I stared at the yellowed pages of the diary and imagined what John had to face all those years after his father's death. I pictured him as a young man alone with his father's blood on his hands.

The healer was looking at me, probably thinking I was in shock.

"It's already dawn, my lady. You need to gather the pack and tell them the state of their Alpha. In the absence of the Alpha, his mate must assume," I stood up from the chair in shock. "Not to take leadership of the pack as ...