Chapter 14: A Small Grave
Meanwhile, back at Ironfang, Kaleb returned to the pack house with his men after hours of searching the forest to no avail. The tension followed them inside like a living thing.
Mud stained their boots. The sharp scent of sweat, pine, and wolf lingered heavily in the sitting room as guards shifted uneasily around the room.
"It’s like they vanished into thin air," Beta Daniel muttered, planting a hand on his waist as frustration carved deep lines across his face.
Kaleb said nothing at first. He moved toward his Alpha chair slowly, every muscle in his body tight with restrained fury. The moment he sat down, silence swallowed the room whole.
His wolf paced violently beneath his skin. Something about tonight felt wrong.
Kaleb leaned forward slightly, resting his forearms against his knees as his gaze fixed on the stone floor beneath him. "That can only mean one thing," he said at last.
Every eye in the room shifted toward him instantly.
"They escaped through one of the secret routes."
A ripple of unease spread through the warriors. Just then, the doors opened, and Kat walked into the room, cradling her bump, her dress brushing softly against the stone floor as her sharp gaze swept over the gathered men.
Her brows furrowed immediately. "Did you find the intruder?"
No one answered. The silence itself felt dangerous.
Kaleb didn’t even look at her, his thoughts were somewhere else entirely. "Only one person knew every hidden route beneath Ironfang," he continued quietly. "Only one person valued those war strategies enough to risk dying for them." His jaw tightened. "Only one person could move through this pack unseen."
Kat’s heartbeat skipped painfully. No. It can’t be. Her fingers wrapped her bump protectively. "What exactly are you trying to say?" she asked carefully.
Beta Daniel stepped forward slowly, disbelief etched across his features. "Are you suggesting the former Luna is alive?"
Even saying the words aloud sounded wrong, impossible even.
Kat cut in immediately before the thought could fully settle in the room. "You’re all getting ahead of yourselves," she snapped. "That’s impossible."
But the fear tightening inside her stomach betrayed her calm tone completely. Because if Rhea was alive, then the secret they buried with her was alive too.
Kaleb finally lifted his head. His eyes moved across the room slowly before settling somewhere distant, somewhere haunted.
"Impossible?" he repeated quietly, the word tasting bitter in his mouth. "I drove the knife into her myself," he said flatly. "I watched her die." His voice lowered further. "You all did."
For a brief moment, silence pressed heavily against the walls.
Then Daniel spoke again, slower this time. "Is there any possibility she survived?"
Kaleb’s head snapped toward him instantly. "I should be asking you that," he growled, rising abruptly from his chair.
The sudden flare of Alpha energy slammed through the room hard enough to make several wolves lower their heads instinctively.
Daniel stiffened.
Kaleb stepped closer, his golden eyes sharp with something dangerously close to desperation. "Did you bury her?"
Daniel hesitated. Just for a second. But in a room full of wolves, a second was enough. "I did," he answered finally, though the confidence in his voice was gone now. "She should be dead."
Kaleb’s pulse lurched painfully. Should, not is. Should.
"Good." His wolf reacted instantly to the difference, restless and agitated beneath his skin.
Relief flickered through him so violently it almost felt like weakness, but rage crushed it immediately after. No. He refused to feel relief over her being alive. He couldn’t feel relief.
"That’s not very convincing, Daniel," Kat cut in sharply before the silence could deepen further. Her voice carried tension now. "Did you bury her or not?" she demanded.
Daniel’s jaw tightened immediately at the way she spoke to him, but before he could respond,
Kaleb moved again. "I want to see the burial site myself."
The room went still.
And somewhere far beyond Ironfang’s walls, Rhea was about to learn the cost of being forgotten, but neither of them knew they were walking toward the same truth.
—
A million thoughts swirled through Rhea’s mind, heavy and chaotic, as she trudged behind Adam. Her legs still felt brittle, but it was the memory of Kaleb’s betrayal that truly threatened to drag her under. Every time she closed her eyes, she felt the burning slice of his silver-coated blade.
Suddenly, Adam stopped.
Rhea froze on instinct, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she nearly collided with his broad back. The rich, dominant scent of cedarwood and wild rain rolled off him, briefly grounding her against the dizziness clawing at her temples.
Adam didn’t turn around. He simply lifted a hand and pointed through the low-hanging fog of the woods. "There it is," he said, his deep voice unusually quiet.
Rhea’s gaze followed the line of his arm, and her breath caught. They hadn’t even given her a proper pack burial. There were no ceremonial stones, no prayers carved into oak, no respect for the Luna who had bled for them.
It was just a pathetic heap of dark sand with a withered, broken stick shoved into the center. The sheer insult of it made a bitter laugh bubble up in her throat. But the laugh died instantly.
Her vision blurred as her eyes drifted a few inches to the left. A violent tremor started in her knees, forcing her to take a helpless, stumbling step forward.
Beside her makeshift grave sat a smaller one. A small, heartbreaking mound of dirt, completely neglected. Eli.
The world tilted violently. River let out a raw, agonizing howl inside her head, a sound of pure maternal grief that ripped through Rhea’s entire soul. The air in her lungs vanished.
She looked up at Adam, her eyes already burning, bloodshot, and flooded with hot tears. "Is he—?" Her voice broke, the words choking in her throat.
Adam didn’t answer. But something in his jaw tightened hard, like the answer was physically locked behind his teeth. His profile remained entirely stoic, his dark eyes fixed on the small mound of earth.
Desperation overtook her. Ignoring the dizziness she felt, Rhea closed the distance between them and grabbed the lapel of his heavy coat, her fingers trembling violently as she forced him to look down at her.
"Is my son in there?" she demanded, staring directly into his dark, unreadable eyes. She was close enough to feel the intense heat radiating from his skin, close enough to feel the heavy hum of his Alpha aura attempting to soothe her frantic pulse. "Or is he alive like me?"
Adam’s jaw clenched, a muscle ticking under his stubble, but his lips remained locked.
"Answer me, Adam!" she cried out, her voice cracking with a mix of fury and agonizing hope.
Still, he remained silent.
Rhea searched his face frantically, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. She couldn’t tell if his silence was a shield, because the truth would break whatever was left of her, or if he was hiding a secret far more dangerous than death itself.
