Chapter 52

Callahan

Silence in my office was worse than any battlefield. In a fight, you know your enemy—where the blade will come from and what you’re fighting for. Now everything I’d built was unraveling.

The Elder Council’s investigation had turned Blackridge into a gilded cage. Our borders were under constant watch. Our warriors were being interrogated. My father, Darius Thorne, sat awaiting trial on charges that could get him executed. And it all traced back to one name: Alex Delacroix. The girl we should’ve killed, the girl we should’ve feared, now the greatest threat to our pack.

I stared at the files strewn across my desk. Then the door slammed open—Camilla burst in without knocking, as always. “What the hell do you mean he has a mistress?”

Camilla looked like she hadn’t slept in days—pale, frantic. Good. She deserved to suffer.

“He forgot Alex,” she said, pacing. “The spell worked. He doesn’t remember her.” Her hands trembled. “But when he came bac