Ch. my pack erased me, the lycan king didn’t 11 my pack erased me, the lycan king didn’t 11

Chapter 11 

They came to Draven Hall at four p.m. 

+45 Coins 

I watched from the north tower, because I’m still enough of a coward to want five stories between me and my own 

blood. 

Two black trucks. My father, in clothes he’d clearly slept in. And three of my brothers. Marcus. Liam. Gabe. Tobias and 

Ryder were with the pack healers, with a silver bullet in a lung and a crushed leg between them. 

My father hadn’t shaved. 

Gideon Ashford has shaved every day since 1985. 

“Boss,” Maya said behind me. “You don’t have to see them. I’ll say you’re out of the country.” 

I thought of my mother’s handwriting. Tell her I never stopped writing. 

“No,” I said. “I’ll go.” 

They stood in the great hall with their hands empty and their spines straight, the way our pack teaches you to stand 

when you’re being judged. 

Marcus saw me first. 

My oldest brother. Thirty–four, six–foot–four, the one who taught me to hunt. He looked straight at me and didn’t 

recognize me for a full second. The short hair. The black suit. The silver crown pin. The distance in my eyes. 

Then he did. 

And Marcus Ashford made a sound I’ll hear on my deathbed and dropped to his knees on the stone. 

“Get up,” I said. 

“Little Moon-” 

“Get up.” My voice came out like an ice pick. “You don’t kneel in this Hall. It isn’t yours.” 

He got up. 

My father was staring at my pin. “You serve the Lycan King.” 

“I sit at his right hand.” 

Chapter 11 

“You’re twenty–two.” 

“Yes.” 

“Sienna-” 

+45 Coins 

“Don’t. Don’t say my name yet.” 

You could hear the fire crackling. 

“Twelve months,” I said. “I lived in the hunting cabin for eight of them. I ate breakfast alone two hundred times. I asked Mom for one Sunday twelve times. At your birthday feast, you raised your cup to your children and you named five.” 

Liam made a small, broken noise. 

“I opened your vault. I read my page. S. turned 21. Bond rejected by Hale. No further action. That’s my whole life. In your handwriting.” 

“I know what it says.” His voice was sanded down to nothing. 

“The King told me why.” 

“Then you understand-” 

“I understand you had a reason. A good one. And I need you to understand it doesn’t erase a single one of those three hundred and sixty–five days. I lived them not knowing. I lived them believing I was so worthless my own family could look through me like glass.” 

I let that sit. 

“You didn’t protect me. You protected the secret. And you decided a heartbroken girl was an acceptable price.” 

My father’s face broke apart. 

Alpha Gideon Ashford, who has stared down rogue armies without blinking, stood in the King’s hall and wept in front of his sons. 

“Yes,” he said. “That’s exactly what I did.” 

Something old and locked in my chest twisted. I hated that part of me was still seven, hiding under his desk, waiting to be noticed. 

“Where’s Mom.” 

Gabe held out a phone. “This came ninety minutes ago.” 

Chapter 11 

A video. 

+45 Coins 

My mother, chained to a chair with silver cuffs, smoke rising where they touched her skin. A bruise on her cheek. Her chin up, the way she holds it at funerals. 

Behind her, a man with silver hair, pale skin, and a smile full of very white teeth. Casimir Morrow. 

“Gideon. Old friend. You played a lovely game. The daughter nobody wanted. I almost believed it.” 

He smiled wider. 

“But a little bird from Pennsylvania tells me your daughter sits at the Lycan King’s right hand. That she ended 

a forty–year war in ninety minutes. That the most powerful wolf alive wrapped her bleeding hand with his own handkerchief.” 

He leaned toward the camera. 

“She’s treasured after all. Just not by you. The pact is awake.” 

“Hollow Ridge. Midnight. Bring her to me, and I’ll return your Luna. Refuse, and I’ll send Clara home in pieces and take the girl anyway.” 

The screen went black. 

My whole team had come down behind me. Nobody spoke. 

“You’re not going,” my father said. “I came to tell you we’re handling it. I came to make sure you stay behind these walls.” 

I laughed. God help me, I actually laughed. 

“You still don’t get it,” I said. “You spent a year hiding me. You should have spent it trusting me.” 

I turned. “Jonah. Every camera and sensor within a mile of Hollow Ridge. Maya. Mine blueprints. Every tunnel. Every 

vent.” 

“Yes, Boss.” 

“Kael.” 

I didn’t need to look. He was already beside me. 

“Every wolf I command,” he said. “And me.” 

I turned back to my father and brothers. 

Chapter 11 

“Get in the truck. You’re not in charge. You’ll do exactly what I say.” 

“Little Moon,” Marcus whispered. “Why are you helping us?” 

“I’m not,” I said. “I’m helping her.”