CHAPTER NINE
Lucien had never paid much attention to the archive beneath the healer's hall.
The room smelled of dried lavender, old parchment, and cedar shelves that had absorbed generations of careful hands.
Every birth, death, treatment, and bloodline record belonging to Silver Ridge and its closest allies eventually found its way into this underground chamber.
It was the sort of place most Alphas visited only when tradition demanded it.
Today, Lucien had come because someone had asked for him.
Master Healer Corwin stood beside the longest table in the room, his white sleeves rolled above his elbows.
Several ledgers lay open before him, each marked with small strips of cloth that divided one section from another.
Unlike most healers, Corwin spoke slowly, as though he refused to let urgency outrun accuracy.
When Lucien entered, the old man didn't offer greetings.
"I'm glad you came."
Lucien closed the heavy wooden door behind him.
"Damon said you found something."
"I found several things."
That answer immediately sharpened the room.
Corwin gestured toward the nearest ledger.
"Sit."
Lucien obeyed.
The healer turned a brittle page with surprising care before resting one finger beside a faded entry.
"You remember the fertility program Blackwater Ridge organized?"
"I remember volunteering blood."
"You also remember being told the effort produced no surviving children."
"I do."
Corwin nodded.
"That is exactly what every official record says."
Lucien frowned.
"You wouldn't have called me here if that were true."
"No."
The old healer slid another book across the table.
"This ledger belongs to Blackwater."
Lucien looked between the two.
"They don't match."
"They should."
He leaned closer.
The dates were identical.
The healer signatures were identical.
Even the order of treatments appeared unchanged.
Only one section differed.
Names.
Several had been scraped away so carefully that only faint impressions remained beneath the fresh ink.
Lucien ran his fingertips lightly across the page.
"This wasn't damage."
"No."
"It was deliberate."
Corwin folded his arms.
"Someone removed specific participants after these records were completed."
Lucien looked up.
"Could time have faded the ink?"
The healer actually looked offended.
"Young man."
Lucien sighed.
"Right. Stupid question."
"A remarkably creative one."
Despite the seriousness of the conversation, the old man allowed himself a faint smile.
"I've spent forty years preserving records. Ink fades evenly. This..." He tapped the page gently. "...was scraped away with a blade before new entries were written over it."
Lucien's expression hardened.
"Who had access?"
"Very few people."
"The council?"
"Some."
"The chief healers?"
"Yes."
"The Alpha?"
"At the time, your father."
Silence settled between them.
Lucien lowered his eyes to the parchment again.
The missing names bothered him less than the precision.
Whoever altered the records hadn't panicked.
They had planned.
Corwin reached for another ledger.
"There's more."
"I suspected there would be."
The old healer opened the second book to a page marked by dried blue ribbon.
"This list records every volunteer who provided blood during the ritual."
Lucien immediately found his own name.
Beside it appeared the signatures of six young wolves from allied territories.
Except one name ended halfway through the line.
The remainder had vanished beneath another layer of ink.
"Someone covered it."
"Exactly."
Lucien looked toward Corwin.
"Can it be recovered?"
"Possibly."
"How?"
The healer smiled in the satisfied way scholars often did when discussing work no one else found exciting.
"Old ink and new ink age differently. Given enough patience..."
"You can separate them."
"I might."
Lucien leaned back in his chair.
"So whoever hid Elodie's existence also hid other names."
"That appears to be the case."
The words echoed inside his mind.
Elodie hadn't been forgotten.
She had been concealed.
There was a difference.
The heavy door creaked open behind them.
Damon stepped inside carrying another stack of correspondence before stopping at the sight of the ledgers covering nearly every inch of the table.
"I've interrupted something."
Lucien looked toward him.
"You've arrived at the right moment."
Damon crossed the room and quietly listened while Corwin explained the altered pages.
Unlike Lucien, the Beta didn't immediately study the damaged records.
He studied the room.
"The locks."
Corwin followed his gaze.
"What about them?"
"There are three on the archive door."
"There have always been."
Damon shook his head.
"The middle one is newer."
The healer blinked.
"It is."
"When?"
Corwin thought for a moment.
"Perhaps... eight years ago."
"Who ordered it?"
"I don't remember."
Lucien looked between them.
"You think someone expected these records to matter."
"I think," Damon replied carefully, "that people don't spend money protecting documents nobody intends to hide."
The room became very quiet.
Lucien trusted Damon's instincts more than almost anyone's.
His Beta noticed details the rest of them stepped past without thinking.
Corwin slowly closed the ledgers.
"I almost dismissed the inconsistencies."
"What changed your mind?"
The old healer hesitated.
"Mara."
Lucien waited.
"When I examined her after the journey, she mentioned Liora often spoke about keeping promises."
He folded his hands together.
"She used those exact words."
Keep your promise.
"At first I assumed she meant bringing Elodie here."
"You no longer believe that."
Corwin nodded.
"I believe Liora expected someone to discover the records eventually."
Lucien's thoughts returned to Iris.
She would have asked different questions.
Not because she understood archives better than anyone else.
Because she understood people.
She would have wanted to know why Liora waited five years instead of coming immediately.
Why Mara had been trusted instead of another messenger.
Why the documents appeared only after Liora's death.
Every answer led toward another question.
He rubbed a hand across his jaw.
"We need everything connected to the ritual."
Corwin's brows lifted.
"Everything?"
"Every surviving ledger."
"Correspondence?"
"Yes."
"Healer journals?"
"Those too."
Damon gave Lucien a long look.
"This won't make Elder Rowan happy."
Lucien almost smiled.
"I've noticed that has become a recurring problem."
The Beta's mouth twitched.
"I'm starting to think you're enjoying it."
"I'll let you know after the next council meeting."
The brief exchange eased the tension just enough for everyone to breathe again.
Corwin gathered the books into careful stacks.
"I'll begin comparing every version we have."
Lucien rose from his chair.
"So will I."
The healer looked surprised.
"You intend to read medical archives yourself?"
"I intend to find out why my daughter spent five years hidden from the world."
The words still felt unfamiliar.
Not uncomfortable.
Simply new.
"And if someone manipulated these records," Lucien continued, "I want to know whether they acted alone."
Corwin inclined his head.
"A wise question."
Lucien started toward the door before stopping.
"There is one more thing."
The healer waited.
"If anyone asks what we've discussed today..."
Corwin smiled knowingly.
"...I'll tell them the Alpha finally developed an interest in paperwork."
Damon laughed outright.
"No one will believe that."
Even Lucien couldn't argue.
As they climbed the stone staircase back toward daylight, the conversation faded into thoughtful silence.
The investigation had begun with missing names.
Now it carried something far more unsettling.
Someone hadn't merely hidden a child.
They had rewritten history carefully enough that generations of healers accepted the lie without question.
Lucien stepped into the morning sunlight and looked across the courtyard where the Alpha House stood beyond the gardens.
For the first time since Iris left, he wondered whether the secrets buried inside those ledgers had stolen more than the truth.
He wondered what they had quietly taken from his marriage long before either of them realized anything was missing.