He controlled the urge. Barely.
“That’s… interesting.”
Her voice had changed, the distant focus sharpening into something harder.
“What?”
“Give me a minute.” Her fingers moved faster, pulling up new windows, cross-referencing data. “I need to verify… okay. Okay, that’s definitely not a coincidence.”
“Harper.”
“The attack on our financial systems came from a spoofed IP address. I knew that already. But I’ve been tracing the routing patterns, looking for anything distinctive.” She pointed at a cluster of numbers on her screen that meant nothing to him. “See this? It’s a timing signature. Basically tells us when the attack packets were sent, down to the millisecond.”
“And?”
“And they correspond exactly—exactly—with the Council meeting schedules.” She turned to face him, her eyes bright with discovery. “Someone was launching attacks specifically when they knew you’d be distracted. When they knew the whole pack leadership would be occupied.”
His wolf surged forward, lips peeling back from teeth that had gone suddenly sharp.
“Who?”
“That’s the interesting part.” She pulled up another screen, this one showing a map with colored lines connecting various points. “I traced the routing back through about seventeen proxy servers. Whoever did this really didn’t want to be found.”
“But you found them.”
“I found their provider.” Her smile held no warmth. “They were using a VPN service that’s popular with people who want to hide their tracks. Problem is, the service keeps metadata logs even when they claim they don’t. I may have… acquired some of those logs.”
“Legally?”
“Let’s say ‘creatively.’“ She waved off his concern. “The important thing is, I found a device registration that tracks back to a satellite internet account.”
“Satellite?”
“Whoever did this doesn’t have access to standard cable or fiber internet. They’re using satellite service—the kind you’d use in a remote location.” She paused, letting him connect the dots. “Like, say, a mountain compound that hasn’t finished its infrastructure upgrade.”
His blood went cold.
“Someone in the pack.”
“Someone with enough technical knowledge to set up a sophisticated attack. Someone with access to the Council schedule. Someone with a satellite internet account registered to…” She pulled up the final piece of evidence, her expression grim. “A cabin in the northwest sector of Moonstone territory.”
He knew that cabin. Knew who owned it. Knew, with sudden sickening certainty, exactly who had been working to undermine him.
“Howard.”
The name came out as a growl.
“Elder Howard,” she confirmed. “The man who’s spent every Council meeting ranting about how technology will destroy the pack has been secretly using that same technology to attack you.”
Rage surged through him—hot, blinding, primal. His wolf demanded blood. Demanded that he shift now, run back to the compound, and tear the traitor’s throat out.
Her hand on his arm grounded him.
“Hey.” Her voice was calm, steady. “I know that look. Whatever you’re planning, we need to think this through.”
“He attacked the pack.”
“He attacked the pack’s finances. Financially, that’s attempted theft. Legally?—”
