“Did you?” Darius cuts me off, and there’s a sudden hardening of his expression.
He’s holding a thick folder under his arm. He pulls up a chair and sits down directly in front of me, close enough that I could kick him if only the chains were longer. He opens the folder deliberately and pulls out the first document.
I bare my teeth at him. “What’s that?”
“Read.” He holds the paper up in front of my face.
Search Operation: Kain Ashford, Missing Pack Member – Month 1
My chest tightens as I scan the text. Teams deployed. Grid searches of the war zone. Witness interviews. Every detail meticulously documented.
Darius pulls it away and holds up another.
Month 6: Expanded search radius to include neutral territories
Then another.
Year 2: Interview with captured enemy combatant regarding missing wolves
And another.
Year 4: Investigation into trafficking rings operating near border regions
Each document he shows me is another shock. Another crack in the foundation of everything I was told. Everything I believed.
Year 7: Follow-up on reported sighting in human city
“Year one through year ten,” Darius says, his voice flat as he continues showing me page after page. “Countless searches conducted. For you.”
The search parties got smaller over time, but they never stopped. Never gave up completely.
He holds up the final report. The date takes my breath away.
Only eight months ago.
“No.” The word comes out strangled. “No, this isn’t—”
“Real?” Darius finishes. “It is.”
“Your father could’ve been staging them.” I’m grasping now, desperate to hold on to the truth I’ve believed for ten years. “Fake searches to cover up what he did. To make it look like—”
“I thought of that, too.” Darius sets the reports aside and pulls out a journal of some kind. It is older than the other documents, the pages yellowed with age.
He opens it carefully and holds it up so I can see the cramped handwriting. Dates. Names. Transactions.
“My father kept detailed records of everything,” Darius says, his voice heavy with deep-rooted bitterness. “Every political move. Every deal. Every dirty secret.”
He flips through pages slowly, letting me read entries as they appear.
Bribe paid to Council Member Harrows – 5000
Blackmail material secured on Beta candidate Marcus
Payment received from Silver Lake Pack for border dispute resolution
“He was meticulous about his sins,” Darius continues. “Bribes paid. Alliances made through blackmail. Even the affair he had with a neighboring pack’s luna. It’s all here. Every shameful act, documented.”
He stops on a specific page, holding it out steadily so I can read.
