“Your brother didn’t betray anyone.”

I stared at the crumpled note in my trembling hands, reading the words over and over until they blurred. Someone had slipped this to me during the marking ceremony.

Someone who knew the truth.

“Start looking at who did.”

My legs gave out. I collapsed onto the silk sheets, the paper falling from my fingers as reality crashed over me in waves.

Lucien was innocent.

Reid had executed an innocent man.

My brother—my sweet, reckless brother who used to sneak me honey cakes and chase away my nightmares—had died for crimes he never committed.

“No, no, no,” I whispered, pressing my palms against my eyes. But the tears came anyway, hot and endless, tearing through my chest like claws.

I’d watched him die. Watched his head roll across that blood-soaked platform while I screamed his name. And for what? A lie. A setup. Someone else’s betrayal pinned on the Ashborne name.

The grief hit differently now—sharper, more vicious. Before, I’d been mourning a brother who’d made terrible choices. Now I was mourning a victim. A scapegoat who’d been sacrificed to protect the real traitor.

“I’m sorry,” I sobbed into the empty room. “Lucien, I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you.”

The mate bond pulsed, sensing my distress. Somewhere in the packhouse, Reid would feel the echo of my breakdown. Good. Let him wonder what fresh hell his unwilling mate was experiencing.

Footsteps echoed in the corridor outside—measured, confident steps that made my stomach clench with recognition.

I scrambled to hide the note under a pillow just as the door opened without ceremony.

“Tears again?” Reid stepped into the room like he owned it. Which, of course, he did. “You’re going to dehydrate yourself at this rate.”

“Go away.”

“This is my territory. My packhouse. My room.” His amber eyes tracked over my disheveled form with clinical interest. “You don’t get to dismiss me, little wolf.”

“Then what do you want?”

“To check on my mate.” Reid closed the door behind him, the soft click somehow more ominous than if he’d slammed it. “You’ve been broadcasting distress through the bond for the past hour.”

“Sorry to inconvenience you with my grief.”

“Grief?” He moved closer, and I caught his scent—pine and leather and something darker that made my treacherous body respond despite everything. “Or guilt?”

“What?”

“Maybe you’re finally accepting what your brother really was.” Reid’s voice was conversational, but his eyes held that predatory focus. “A traitor who sold out his own pack for—”

“Stop.” The word came out sharper than I intended. “Just stop.”

“The truth hurts, doesn’t it?” He was close enough now that I could see the gold flecks in his eyes. “Knowing that your precious Lucien—”

“He was innocent!”

The words exploded from me before I could stop them. Reid went very still, his expression shifting from mockery to something far more dangerous.

“Interesting,” he said softly. “What makes you so certain?”

My mouth went dry. “I just… I knew him. He would never—”

“You knew him?” Reid’s hand shot out, gripping my chin and forcing me to meet his gaze. “The way you knew he was meeting with rogues? The way you knew he was planning an ambush?”

“I didn’t know because it never happened!”

“Then explain his confession.”

“People will confess to anything under torture!”

Reid’s grip tightened. “Careful, mate. You’re dangerously close to accusing me of extracting false confessions.”

The mate bond crackled between us, electric and unwanted. This close, I could feel his heartbeat, steady and controlled while mine raced like a trapped bird’s.

“Let me go,” I whispered.

“No.” His thumb brushed across my lower lip, the gesture almost gentle. “I don’t think I will.”

“Reid—”

“You’re mine now.” His other hand found my waist, pulling me against him until there was no space left between us. “Marked. Claimed. And it’s time you started acting like it.”

I should have fought him. Should have pulled away, screamed, done anything but melt into his touch like I was starving for it.

But the mate bond sang in approval as his mouth found mine, drowning out every rational thought. The kiss was demanding, possessive, and I hated how right it felt.

“That’s it,” Reid murmured against my lips. “Stop fighting what we both know you want.”

“I don’t—”

“Liar.” His hands found the ties of my nightgown, and I should have protested. Should have reminded him that he was my brother’s killer, that this was wrong on every possible level.

Instead, I arched into his touch as the silk pooled at my feet.

“Look at you,” Reid’s voice was rough with approval. “So responsive. So eager.”

Shame burned through me, but it wasn’t enough to override the bond’s demands. When Reid lifted me onto the bed, I didn’t resist. When he claimed me with hands and mouth and body, I met him stroke for stroke.

For those stolen moments, nothing else existed. Not grief, not guilt, not the terrible truth about Lucien’s innocence. Just Reid’s hands on my skin and the bond that made us two halves of something broken.

Afterward, I lay trembling in sheets that smelled like sex and betrayal. Reid was already moving, reaching for his discarded clothes with the efficiency of long practice.

“Get some rest,” he said without looking at me. “I have meetings.”

The casual dismissal hit like a slap. “That’s it?”

“What did you expect? Poetry?” Reid fastened his belt, his expression already shifting back to that familiar coldness. “You served your purpose. Be grateful I was gentle.”

“My purpose?”

“To provide an heir.” His amber eyes found mine, and there was no warmth in them. “Don’t mistake physical compatibility for affection, Sage. You’re here to breed, nothing more.”

The words hung in the air like a blade. I pulled the sheet up to my chin, suddenly feeling more exposed than when I’d been naked.

“I hate you,” I whispered.

“Good.” Reid moved toward the door, pausing with his hand on the handle. “Hate makes excellent motivation. Use it.”

“For what?”

“To survive what’s coming.” The door opened with a soft click. “Because this is just the beginning, little wolf. And I promise you—it’s going to get much worse than this.”

He left me there, tangled in silk and shame, with the taste of him still on my lips and his mark burning on my throat.

I stared at the ceiling, feeling hollowed out. Used. Like something that had been claimed and catalogued and filed away for future reference.

The mate bond still hummed between us, a constant reminder of what I’d just allowed. I’d let my brother’s killer touch me. Claim me. Use my body while I practically begged for more.

And Lucien’s real killer was still out there.

I rolled over and retrieved the note from under the pillow, smoothing out the wrinkles with shaking fingers.

/Your brother didn’t betray anyone. Start looking at who did./

Someone in this packhouse knew the truth. Someone had been brave enough to risk passing me this message. Which meant I wasn’t as alone as Reid wanted me to believe.

I stood on unsteady legs and walked to the mirror, confronting my reflection. Hair wild, lips swollen, Reid’s mark dark against my pale throat. I looked like exactly what I was—a woman who’d just been thoroughly claimed by her mate.

But beneath the surface, something harder was taking shape. A resolve that had nothing to do with the mate bond and everything to do with justice.

“I’m going to find out who really betrayed the pack,” I told my reflection. “And when I do, I’m going to make them pay for what they did to you, Lucien. And I’ll make that bastard Alpha pay for killing you.”