Penelope's POV

"Are you hurt?" I sink into the chair across from Dr. Reeves' desk. "The fire—are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Mom says with a sigh that sounds like it carries the weight of the world. "But the basement is destroyed. All my files, all my evidence—years of work, gone."

"He did this," I say, my hands clenching around the phone. "Alpha Blackthorn. He threatened me and mentioned the fire in the same conversation."

"Of course he did," Mom says, sounding defeated in a way I've never ...