Chapter 35 Knox
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Knox
The door burst open with enough force to rattle the windows. Noah staggered in, out of breath and pale, his clothes torn and dirty. He looked like he’d been running through the woods for hours, which knowing my brother, he probably had.
“I found something,” he gasped, bracing himself against the doorframe. “About Alderic.”
He stopped short when he noticed our parents standing in his living room like they owned the place. Which, knowing them, they probably thought they did.
“Marcus. Serena.”
“Noah,” my father greeted coolly, as if finding his younger son looking like he’d been dragged through hell backward was perfectly normal. “What have you found?”
Noah and I locked eyes for a second. Whatever he’d discovered had him looking more rattled than I’d seen him in years, which meant it was bad. Really bad.
“When the attack started at the wedding, I used the chaos,” Noah said, straightening up despite his obvious exhaustion. “Broke into Alderic’s office, went through everything. His files, his correspondence, his hidden safe behind that ugly painting of his grandfather.”
“Breaking and entering,” my mother observed. “How refreshingly direct.”
“Sometimes the old ways work best,” Noah replied, pulling out a thick folder from inside his jacket. The papers were crumpled and stained, but intact. “He’s been corresponding with someone named Blade. Someone who can control rogues.”
The room went dead silent. Even my parents, masters of the poker face, couldn’t hide their shock.
“That’s impossible,” my mother breathed, and hearing Serena Raven admit something was impossible was like hearing the pope question the existence of God.
“Ferals don’t follow anyone. It’s what makes them feral, which is what makes them rogue.
They’ve lost their humanity, their ability to reason or follow commands. ”
“I thought so too. But look.” Noah spread the papers across the coffee table, his hands steady despite everything. Letters in Alderic’s careful script, bank transfers to offshore accounts, coded messages that weren’t coded well enough.
I leaned forward, reading over his shoulder.
Each page made my wolf rise higher, made my control slip further.
But my mind was racing with the implications.
If someone could control ferals, it changed everything we knew about pack security.
Our entire defense strategy was built on the assumption that rogues were solitary, unpredictable threats.
If they could be weaponized, directed...
“Blade leads them somehow. Coordinates them. That’s why the attacks were so organized. Someone’s been directing them like pieces on a chess board.”
“The attack pattern at the wedding,” Noah continued, pointing to a hand-drawn map. “Look at the marks. Every exit was covered. Every strong fighter was targeted first. They knew exactly where everyone would be.”
My blood ran cold as the implications hit me. “This attack on Lina and the pups...”
“Alderic ordered it. Paid for it.” Noah’s voice cracked, just slightly, but I heard it. “Twenty thousand to take out specific targets. Your mate and children were at the top of the list.”
I felt Lina’s hand slip into mine, grounding me before I could lose it completely. The twins pressed closer to her other side, sensing the growing tension in the room.
“There’s more,” Noah said, and the way he looked at me made my stomach drop. He pulled out another set of papers, these ones older, yellowed at the edges. “I found these in a hidden compartment. They go back years. Knox... there’s more.”
I took the papers with hands that wanted to shake. Financial records. Correspondence. All dated seven years ago. My eyes caught on a familiar date, and suddenly I couldn’t breathe.
“The attack seven years ago,” Noah said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Blake’s death. Alderic was behind that too.”
The papers fell from my numb fingers. Blake. My baby brother. The one who always laughed too loud, who played pranks on the senior council members, who could make anyone smile even on their worst day. Blake, who died screaming my name while I fought to reach him through a wall of rabid rogues.
Blake, whose death I’d blamed myself for every single day since.
The rage that filled the room was suffocating. My father’s eyes flashed wolf-gold, the first sign of lost control I’d seen from him in decades. My mother’s claws extended, delicate hands becoming weapons. But their fury was nothing compared to the inferno burning through me.
Memories flooded back, each one a fresh wound. Blake at twenty-one, excited about his first patrol as a full pack warrior. Blake teasing me about being too serious, too Alpha, too everything. Blake the morning of that last patrol, stealing bacon off my plate and grinning when I growled at him.
“Just us three,” he’d said. “Like when we were kids. What could go wrong?”
Everything. Everything had gone wrong.
“I’ll kill him,” I snarled, and my voice wasn’t human anymore. “I’ll tear his throat out with my teeth. I’ll make him beg for the mercy I’ll never give.”
“No.”
Everyone turned to stare at Lina. She stood there, holding our children close, looking every inch the Luna she was meant to be.
“We do this right,” she said, her voice steady. “Legal. Public. So everyone knows what he is. So there’s no doubt, no question, no way for him to spin it into martyrdom.”
