I sat on the study sofa, fingers digging into the fabric bunched on my knees. The second I heard about Victoria's death, I'd rushed to find Kayden.
"What did she say?" I was still reeling.
"She confessed to everything." Kayden moved to the fireplace, his back to me. Firelight danced across his profile. "The leak—she arranged it. Lucas—she bought him."
"And the vampires..." He turned. "That too. She said she hated you. Wanted to destroy you."
I stared into the flames, my mind racing.
Victoria.
The woman who'd clung to Kayden's arm in that café, triumph in her eyes when she'd said, "I'm his fiancée." Would she really go this far for him?
"Do you believe it?" I looked up at him.
Kayden was quiet for several seconds.
"No." He crossed to me, sat down opposite. "The motive's too weak. She hated that you took her place. Hated that I broke my father's promise. But that kind of hate..."
"Isn't enough to drive all this." I finished his thought. "Going after me is one thing, but hiring vampires takes resources, connections. Attacking the pack takes inside help, planning..."
"It's too complicated. Too dangerous. If it was just about becoming Luna..."
Kayden nodded. "Plus, the timeline doesn't work." He stood, went to his desk, picked up a file, and handed it to me.
"Full records of the attacks on Silver Moon Pack."
I took it, scanned quickly.
First attack. Seven years ago. November.
"Victoria didn't return to the pack until after the first attack," Kayden added. "Before that, she was abroad the whole time."
"So..." I looked up. "She couldn't have arranged the initial attack."
"Unless she had an accomplice," Kayden said. "Someone inside the pack."
The study fell silent except for the snap and crackle of burning wood. An image suddenly flashed through my mind—
Victoria's eyes in those final moments.
Kayden had described them to me. She'd professed her love for him over and over, but what he'd sensed was... like she was looking through him. At someone else.
She was taking the fall for someone.
Protecting someone.
Someone worth dying for.
"What makes a woman willing to die?" I stood, pacing the study.
Not power. Victoria's family already had that.
Not status. The Luna position mattered, but not enough to die for.
Not revenge. Even if she saw me as a rival, it wasn't hatred.
Then what?
