's chest, sobbing.

Jacob's expression hardened. The flicker was gone.

"You're fabricating evidence," he said.

I stared at him. "Those are your signatures. Your courier assignments. Your resource requisitions."

"You altered them."

"I didn't—"

"Enough." His voice was sharp. Final. "I'm taking the ledgers. Now."

I didn't move. My wolf was snarling now, clawing at something deep inside me, something I couldn't name yet.

"Jacob," I said quietly. "Look at the numbers. Just look at them."

He crossed the room in two strides and grabbed my arm. His grip was tight. Too tight.

"I said enough."

Then he pulled. Hard.

I stumbled backward. My hip hit the desk. I tried to catch myself, but his grip was too strong, his momentum too sudden. He shoved me, and I went sideways into the wall.

The impact knocked the air out of my lungs. Pain exploded across my shoulder, my ribs. I slid down and hit the floor hard.

For a moment, I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. There was just pain, sharp and bright, radiating from my shoulder to my neck.

Then I felt it.

Wet. Warm. Spreading.

I pressed my hand to my neck. When I pulled it away, my fingers were red.

The mate mark. It had split open along the old scar. Blood was soaking into my collar, running down my chest.

I looked up.

Jacob was standing over me. He was breathing hard. His eyes were wide, like he'd just realized what he'd done.

Then Fiona made a small sound. A gasp. She swayed on her feet.

"Jacob," she whispered. "I—I don't feel well."

She collapsed.

Jacob caught her before she hit the ground. He lifted her into his arms, cradling her against his chest.

"Fiona," he said. His voice was panicked. Desperate. "Fiona, stay with me."

She didn't answer. Her head lolled against his shoulder.

Jacob turned and carried her toward the door. He didn't look back. Didn't glance at me on the floor, bleeding.

The door slammed shut behind him.

I sat there in the silence, my hand pressed to my neck, feeling the blood pulse hot and slick between my fingers.

My wolf was howling now. Not in pain. In rage.

I closed my eyes and reached for the mind-link. The emergency channel I'd set up with Jovie weeks ago.

*Safe house. Now.*

Then I let my head fall back against the wall and waited.

---

Jovie found me twenty minutes later.

I heard his truck before I saw him. The engine cut off, and then his boots were on the porch, heavy and fast.

The door opened.

"Luna—" He stopped. His face went pale.

I was still on the floor. The blood had slowed, but my shirt was soaked through. My hand was sticky with it.

"I'm fine," I said.

He crossed the room in three strides and dropped to his knees beside me. "You're not fine. What happened?"

"Jacob."

His jaw tightened. He didn't ask anything else. He just slipped his arm under my shoulders and lifted me carefully, like I might break.

"We're going to Dessa," he said.

"Not the pack house."

"I know."

He carried me out to the truck and set me in the passenger seat. I leaned my head against the window. The glass was cold. It felt good against my skin.

Jovie drove fast, but not reckless. The safe house was on the eastern border. Dessa's clinic was south, tucked into the forest near the old logging road.

We didn't speak. There was nothing to say.

When we arrived, Dessa was already waiting. Jovie must have mind-linked her on the way. She opened the door before we even stopped.

"Inside," she said. Her voice was calm. Professional.

Jovie carried me in and set me on the exam table. Dessa moved immediately, pulling back my collar, examining the wound.

She didn't flinch. Didn't gasp. She just worked.

"Bond fracture," she said after a moment. "The mark split along the original scar. It's not a surface wound. It's deeper than that."

"The pup?" I asked.

She pressed her hand to my abdomen, her eyes closing briefly as she reached for her healer's sense.

"Unharmed," she said. "But the bond is degrading. Critically. If it continues like this—"

"I know," I said.

She cleaned the wound and bandaged it carefully. Then she stepped back.

"I need you to document this," I said. "In writing. The injury. The cause. Witnessed and signed."

Dessa looked at me for a long moment. Then she nodded.

She pulled out a form and began writing. When she finished, she signed it and handed it to Jovie.

"Witness," she said.

He signed without hesitation.

Dessa handed the document to me. I folded it carefully and slipped it into my jacket pocket.

"Thank you," I said.

She nodded. "Rest. At least a few hours."

"I will."

I slid off the table. My legs were steady. My wolf had gone quiet again, but I could feel her there, waiting.

Jovie drove me back to the safe house. When we arrived, he helped me inside and started a fire.

"You should sleep," he said.

"I will. In a bit."

He hesitated, then nodded and left.

I sat down at my desk. The folder was still there, the evidence page still on the table where I'd left it.

I pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and started writing.

Every detail. Every word. Every moment from the time Jacob entered until the door slammed shut.

When I finished, I made tea. Black. Bitter.

Then I opened the ledger and got back to work.

The message arrived while I was reviewing the spring territorial surveys—work Jacob's office had promised to handle and hadn't touched in three weeks.

Maren's voice came through the mind-link, tight and careful. *Luna. There was an incident at the regional gathering.*

I set down my pen. "What kind of incident?"

