The Forbidden Alpha's Mate

"Zayn's room," Levi said, "Tonight."

We moved.

The room was small and neat. The kind of neat that meant always ready to leave.

Bed made, surfaces clear, nothing personal anywhere.

"He knew we'd search it," I said.

"Yes." Levi checked the cabinet, empty. "He cleared everything."

"Not everything." I crouched by the bed. Checked the frame, nothing. Moved to the floorboards near the window. Pressed each one, the third from the wall gave slightly. I worked the edge up with my knife.

A hollow space underneath.

Letters, sealed. No markings, no names.

I handed them to Levi.

He opened the first. Read it. His jaw tightened. "Patrol routes, gate schedules, compound layout." He opened another, "Names of every wolf with senior clearance."

"How many."

"Eleven."

"Three years. Eleven transmissions." I looked at the empty room, "Victor had everything he needed to walk in here whenever he wanted."

"He was waiting for something specific," Levi said.

"The full moon."

"Yes."

Levi folded the letters. His face was controlled but something moved behind his eyes.

"There's more," I said.

He looked at me.

"Zayn didn't just pass information out." I held up the last letter, unopened. Different seal, "Someone was passing information back in."

Levi took it. Broke the seal and read it.

His face went still.

"What," I said.

He handed it to me.

I read it.

"The document is not lost. It was never in Shadowmoon and Carter knows where it is. He just doesn't know he knows. Keep him close, keep him alive. When the moon rises bring them both to the ridge. Victor will handle the rest."

I read it twice.

Looked up.

"They don't want us dead," I said slowly, "They want us at a specific location on a specific night."

"The ridge," Levi said.

"Which means everything, the contract, the border crossing, the bond-" I stopped.

Levi's eyes were steady on mine.

"They engineered all of it," I said, "Not just tonight, all of it. To get us both to that ridge on the full moon."

"Why."

"Because of the document." I looked at the letter again, "Victor thinks I know where it is."

"Do you."

"No." I paused, "Maybe." Something shifted in the back of my mind, a memory. Old and half buried. Something my father told me the night before I left on the border run that I had never thought about again because everyone I would have told was ash by the time I came back.

Levi watched my face. "Ray."

"My father," I said slowly. "The night before Shadowmoon burned. He told me something. I thought it was nothing. A story, something old."

"What did he tell you."

I looked at him.

"That there was something buried inside Shadowmoon's founding stone," I said, "Something that had been there since the beginning, something he said I would know how to find when the time came." I paused, "I never went back."

The room was very quiet.

"The founding stone is still standing," Levi said carefully, "The fire didn't reach the outer grounds."

My chest tightened.

"Victor burned my pack," I said, "Killed forty seven wolves, staged his own death and spent five years engineering this entire situation." I looked at Levi, "For something buried in a stone that has been sitting in the ruins of Shadowmoon this whole time."

"We have six days," Levi said.

"We need to get to that stone before he does."

"If we move toward Shadowmoon territory Victor will know."

"He already knows everything we do. Zayn made sure of that." I looked at the letter in my hand. "Except this, he doesn't know we found this letter."

Levi looked at me.

"We have one advantage," I said. "One window before he realizes we know." I held his gaze, "We move tonight."

Levi was quiet for a moment.

Then - "Daniel."

"Just Daniel," I said. "Nobody else."

"Agreed." He moved toward the door and stopped then turned. "Ray."

"What."

"If Victor thinks you know where the document is." He paused, "He's not the only one who's been hunting it."

"The council."

"Yes." His jaw tightened. "Which means the moment we touch that stone we won't just have Victor coming for us."

I looked at him steadily.

"How many enemies do you want to make in one night," I said.

Levi held my gaze.

"However many it takes."

He opened the door.

Daniel was standing right outside it. Not like he'd just arrived but like he'd been there long enough to hear everything.

His face was ashen.

"Daniel," Levi said carefully, "How long have you been standing there."

Daniel looked at Levi, then at me, then back at Levi.

"Long enough." His voice was very quiet, "Long enough to know that what I just found in the east corridor changes everything you just said."

"What did you find," I said.

Daniel reached into his jacket and pulled out a folded piece of paper.

Placed it in Levi's hand.

Levi opened it.

I watched his face go from controlled to something I had never seen on him before. Something cracked, something that looked like a man finding out that the ground he built everything on was never solid to begin with.

"Levi." My voice was quiet. "What is it."

He looked up and his eyes found mine.

"Victor didn't stage his assassination alone," he said, "Someone inside this compound helped him disappear four years ago." He paused, "Someone who has been here ever since, watching, reporting and waiting."

"Who," I said.

Levi held my gaze for a long moment.

"The one person," he said quietly, "neither of us suspected."

He turned the paper around.

I read the name.

And the floor dropped out from under five years of everything I thought I knew.