“The human wants to play politics while my son’s killer walks free?” My father’s voice was dangerous.
“He killed family,” Lina continued, meeting his gaze without flinching. “He tried to kill our children. Death is too easy. Too quick. I want him to lose everything first. His position, his respect, his daughter’s future. I want him to know what it feels like to have everything ripped away.”
My father studied her for a long moment, then slowly nodded. “Death makes him a martyr. Exposure makes him nothing. And nothing is what he deserves to be.”
“We need more,” my mother added, her analytical mind already working through the angles. “This is evidence of conspiracy, but we need witnesses. We need to know who else was involved. Who’s Mary’s baby’s father? How deep does this cancer go?”
Noah nodded grimly. “I’ll track down Blade. Let him know what happens when he fucks with the Ravens. Get his testimony while we’re at it.”
“Offer him territory,” I said coldly, my mind shifting into the strategic mode that had kept me alive as Alpha. “As bait. The deep woods, away from pack lands. Let him think he’ll walk away from this with everything he wanted.”
My smile felt wrong on my face. “He won’t. Not after causing so much pain. People died because of him. Innocents who just wanted to celebrate a wedding. Children who’ll grow up without parents. And Blake...”
“We’re all in agreement then?” My mother looked around the room, taking in each nod. “Justice first. Then vengeance.”
“Justice first,” we echoed. “Then vengeance.”
Plans solidified quickly. My family might be dysfunctional on a good day, but threatened, we became a well-oiled machine of destruction.
Noah and my father would leave immediately to find Blade.
According to Noah’s research, the rogue leader had been making noise about wanting territory for years.
He controlled the ferals through some combination of pheromones and old magic, keeping them just coherent enough to follow orders.
“We’ll dangle it,” my father said with a cold smile that reminded me why other packs feared the Raven name. “Let him think he’s negotiating with equals. Let him believe he’s won.”
I watched my father plan, seeing shadows of the man who’d taught me to be Alpha. Not through kindness or patience, but through showing me that sometimes the world required monsters to fight monsters. Today, I was grateful for those lessons.
The twins had been silent through all this, absorbing everything with careful attention. Finally, Rowan spoke up, his small voice cutting through our planning.
“The bad man hurt Uncle Blake?”
The room went still. I’d told them stories about Blake, about their uncle who would have loved them, but they’d never connected him to a real person before. Never understood that he was gone because someone took him.
“Yes, baby,” Lina said gently, pulling him closer. “But we’re going to stop him. We’re going to make sure he never hurts anyone again.”
“Good,” Thea said firmly, with a viciousness that would have been adorable if it wasn’t so unsettling in a four-year-old. “Bad people should be stopped. They should go to timeout forever.”
My father actually smiled at his grandchildren. “Spoken like true Ravens. Perhaps there’s hope for the bloodline after all.”
To everyone’s surprise, my mother announced she would stay to help coordinate. When I stared at her in shock, she simply said, “Family protects family.” As if she hadn’t spent the last thirty years treating family like chess pieces to be moved around a board.
As Noah and my father prepared to leave, I pulled my brother aside. We hadn’t talked properly in years, too much unspoken grief creating distance between us.
“Be careful,” I said, gripping his shoulder. “Blade’s dangerous and-”
“Blake would want justice,” Noah cut me off. “And he’s going to get it. All of it. Every person who contributed to his death is going to pay.”
“I’m sorry,” I said suddenly, the words bursting out. “I’m sorry I led that patrol. Sorry I didn’t protect him. Sorry I’ve been a shit brother since-”
“Stop.” Noah grabbed my shoulders, shaking me slightly. “Blake’s death wasn’t your fault. I know that. I’ve always known that.”
“I should have been faster. Should have seen the ambush-”
“You should have had a baby brother who didn’t die,” Noah said firmly. “But Alderic took that from both of us. So let’s take everything from him.”
We stood there for a moment, two brothers finally united in purpose instead of divided by grief. It felt like Blake was there with us, probably making inappropriate jokes about our emotional moment.
“Find him,” I said as they prepared to leave. “Find Blade. Make him believe he’s won. Then bring him home.”
“With pleasure,” my father said, and his smile promised violence. “It’s been too long since I reminded the world why Ravens are apex predators.”
They disappeared into the dawn light, two of the most dangerous wolves in existence hunting the man who’d orchestrated my brother’s murder. Blade had no idea what was coming for him. He thought he was negotiating with civilized wolves, pack politicians who followed rules and procedures.
He was about to learn that Ravens didn’t follow rules when family was threatened. We rewrote them. In blood, if necessary.