Evaline:
The mont Jasper’s familiar voice filtered through the car speakers, sothing inside my chest tightened so sharply it almost hurt.
"Alpha," he greeted, his tone respectful but carrying that underlying urgency I had co to recognize over the past year.
My heart imdiately began to race... but not with fear. Not exactly. It was anticipation. Hope. Dread. All tangled together into one unbearable knot.
Jasper and his team had been digging into Naira’s incident for days now. Every lead had either dissolved into nothing or circled back to the sa frustrating dead end. So if he was calling River directly... if there was urgency in his voice...
There might finally be sothing.
Beside , River’s hand moved slowly up and down my back, warm and steady through the thin fabric of my dress. The gesture was almost absentminded, yet impossibly grounding. He must have felt the shift in my breathing, the way my body had gone rigid.
"What is it?" River asked calmly. "You wouldn’t call unless you had sothing."
My pulse jumped.
There was a brief pause on the other end before Jasper replied, "We do, Alpha. We finally have a lead. A solid one."
The words hit like a physical force.
River didn’t respond imdiately. Instead, he glanced at , his dark green eyes searching my face as if silently asking whether I was ready to hear whatever ca next.
I didn’t trust my voice, so I just nodded.
"Hold on," he told Jasper.
Before I could even process what he was doing, he handed the phone to . Then he leaned forward, his long arm reaching toward the tinted divider separating us from the driver.
He knocked twice.
The divider slid down instantly.
"Stop the car," River instructed, his tone leaving no room for hesitation. "Step out. Walk ahead until you are well out of hearing range."
"Yes, Alpha."
The driver obeyed imdiately. Within seconds, the car slowed, pulled over to the side of the road, and ca to a smooth stop. The door opened, shut, and through the windshield I watched the driver stride forward along the empty roadside until he was far enough that even enhanced wolf hearing wouldn’t pick up a conversation from inside.
Only then did River turn back to .
"You can speak," he said quietly into the phone. "It’s just us."
Jasper didn’t waste another second.
"We have been going through all the alcohol orders from the diner during the week of Miss Naira’s incident," he began. "Every single custor. We t most of them personally to confirm tilines and deliveries."
I held my breath.
"Initially nothing stood out," he continued. "But then we found an order with fake na and address."
My fingers tightened around the phone.
"They paid in cash," Jasper added. "So there was no bank trail. But we didn’t stop there. We spoke to the diner staff again and checked the records of nearby CCTV footage from surrounding buildings and traffic caras. It took a while, but eventually... we found them."
I held my breath.
"Two individuals," he said. "Young. They ordered the delivery. And when we ran facial recognition..." He paused, letting the significance settle. "They turned out to be forr students of Silver Moon. They graduated last year."
For a mont, I couldn’t speak.
I slowly lifted my gaze to River. He was already watching , his expression serious, mind clearly racing along the sa path mine was.
"River..." My voice ca out barely above a whisper. "What if... what if Naira went to deliver the alcohol to them? At the academy?"
The words felt heavy in my mouth, yet frighteningly logical.
If Naira had entered academy grounds that night... if sothing had happened there...
Her soul death.
It would finally make sense.
It fit.
River gave a slow nod.
"It’s possible," he said. "But we don’t assu. We confirm."
His calm steadiness anchored again before panic could spiral.
He took the phone gently from my hand.
"Jasper," he said, his voice shifting fully into Alpha command. "Locate their current positions. I want full profiles... family, pack affiliations, movents since graduation."
"Yes, Alpha."
"I’m sending Kieran," River continued. "He’ll question them personally."
There was no mistaking the implication in his tone.
"Understood," Jasper replied imdiately. "We’ll have locations to you within the hour."
The call ended shortly after and silence filled the car.
The outside world felt strangely distant, like I was suspended in a bubble between past and present.
River turned slightly toward .
His hand slid from my cheek to my chin, tilting my face so I had no choice but to et his eyes.
"Evaline," he said firmly. "Listen to ."
Sothing in his tone made go still.
"Your focus right now," he continued, "is the Council eting. Your position. Your work. That is where you are needed."
My lips parted, but he kept going.
"Kieran and Jasper will handle the investigation until we have concrete information," he said. "If there’s sothing to act on, you’ll know. But until then... you don’t divide your attention."
I knew he was right.
Still didn’t make it easier.
"What if they find sothing and I’m not there?" I asked quietly.
"You will be," he said. "When we have answers."
His thumb brushed across my lower lip, a soothing gesture that sohow carried authority and reassurance at the sa ti.
"You trust ?" he asked.
Always.
The answer lived in my bones.
I nodded.
A faint smile touched his mouth.
"Good," he said. "Then leave this to us."
Outside, the driver was still standing far ahead on the road, exactly where River had ordered him to be.
He probably asked his driver through mind link because I noticed him walking back toward the car.
Within monts, we were moving again... back toward the Council building, toward responsibilities that suddenly felt both trivial and enormous compared to the storm brewing beneath the surface of my life.
River’s arm settled around my shoulders, pulling closer into his side.
And for the rest of the drive, I leaned into him... holding onto the fragile, terrifying hope that after all this ti... the truth about Naira might finally be within reach. And we would be one step closer to the truth.
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