Kael
She passed within ten feet of where I was hiding. I held my breath, staying perfectly still.
She didn’t notice . Or if she did, she didn’t show it.
Once she was gone, I turned my attention back to Elena. She sat alone at the table, staring down at her drink. She looked exhausted. After a few minutes, she signalled for the check, paid, and headed for the elevators.
I followed at a distance as she got off on the seventh floor and walked down the hallway to room 714.
I waited until she’d been inside for about twenty minutes. Long enough for her to get settled, maybe change clothes, let her guard down a little.
Then I walked up to her door and knocked.
"Who is it?" Her voice was muffled through the door, cautious.
"Kael. Rhett’s friend."
Silence. Then the sound of the lock turning.
The door opened a crack. Elena peered out at , her eyes red from crying. She’d changed into a hotel robe and cleaned the blood off her face, though the bruises were already darkening.
"What are you doing here?" she asked.
"Can I co in? We need to talk."
She hesitated, then opened the door wider. "Did Rhett send you?"
"In a way." I stepped inside. The room was lovely—king bed, sitting area, and city view. Expensive, like everything else about this place. "He was worried about you. Wanted soone to make sure you were okay."
Elena’s expression softened. "That’s sweet of him. Tell him I’m fine. I just needed so space."
"Space in a five-star hotel?" I looked around pointedly. "That’s so expensive space."
She bristled slightly. "I have money saved. Is that a cri?"
"No." I turned to face her directly. "But eting with Isolde Knox might be."
Her face went white. For a second, she looked like she might deny it. Then her shoulders sagged.
"You followed ."
"I did."
"Why?"
"Because sothing about your story doesn’t add up," I said bluntly. "You show up after twenty years, claiming you want to help your son. But you’re staying in luxury hotels and having secret etings with one of the most dangerous people in Ravenspire. So I’m going to ask you straight out: what’s really going on?"
Elena walked over to the bed and sat down heavily. For a long mont, she didn’t say anything. She just stared at her hands.
"It’s complicated," she said finally.
"Then uncomplicate it."
She looked up at , and I saw real fear in her eyes. "If I tell you, you have to promise sothing. You have to promise you’ll protect Rhett. No matter what happens. No matter what you learn about ."
"I can’t promise that until I know what I’m protecting him from."
"Isolde," Elena whispered. "You have to protect him from Isolde."
My stomach dropped. "Explain."
Elena took a shaky breath. "When I left twenty years ago, I had nothing. The Thatcher family made sure of that. They took everything—my money, my reputation, my connection to my pack. They threw out with nothing but the clothes on my back."
"I know. Rhett told us."
"What he doesn’t know is what happened after." Elena’s voice was hollow. "I was desperate. Alone. I had no way to make money, no way to survive. And then Isolde found ."
Of course she did. Isolde had a talent for finding vulnerable people.
"She offered a deal," Elena continued. "She’d give money, help build a new life, give resources. All I had to do was wait. Stay away from Rhett and Terry. Let ti pass. And then, when she gave the signal, I’d co back."
"Co back for what?"
Elena t my eyes. "To disrupt the Thatcher pack. To create chaos. To make Terry vulnerable."
The pieces were clicking into place, forming a picture I didn’t like at all.
"So this whole thing—showing up at the hospital, the emotional reunion, the fight with Clara—it was all planned?"
"No!" Elena stood up quickly. "The emotions are real. Everything I feel for Rhett is real. I do love my son. I do want to know him. But Isolde..." She wrapped her arms around herself. "She knew exactly when to send back. She knew about Rhett’s condition getting worse. She knew about the problems in Terry’s marriage. She knew everything would explode."
"And what does she get out of this?"
"I don’t know." Elena’s voice cracked. "She never tells her full plan. She gives instructions and I follow them. Because if I don’t..."
"If you don’t?"
"She’ll tell Terry the truth. That I’ve been working with her all along. That every word I’ve said is part of a manipulation." Elena’s tears started falling again. "Terry will never forgive . Rhett will hate . I’ll lose everything all over again."
I was quiet for a mont, processing this. "What did she want tonight? At the restaurant?"
"She wanted to know how things went, how Terry reacted. What Rhett said." Elena wiped her eyes. "She seed pleased. She said everything was going according to plan."
"What plan?"
"I told you, I don’t know! She never tells !"
I paced across the room, my mind racing. Isolde was using Elena as a weapon against the Thatcher pack. But why? What did she gain from destroying them?
Then I rembered sothing. The vision I’d had in the underground tunnel. The fighting arena. The young versions of Terry Thatcher, Silas Greye, Henry Winters, and Headmistress Vale—all sitting together, watching soone fight.
They were all connected. Sothing had happened years ago, sothing involving all of them.
And Isolde was sohow connected to it, too.
"Was there a fighting arena once in Ravenshore?" I asked, staring at Elena.
She stared at for a few second,s then nodded. "It was an underground fighting arena mainly for the pleasure of the elites."
"Was there a popular fighter? A woman, a Bloodborn Wolf that was pregnant?"
Elena’s face turned white as she stared at . She opened her mouth several tis to speak, but no words would co out.
"The woman in the fighting cage," I probed further. "In the underground arena. Do you know who she was?"
Elena finally regained herself, staring wide-eyed at . "How do you know about that?"
"Answer the question."
She was quiet for so long, I thought she wouldn’t respond. Then, in a voice barely above a whisper:
"That was your mother."
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