"Try to keep your heart steady. Let us wait for the bloodline results before making any decisions, yes?"
Once I had gathered myself, Healer Elena worked to calm my racing pulse. She began compiling a record of every wolf who could have accessed the specimens—from the initial harvest during my heat cycle to the sacred conception rite itself.
"Selene, I give you my word—if this breach occurred within our healer-den, we will treat it with the utmost gravity."
"I have already pushed for the bloodline results. Rushed under moon-seal authority. You will have them by nightfall at the latest. I will send word the moment they arrive."
Kael, meanwhile, kept playing the role of devoted mate.
The pack escort he had arranged for me was already waiting outside the healer-den gates.
"Selene, I will be working through the night at the central den. I arranged for fresh-caught game to be delivered—make certain you eat."
He rushed through the words, eager to sever our mind-link.
"Kael, I truly feel unwell. Can you return to our den and stay with me? Forget the territory negotiations. I just want you here."
His voice turned sharp with impatience. "Selene, do not be difficult. Those negotiations mean better resources for our pup."
When I sensed no softening through our weakened bond, I cleared my throat. "Kael, let me ask you something. Did you ever undergo the phantom-labor trial—with someone else?"
A beat of silence stretched between us like a hunter's snare.
"Selene, I know I should have gone with you. But honestly, I would rather spend that time securing our territory's future than waste it on something without practical purpose."
A female voice carried through in the background, urging him to hurry with a familiar ease that made my fur want to rise.
Kael's words came faster. "Selene, my pack liaison is calling. I must go."
I set the communication crystal face-down on the fur-draped couch and wiped the tears from my cheeks.
A message arrived through the pack-net from Dorian Stormhart.
He had found her.
Her name was Raven Duskthorn. Kael's first love.
Her broken bloodline and rogue-touched family had never met the Ironclaw Pack's standards for a Beta's mate. The season they came of age, under pressure from the pack elders, Kael had been forced to sever their bond-courtship.
But after he mated with me, they had never truly let go.