Chapter 193: Are You Happy?
The café felt slightly smaller than it had a moment ago.
"I know," Lilith said quietly.
"You know?" Wren asked gently
"I’m starting to think that there’s more to my father’s story than I was told." She kept her voice even."
Wren looked at her for a long time.
"You went back to the brothers after whatever happened between you and them," she said. "And now you’re sitting across from me with a driver who dropped you two blocks away so I wouldn’t see the car, and you know about pack forum leaks, and you’re telling me you’re looking into your father’s death."
Lilith said nothing.
"What happened to you," Wren said. Not accusatory. Just....direct. That particular Wren directness that Lilith had forgotten about and was now remembering all at once.
"A lot," Lilith said. "In a short amount of time."
"Are you happy?"
The question landed differently than she expected.
She looked at her coffee, her hands wrapped around the cup.
Was she happy.
She thought about Sebastian’s coffee already made when she woke up. Lucian carrying her to her room and helping her into her sleep cloth. Nicholas’s concern when she had just received the news about her mother’s condition.
"I don’t know yet," she said honestly. "But I think I might be getting there."
Wren looked at her for one more moment.
Then she nodded. Once. Like she’d decided something.
"Okay," she said. "Then I’ll wait for when you are ready to talk to me about everything." She picked up her coffee and finally drank it. "But Lilith....when you’re ready to tell me what’s actually happening, I want the whole thing. Not the managed version."
"You’ll get the whole thing," Lilith said. "When I understand it myself."
"Fair enough."
They sat for another twenty minutes after that. Talked about smaller things.
When they finally stood to leave Wren hugged her again.
Less awkward this time.
"Thursday," Wren said against her shoulder. "Call me Thursday. Not to talk about any of this. Just....call me."
"I’ll call you Thursday," Lilith said.
Wren pulled back. Looked at her face one more time with those fast dark eyes.
"Good," she said.
Then she walked out of the cafe.
Lilith stood at the café window and watched her go....down the street, around the corner, out of sight....and felt something she hadn’t felt in a long time.
Not quite lonely. Not quite not lonely.
Something in between. The particular ache of a friendship that had survived ten years of distance and was trying to figure out what it was now.
She picked up her bag.
Walked back the two blocks to the car and got in.
"Lets go back to the estate," she said.
The Marcus pulled out into traffic.
She sat in the back seat and thought about what Wren had said. "Someone is building a narrative. Someone with knowledge of pack culture and the intention to use it."
She thought about telling the brothers.
She should tell the brothers. She knew she should tell the brothers...Nicholas especially, maybe he would be able to sort it out with whatever resources a pack the size of Blackwood had access to, and the fact that they had promised to look into what happened the night of the alliance meeting gave her more confidence to face him.
She looked out the window at the city moving past.
She’d tell them tonight.
After dinner. She’d tell Nicholas tonight.
She pressed her fingers against the cool glass of the car window and watched the streets blur past and thought about her father’s name in a forum thread and a narrative being built by someone who knew exactly what they were doing.
***
She went to find Nicholas after dinner.
His office was on the second floor....corner room, two walls of windows, maps of pack territory covering most of the remaining wall space. He was already at his desk when she pushed the door open. He didn’t look surprised to see her.
"Sit," he said.
Lilith sat in the chair across from him.
He picked up his pen. Set it down. Looked at her . "You’ve been quiet since you got back this afternoon."
She looked at him.
"You noticed."
"I notice everything about you Lilith, And i know that you didn’t go to the hospital like you had informed Sebastian. I know that you met with your old friend. So tell me what happened with your friend, What was the meeting about for it to have ruined your mood for the whole afternoon and dinner?"
"Wren’s been tracking an anonymous post," she said. "The one on the pack forums." She watched his face. "There is a post there about how i was sent here by Shadowmare to pay for a blood debt, but Wren noticed that the post is not sitting organically. Someone is pushing it....seeding it across multiple forums deliberately. It’s spread to three more networks in the last week. And now...." She paused. "Now my father’s name is appearing in the threads. His service history And how he died and how i was sent to you and your brothers has payment."
Lilith took a deep breath and the continued.
"Someone is building a narrative," she said. "That’s what Wren called it. and i think she’s right."
Nicholas listened without interrupting.
Then he picked up his pen. Put it down again.
"Wren documented it," Lilith continued. "Screenshots, forum names, usernames that keep reappearing. She sent it all to me." She held his gaze. "I thought you should know."
When she finished talking, Nicholas was quiet for a moment. Then his eyes went slightly unfocused....in that particular way she’d learned to recognize. A mind link.
"They’re coming," he said simply. His eyes refocused on her.
"Forward me everything Wren sent you."
"I just sent it now."
Something moved through his eyes, something that looked almost like approval.
Then the door opened.
Sebastian came through first with Lucian behind him. And behind both of them...three men she’d come to know as their betas.
Lilith wanted to stand but Sebastian crossed the room, reached her chair pulled her up and sat down taking her with him, settling her back onto his lap in one motion before she’d fully understood what was happening.
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