The pack run was scheduled for dawn.

Kane announced it at breakfast, all Alpha authority and easy confidence. "Full warrior formation. We need to tighten our perimeter drills before the Summit." His eyes found mine across the table. "You should rest, Athena. You've been looking pale."

"I think I will." I pressed my fingers to my temple, let my hand tremble just slightly. "The headaches are getting worse."

Concern flickered across his face. Genuine-looking. Oscar-worthy. "Maybe you should see Dr. Cross today. Just to be safe."

"Maybe."

Wren caught my eye from her position near the door. The barest nod. She understood.

Two hours later, I was standing in the Luna suite screaming at the housekeeping staff.

"I can smell them!" I grabbed fistfuls of the curtains, yanking hard enough that the rings scraped against the rod. "Enemies. Rogues. Someone's been in here, touching my things, leaving their scent everywhere!"

Mrs. Chen, the head housekeeper, held up her hands in a placating gesture. "Luna, I assure you, no one unauthorized has—"

"Then explain this!" I shoved my face into the fabric, inhaling dramatically. "It's everywhere. In the walls. In the sheets. You need to strip everything. Deep clean. Now."

The staff exchanged glances. Worried. Pitying.

Perfect.

While they scrambled to gather cleaning supplies, while every Omega in the pack house converged on the Luna suite with buckets and brushes, Wren was three floors down, moving through Kane's office like smoke.

She told me later how easy it was. How the pack run had pulled every warrior to the northern border. How the office door wasn't even locked because Kane was so confident, so arrogant, so certain that his fragile little Luna was too broken to be a threat.

The listening device went under the desk, magnetic backing adhering to the metal support beam with a soft click. Military grade. Voice-activated. Encrypted signal that fed directly to the burner phone in Wren's jacket.

Skyla's quarters took longer. The Omega wing was busier, more eyes, more risk. But Wren had always been the best at moving unseen. She slipped in during the shift change, when the hallways emptied for thirty seconds. The device went behind the headboard, nestled in the gap between wood and wall where no one would think to look.

By the time the pack run ended, Wren was back in the training room, and I was surrounded by stripped furniture and the chemical smell of industrial cleaner.

Kane found me there, sitting on the bare mattress, staring at nothing.

"Athena." He crouched in front of me, took my hands. His touch made my skin crawl, but I didn't pull away. "Mrs. Chen told me what happened. Are you okay?"

"I don't know." I let my voice crack. "I keep smelling things that aren't there. Hearing things. I think—I think something's wrong with me."

His thumb stroked over my knuckles. Soothing. Loving. "We'll figure it out. I promise."

Liar.

That evening, Wren and I sat in the panic room with the burner phone between us, volume low, listening.

Static first. Then footsteps. A door closing.

Skyla's voice, petulant and sharp: "How much longer do we have to wait? She's falling apart faster than we planned. What if she breaks before the Summit?"

"She won't." Kane's voice was closer to the microphone, probably sitting at his desk. "I need the Council to see it happen in real time. Once she shifts at the Summit, the Council will have no choice but to grant me the Bishop lands. She'll be locked in the asylum by Monday."

The asylum.

My hands clenched into fists so tight my nails drew blood from my palms.

Wren's eyes flashed gold, but she stayed silent, listening.

"And us?" Skyla again, softer now. Seductive. "When do we make it official?"

"After the rejection. After the transfer of territory. Then you'll be Luna, and no one will question it."

The sound of kissing. Movement. I forced myself to keep listening, to not rip the phone apart with my bare hands.

Wren reached over and stopped the recording. "We have him."

"Not yet." I stood, pacing the small room. "We need more. Financial records. Proof of the rogue dealings. This is conspiracy, but we need treason."

"And the medical report?"

I checked my watch. "Dr. Cross is coming in an hour."

Wren's expression darkened. "You're really going through with it?"

"I have to." I pulled the small vial from my pocket. Wolfsbane extract, diluted just enough to hurt without killing. "If the medical file is completely clean, Kane will know something's wrong. I need to give him what he expects."

"Athena—"

"I can handle it."

I couldn't handle it.

The wolfsbane hit my system like liquid fire. I'd taken it an hour before Dr. Cross arrived, thinking I could manage the pain, control the symptoms.

I was wrong.

It burned through my veins like acid, like something alive and vicious trying to claw its way out through my skin. My heart hammered against my ribs, too fast, too hard. Sweat soaked through my shirt. My wolf thrashed inside me, panicked and confused, trying to heal damage I'd deliberately inflicted.

Dr. Cross took my pulse with cold fingers and smiled.

"Elevated heart rate. Significant agitation. Pupils dilated." She made notes on her tablet, each tap of her stylus feeling like a nail in a coffin. "Early signs of feral degeneration, I'm afraid. We'll need to monitor this closely."

"What does that mean?" I forced the words out through clenched teeth.

"It means, Luna, that your wolf is becoming unstable." She packed up her equipment with brisk efficiency. "I'll be recommending increased supervision. For your own safety, of course."

She left.

I made it to the bathroom before I vomited, my body trying to purge the poison I'd willingly swallowed.

Wren found me there twenty minutes later, shaking on the tile floor.

"I got it," I whispered. "The false diagnosis. Evidence of malpractice."

Wren pulled me into her arms, and for just a moment, I let myself break.

But only for a moment.

Because tomorrow, we'd start gathering the financial records.

And by the Summit, Kane Montgomery would have nothing left to stand on.

Kane's office smelled like him. Pine and dark amber and lies.

