He wanted to reinforce that he’d been doing this longer than me and that he knew more. That I should defer to his wisdom.
Victoria’s fingers tightened on my arm.
Acorn chirped.
She murmured the translation, her voice carrying the same detachment she used for notes. “He says the wolf who tells you not to look has something worth the looking.”
Bastian’s eyes flicked to the squirrel, and his expression showed a flash of fear, followed by recalculation. He’d underestimated what he was dealing with. He’d expected Victoria to be a distraction, a pretty witch for me to show off, maybe useful for border alliances but not relevant to pack business.
I let the silence stretch between us.
Then I met his eyes and let my wolf show through.
“You’re sabotaging my pack,” I snarled.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
VICTORIA
“How dare you come into my territory and make unfounded accusations!” Bastian roared. He rose to his feet, doing his best to loom over us.
Feral bristled. The heat coming off him said he was close to shifting. I stepped forward before he could.
I watched Bastian’s face as he continued to berate Feral instead of listening to the words coming out of his mouth. Bastian’s anger didn’t match with the guilt I’d expected. His reaction appeared to be offended pride, the kind that came from someone who believed they’d done everything right and was being accused of the opposite.
I’d seen enough people caught in lies to recognize the difference. The guilty ones went still first, their minds racing to come up with explanations. Bastian’s anger was the kind that didn’t need to think before speaking, because it believed itself in the right.
His face showed exhaustion, and there were shadows under his eyes. I didn’t miss the subtle slump in his shoulders. It felt like depletion, as if something had been draining out of him for a long time, and he’d kept going because stopping wasn’t anoption. This kind of tiredness often came from fighting a losing battle alone.
The wolf who rages at the wrong,Acorn said,mistakes the note and blames the song.
It was time to study this as a researcher would. Observation first, hypothesis after.
“I’ve been holding this territory together since your father died and left a boy in charge,” Bastian snapped. His pack enforcers tensed but didn’t move. “Yet you accusemeof sabotage? I’ve been doing your job for thirteen years while you learned how to be alpha.”
The word *holding* snagged in my mind. Why not use the words protecting or managing? This suggested something was trying to fall apart and required constant pressure to keep it together. I filed it away with the other details that didn’t quite fit.
Bastian’s gaze cut to me, contempt clear in every line of his face. “The seals need an alpha’s magic, not witch’s potions. This is pack business, not something you can solve with your notebooks and pretty vials.”
An alpha. One. I wasn’t sure why I noted that detail among all the rest, but it struck.
Feral stepped forward, his wolf rising so close to the surface I could feel the heat of it beside me. He’d shift and violence would erupt between the two males.
I put my hand on his arm.
Feral went still at my touch. His head turned, and he read my face. Whatever he saw there made him pull back. His aggressive posture turned into something more controlled.
He’d seen me do this before in our laboratory when I was building toward something and needed space to work. He trusted it even when he didn’t understand it.
I was grateful to have that trust.
I kept my notebook in my pocket.
“When did you last sleep a full night?” I asked Bastian.
Bastian’s jaw clamped shut. His enforcers exchanged a look that told me everything I needed to know before he could answer.
Silence stretched through the hall, broken only by the soft crackle of the spelled lights overhead.