*Alpha Quinn. He… he said things. About you. In front of the other Alphas.*

I waited. The silence stretched.

*He called you 'the Luna no Alpha wanted.' He said a wolfless female was never fit for the title. That Jacob finally corrected his mistake.*

I closed my eyes. My wolf stirred, a low snarl building in my chest.

"Who laughed?" I asked.

Maren hesitated. *Most of them, Luna. Not Alpha Garren. Not the Blackfen representative. But the others…*

"Send me the full transcript."

*Yes, Luna.*

The mind-link went quiet. I sat there in the cold safe house, staring at the territorial survey maps spread across my desk. Maps I'd drawn myself. Borders I'd negotiated personally.

The Luna no Alpha wanted.

My wolf snarled again, louder this time. I pressed my hand flat against the desk and breathed through it.

The transcript arrived by nightfall. I read it twice. Then I folded it carefully and added it to the dossier.

---

Jacob's formal declaration came three days later.

I was cataloging the alliance renewal dates when Jovie brought in the notice. He set it on my desk without a word.

It was signed by Jacob's Beta. Official pack letterhead. Formal language.

*Adele Mercer is relieved of all Luna administrative duties pending a formal review of her conduct. All allied communications are to be redirected to the Alpha's office effective immediately.*

I read it once. Then I set it down and picked up my tea.

"He doesn't know what he just did," I said quietly.

Jovie leaned against the doorframe. "No. He doesn't."

I took a sip. The tea was cold. "How long before the first inquiry arrives?"

"Already here. Three packs. They want to know who's managing the spring surveys."

"And Jacob's office?"

"Can't answer. They don't have the schedules. They don't have the contact lists. They don't even know which territories are up for renewal."

I almost smiled. Almost.

"Let it stall," I said. "Document every inquiry. Every delay. Every failure to respond."

Jovie nodded and left.

I opened my ledger and started a new page. At the top, I wrote: *Diplomatic Infrastructure Collapse—Timeline.*

Then I pulled out a separate sheet of paper and began drafting a message.

---

I addressed it to Darian, the Lycan King's Beta.

I'd met him twice before—once at a Continental border summit, once during a routine diplomatic rotation through the region. He was quiet, observant, the kind of wolf who noticed everything and said very little.

I kept the message brief. Professional.

*Beta Darian,*

*I am writing to inform you that Ironveil Pack's defensive posture has been compromised by internal resource diversion. I am preparing a formal report on the matter for regional security review. If the Lycan Crown's observer wishes to attend the upcoming pack assembly, there may be information of relevance to broader territorial stability.*

*Respectfully,

Adele Mercer

Luna, Ironveil Pack*

I didn't ask for help. Didn't plead. I simply informed him that something was happening, and that he might want to see it firsthand.

I sealed the message and handed it to Jovie. "Courier. Direct to the Lycan observer post. No pack channels."

He took it without question.

Darian's reply arrived the next morning. One line.

*Attendance confirmed.*

I marked it in my ledger. Then I began preparing a second dossier—one not meant for the pack council.

This one was for the Lycan Court.

---

The announcement came exactly one week later.

Jovie brought it in just after dawn. His face was grim.

I looked up from the dossier I'd been assembling all night. "What is it?"

He handed me the notice.

It was formal. Sealed with the Alpha's mark. Addressed to the entire pack.

*Full pack assembly called. Purpose: Announcement of a new Luna for the Ironveil Pack.*

I read it three times. The words didn't change.

My hand moved to my neck, to the bandage still covering the split mate mark. The wound had stopped bleeding days ago, but it hadn't healed. Dessa said it wouldn't. Not while the bond was degrading.

Jovie was watching me. Waiting.

"When?" I asked.

"Tomorrow night. Full moon."

I set the notice down. My wolf was pacing now, restless and angry. She wanted to tear something apart. I wanted to let her.

But not yet.

I stood up and straightened my jacket. "Prepare the secondary evidence copies. All of them."

Jovie's eyes widened slightly. "You're going."

"Yes."

"Luna—"

"If I don't attend, I forfeit my claim to this pack. Everything I built. Every alliance I brokered. Every warrior I trained." I looked at him. "I've never forfeited anything I earned."

He nodded slowly. "I'll have everything ready."

He left. I sat back down and opened the ledger.

Inside the front cover, tucked carefully between the pages, was the healer's document. The one confirming my pregnancy.

I pulled it out and looked at it for a long moment. Six weeks. A life growing inside me that Jacob didn't know about. That he would never know about.

I slipped it back into the ledger and closed the cover.

Then I pulled out a fresh sheet of paper and began writing the final section of the Lycan Court dossier.

By the time the sun set, it was finished. Sixty pages. Every diversion. Every theft. Every compromised defense. Every lie.

I sealed it in a leather case and set it beside my chair.

Tomorrow night, Jacob would stand before the pack and announce his new Luna.

And I would be there.

Waiting.