I stood in front of his desk at two in the morning, the house silent except for the hum of his computer booting up. My hands were steady now. The wolfsbane had finally worked its way out of my system, leaving behind only a dull ache in my bones and a clarity so sharp it felt like glass.

Wren was outside the door, keeping watch. We had fifteen minutes before the patrol rotation brought warriors past this corridor.

The password screen glowed blue in the darkness. I typed without hesitation—our mating anniversary, because Kane was nothing if not predictable in his arrogance. The system unlocked.

Files upon files. Pack budgets. Territory contracts. And there, buried three folders deep under a label marked "Border Security," the encrypted accounts.

I knew encryption. My father had taught me before he died, back when he still believed I'd need to protect our family's holdings from threats outside our pack. He never imagined the threat would come from within.

The first transfer made my breath catch. Fifty thousand dollars to something called Nightshade Holdings LLC. The date matched the rogue attack on our eastern border last spring—the one that had killed two Deltas and justified Kane's request for expanded patrol territory.

I scrolled further. Another transfer. Then another. Each one corresponding perfectly with a rogue incident. Each one buying violence that Kane could then use to justify his land grabs.

My wolf snarled, and I had to press my fist against my mouth to keep the sound from escaping.

The USB drive slid into the port with a soft click. I started the download, watching the progress bar crawl across the screen. Twelve percent. Twenty-five percent.

Footsteps in the hallway.

I froze. Wren's voice, casual and loud: "I'm telling you, I heard something from the kitchens. Probably just mice, but we should check."

Another voice. Male. One of the night guards. "Fine. But make it quick."

Their footsteps faded toward the stairs.

Seventy percent. Eighty-five percent.

I exhaled slowly, watching the files copy themselves onto the drive. Evidence of treason. Evidence of murder-for-hire. Evidence that would strip Kane of everything.

One hundred percent.

I pulled the drive free, shut down the computer, and slipped out of the office like smoke.

---

The next morning, I staged my escape during breakfast.

"I need air," I said, standing abruptly from the table. My chair scraped against the floor, too loud, too sharp. Several pack members looked up. "I can't—I can't breathe in here."

Kane reached for my hand. "Athena, wait—"

I pulled away, stumbling backward. Let my eyes go wide. Let my breathing turn ragged. "Don't touch me. Don't—I need to go."

I ran.

Behind me, I heard Kane's voice, calm and concerned: "Let her go. She needs space. Just... someone keep an eye on her."

But Wren was already moving, positioning herself between me and the Delta who started to follow. I heard her say something about giving the Luna privacy, about how crowding me would only make it worse.

I hit the tree line at a full sprint.

The perimeter alarms should have triggered. Should have brought every warrior running. But Wren had sixty seconds, and she'd promised me she could do it.

Silence.

I crossed the boundary and kept running, my human form burning through the forest, branches catching at my clothes, my lungs screaming. The wolfsbane had left me weaker than I wanted to admit, but I pushed through it, driven by something fiercer than physical strength.

The neutral zone was a strip of unclaimed land between Dark Moon and Silverclaw territory. A buffer zone, supposedly. In reality, a place where packs could meet without declaring war.

Alpha Damon was waiting in the clearing, exactly where I'd asked him to be.

He was taller than Kane, broader through the shoulders, with silver threading through his dark hair that caught the morning light. His eyes tracked my approach with the assessment of a predator, but he didn't move. Didn't speak. Just waited.

I stopped ten feet away, breathing hard.

"You smell like wolfsbane," he said finally. His voice was deeper than I remembered, rougher. "And desperation."

"I smell like survival." I pulled the USB drive from my pocket, held it up. "Your borders have been hit by rogues. Seven times in the last year."

"I'm aware."

"My mate is paying them." I threw the drive. He caught it one-handed, his reflexes sharp. "That has the financial records. Every transfer. Every attack. He's been staging incidents to justify territorial expansion."

Damon's expression didn't change, but something flickered in his eyes. Interest. And anger.

"Why bring this to me?"

"Because tomorrow night at the Summit, he's going to try to destroy me in front of the Council. And I need someone powerful enough to stand witness when I destroy him first." I stepped closer, letting him see the steel in my spine despite the trembling in my hands. "I'm offering you the contested valley. The full deed. In exchange for your protection at the Summit."

"That valley is worth millions."

"My freedom is worth more."

Silence stretched between us. Damon studied me with an intensity that should have made me uncomfortable, but instead felt like being seen for the first time in years.

"Your mate is a fool," he said quietly. "To betray someone like you."

Something in my chest cracked open. Not the mate bond—that was still there, thin and poisoned. Something else. Something that had been locked away so long I'd forgotten it existed.

Hope.

"Do we have a deal?"

Damon smiled. It was sharp and dangerous and absolutely genuine. "We have a deal, Luna Athena. And tomorrow night, your mate is going to learn what it means to underestimate a queen."

I ran back through the forest with his promise echoing in my ears and the sun rising at my back.

By the time I stumbled back onto Dark Moon territory, there were warriors waiting. Kane was there too, his face perfectly arranged into concern.

"Athena!" He caught me as I collapsed—deliberately, theatrically—into his arms. "Where did you go? We were so worried."

"I don't know," I whispered against his chest, letting my voice break. "I don't remember. I just... I woke up in the forest."

His arms tightened around me. Possessive. Triumphant.

"It's okay," he murmured. "We'll get you help. I promise."

Over his shoulder, I caught Wren's eye. She gave me the smallest nod.

Everything was in place.

Tomorrow night, at the Summit, Kane Montgomery would finally get exactly what he deserved.