Chapter 21. Valeborn’s Last Requests

We arrived at my office on the lower floor, the air heavy with tension. Thoren immediately laid the documents before me. They were thick, official, and unmistakably authoritative—instructions from my father, meant to be executed in the event of his death. I scanned them quickly, disbelief churning in my stomach. Every line seemed designed to unsettle me, to remind me that I had never truly been in control. My father had shown no regard, no trust in me as his heir. In some ways, it was as though he had been testing me even from beyond the grave.

Theodora had left me to deal with it alone, having gone to oversee the preparations for my father’s ceremony later that day. I knew there was nothing I could do about the ceremony itself; the documents were explicit—his body was to be attended to immediately, without delay. Thoren leaned in, explaining that copies of the instructions had already been sent to all the pack leaders. Tha