Empty. Finn's coffin was empty.
He wasn't dead. All these years... he'd been alive.
Cold horror crawled up my spine like icy fingers on skin. My breathing turned sharp, chest tight like something was pressing down.
He was alive.
That brooding man I'd met before the engagement ceremony. The one whose eyes had flashed with malice when he'd said "my fiancée."
He wasn't dead.
He'd faked his death. Framed me. Let me be accused of murder...
Then what? Watched from the shadows as I jumped? As I struggled in the water? As I "died"?
Seven years. What had he been doing?
"Layla."
Kayden's voice pulled me back. He stood before me, hands on my shoulders.
"Breathe. Don't be afraid."
I tried, gulping air, but it stuck in my throat.
"At the engagement ceremony, you said you smelled vampire on him, right?"
"Yes." I nodded, trembling with bone-deep fear. "Faint, but it was there."
"The coffin has claw marks, but they're not wolf claws. Combined with the vampire scent..." Kayden paused, forcing out the answer we'd both been afraid to believe. "He likely consumed vampire blood. Underwent partial transformation. Entered a state of feigned death."
"Heart stops, temperature drops, all vital signs vanish. But it's just deep hibernation. Hours later, automatic revival."
"So he fooled everyone," I said, cold sweat breaking out on my back, hair standing on end. "Including the healer. Then after burial..."
I didn't finish, but we both knew.
Finn had crawled out of that coffin.
Like some monster from a horror story, risen from the grave.
"Why... why would he do this?" My voice shook, nearly desperate. "I never wronged him. Why frame me?"
"I don't know," Kayden said, pulling me close. "But I'll find out. I swear it."
I leaned against his chest, listened to his pounding heart. Thud-thud, thud-thud, thud-thud. The rhythm steadied me slightly. Kayden released me, pulled out his phone, and called Evan.
"Evan, pull Victoria's complete movements for the past seven years," Kayden ordered. "Call logs, bank statements, social media... everything."
New files started arriving.
"Here." Evan's voice came through the phone. "Victoria's been back at the pack seven years, but her bank account shows... Monthly fixed payments. Not huge amounts—five to ten thousand. Transferred to an offshore account."
"Can you trace it?" Kayden asked.
"Difficult, but we used some methods..." Evan answered. "Eventually tracked it. The account holder..."
He paused. "Someone named 'F.B.'"
