Chapter 61

Chapter 61: Chapter 61

Kael knew something was wrong the moment his Gamma refused to meet his eyes. The man stood rigidly before his desk, a sealed document clutched between both hands.

"Alpha."

Kael looked up from the reports scattered across his desk. "What?"

The secretary swallowed. "There has been an update from the First Houses."

Kael froze. He had been dropped once, but he had lobbied around from Alpha to Alpha before he was once again reinstated on the list. "What kind of update?" he asked.

The Gamma hesitated. He didn’t know how to say this one... this was Kael’s biggest dream, to be a part of the First Houses.

Kael frowned at the man’s hesitation. It irritated him more than anything. "Speak up already!" He snapped impatiently.

"The sovereign registry has been amended, Alpha."

"And?" Kael drawled out.

"Your name has been removed from the list, Alpha. Silver Creek is no longer a candidate for the First Houses."

For a few seconds, Kael simply stared like the words didn’t make sense. Like he couldn’t believe his ears.

The room seemed to shrink around him. Kael stared at the Gamma, waiting for him to correct himself.

"Say that again."

The Gamma swallowed. "Your name has been removed from the Sovereign Registry, Alpha. Silver Creek is no longer under consideration for membership in the First Houses."

Something in his expression cracked wide open. "Removed." He said it flatly, testing the word, as though repeating it might make it dissolve into a misunderstanding. "Removed?"

"Yes, Alpha."

"On what grounds?" Kael shot up from his chair so fast it scraped hard against the floor. "I built this pack from ruin. I have paid every levy, honored every treaty, sat through every council meeting for five years—on what possible grounds does the registry remove my name?"

Kael’s head was spinning. How was this possible? He was still trying to get back on his feet with that pack. Once he had control of that, he was going to pursue his way into the First Houses.

He had spent years building Silver Creek toward that goal, years of proving that he was worthy of standing among the most powerful Alphas in the realm.

He had been dropped once before, and he had clawed his way back. He had gone from Alpha to Alpha, spoken to those who supported him, reminded them of the strength Silver Creek possessed and the value he could bring to the First Houses.

Eventually, he had been reinstated as a candidate. It had taken everything, but he had done it. And now, it was gone—just like that.

Kael looked back at the Gamma. "Who signed the order?"

The Gamma’s throat worked. "The order came directly from the Supreme Alpha’s office, Alpha. No further explanation was given."

Kael’s breathing became heavier. How could Lucien do this to him?

There had to be more to it. Lucien had supported him. He had stood behind him when Evelyn had made her demands. He had told Evelyn to return to Silver Creek.

He had made it clear that Kael’s position mattered. So what could’ve changed?

"What about my access?" he asked, and the Gamma hesitated again.

Kael’s eyes narrowed. "What about it?" he demanded.

"The private communication channel to the Supreme Alpha’s office..." He swallowed. "It has been revoked."

Kael’s expression darkened. "Revoked? Since when does an Alpha on the sovereign list lose direct communication with the Supreme Alpha’s office just like that?"

"I couldn’t say, Alpha."

Kael’s jaw clenched hard enough to ache. He couldn’t let this happen—to be kicked out for a second time? He would be the laughingstock of the realm.

"Get me parchment. Now." He growled.

Aldric rushed to do his bidding and in a second returned with it. Kael immediately got to work. He wrote through the night to old allies from the border campaigns, to distant cousins by marriage he hadn’t spoken to in years, to anyone he could think of who might still owe him enough loyalty to intervene on his behalf. He sealed each letter himself, certain that somewhere in the realm, someone would recognize the injustice of it and speak up on his behalf.

---

For two days he waited—waited in vain—but got nothing in response. He had sent messages to seven packs—seven—and got a response from just two.

Kael read the last message with annoyance before throwing it out the window, slamming his fist against the table. They were all useless, the lot of them. Their messages contained the same old thing he had once used to get out of things like this.

First came the useless sympathy, then the refusal coated in excuses upon excuses. But he understood what the underlying message meant. No one wished to be seen defending a man the Supreme Alpha himself had publicly discarded.

He’d also heard the news. Lucien’s trade was going well now—almost like all the problems he had were simply a figment of his imagination.

Kael’s jaw tightened hard as he stood by his desk. It had been two days since the unfortunate news, and now he couldn’t wait any longer. He had to do something to turn this around.

His mind ran back to seeing Evelyn and Lucien in that tavern. He was sure Evelyn was behind Lucien’s trade being blocked, and now that it was running smoothly, she had to have done something.

He didn’t know when she became this kind of person, but all he knew was that he wasn’t going to lose on this. He had Evelyn first and would have her under him again. He just had to press harder.

"Callum." He called, and in a second the Beta came running into the office.

"Yes, Alpha."

"I need ten large bouquets of peonies. Sent to the Valemont estate," Kael continued, already reaching for a fresh sheet of parchment. "Not all at once. One a day, for ten days. Let her grow tired of refusing them before the eleventh finally lands."

Callum’s expression didn’t shift, though something behind his eyes sharpened with interest. "Ten days, Alpha?"

"Have the portrait of Evelyn and Lily that’s locked away in the storage room taken out and cleaned. Attach it to the bouquet and send it to Valemont."

"The mother in her ought to remember the child she abandoned, oughtn’t she?" Kael set down his pen. "Even a woman as hardened as she’s become couldn’t look at that and feel nothing. Whatever she’s built since she left, none of it fills the space a mother’s guilt leaves behind."

Callum said nothing for a moment, his expression carefully blank. "And if she doesn’t respond to either the flowers or the painting?"

"She will." Kael’s certainty hadn’t wavered once in two days. If anything, it had only hardened more. "She left because she believed I chose Sophia over her. Once she sees I regret it—once she sees what she’s still capable of having, if she simply comes back—and I know she’ll come. I know her better than anyone in this realm, whatever she’s become since."

"Of course, Alpha." Callum bowed his head and turned to leave. He was three steps down the corridor when he heard the sound of skirts moving quickly away from the study door.

Sophia hadn’t been quiet enough.