CHAPTER 112: A STERLING ABSENCE

ALDRIC

The Skollrend library swallowed sound. Every footstep. Every breath. The thick carpets and heavy shelves absorbed it all until the silence became something physical. Something that pressed against my ears.

I liked it here. Always had. Even as a child. The smell of old paper and leather bindings. The weight of knowledge collected over centuries. This library was one of the largest in the shadow world. Generations of Skollrend alphas had built it. Had filled these shelves with records and histories and secrets.

And secrets were exactly what I needed.

The genealogy section took up an entire wing. Row after row of leather bound volumes organized by pack and region. Some dated back hundreds of years. Others were more recent. Updated regularly to track bloodlines and alliances and the shifting power structures that kept our world turning.

I pulled a volume from the shelf. The leather was cool under my fingers. Smooth from years of handling. I carried it to one of the reading tables and set it down with care.

The Silver Creek pack.

I flipped through the pages slowly. My eyes scanned the carefully recorded names and dates. Birth records. Death records. Matings and divorces and everything in between.

There. Alpha Joseph Hughes.

I leaned closer and studied the entry. His lineage was thoroughly documented. His father. His grandfather. The line stretched back seven generations. All proud alphas for an incredibly small and useless pack. All upholding the pack’s reputation for supposed strength and tactical brilliance. Whatever the fuck that meant.

His mate was listed next. Isobel Hughes. Formerly Isobel Stathi. Daughter of Alpha Marcus Stathi. Another prominent family. A real strong bloodline. The entry devoted three full paragraphs to her accomplishments. Her education. Her role in strengthening the alliance between Silver Creek and Northern Ridge.

Their daughter came next. Hazel Hughes. The entry was just as detailed. Her education. Her training. Even her eventual coupling up with Cian which ended up in an epic disaster.

Then I found her. Fia Hughes.

The entry was bare. Almost insultingly so. Born on such and such date. Classified as omega at age seven. Mated to Alpha Cian Skollrend on such and such date after her treacherous deceit.

That was it. No details about her education. No mention of training or accomplishments. Nothing about her mother beyond a single line.

Mother: Muna Sterling.

I stared at that name. Let it roll around in my head. Muna Sterling. I’d never heard it before. Never come across it in any of the pack records I’d studied over the years.

I understood why of course. Omegas were creatures of no consequence. They contributed nothing to the bloodline beyond whelping pups and serving their betters. Most packs didn’t bother recording omega lineages with any detail. Why waste the ink? Why preserve information that meant nothing to anyone?

But I needed more than this. I needed to understand what I was dealing with. If the omega possessed some hidden knowledge or ability then it had to come from somewhere. Talents didn’t materialize from nothing. They were inherited. Passed down through blood and training.

I closed the volume and returned it to the shelf. Then I moved to the index system. My fingers traced along the labeled drawers until I found what I wanted.

S.

I pulled the drawer open and rifled through the cards inside. My eyes scanned name after name. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe. But not a single Sterling.

I tried variations. Searched under different spellings. Different regions. Nothing. The name might as well have never existed.

That bothered me. Names didn’t just disappear. Even the most minor families left some trace. Some record of their existence. But Muna ’Sterling’ was a ghost. A blank space where information should have been.

I drummed my fingers against the drawer. The sound was loud in the silence. Too loud. I stopped and closed the drawer with a soft click.

Where did she come from then? She didn’t just materialize out of thin air. Someone had birthed her. Someone had raised her. Someone had taught her whatever it was she knew.

My mind turned to other possibilities. Other explanations for the omega’s unexpected competence.

What if she wasn’t all wolf? Hybridization was frowned upon. But it didn’t mean those vile creatures didn’t exist. What if somewhere in that unremarkable bloodline ran something else? Something that explained how she’d created a cure that defied every rule of alchemy I knew?

Witches. The thought settled in my mind and I considered it. Hybrids could pass as mostly wolves if they tried hard enough. If they suppressed their magic and played at being normal. It wouldn’t be the first time one had infiltrated a pack.

But if the omega had witch blood then why hadn’t anyone noticed? Why hadn’t Cian sensed it? The mate bond should have revealed something like that. Should have made it impossible to hide.

Unless she didn’t know. Unless whatever witch blood she carried was so diluted that even she was unaware of it.

That made more sense. A distant ancestor. A great grandmother or great great grandmother who’d mated outside her kind. The magic would be weak by now. Almost negligible. But it might be enough to give her an edge. Enough to let her stumble onto solutions that should have been beyond her reach.

I needed to be sure. I needed proof before I could act. And there was only one way to get that kind of proof.

Blood.

Blood didn’t lie. Blood couldn’t hide what it was. A proper analysis would reveal everything. Every trace of magic. Every hint of otherness. Every secret coded into her very cells.

I just needed to get a sample. Just needed to create a situation where taking it would seem natural. Reasonable even.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. The vibration was sharp against my thigh. I pulled it out and looked at the screen.

It looked like an unknown number. A message from someone using an encrypted app.

’Your plan might be failing again. The omega has managed to break his defenses completely. They are doing it right now in the ballroom.’

I stared at those words. Read them three times to make sure I understood correctly.

Then I laughed. The sound burst out of me before I could stop it. It echoed through the library. Bounced off the high ceiling and came back twisted. Wrong. The laugh of someone who’d finally snapped.

I squeezed the phone. My fingers pressed against the case until I thought it might crack. The screen went dark under my thumb.

Cian. My nephew. My brilliant strategically minded frustratingly noble nephew. He was fucking her. Right now. While his mother lay dying. While his pack fractured around him. While everything I’d worked toward trembled on the edge of success.

He couldn’t help himself. That was his fatal flaw. His weakness that I’d counted on from the start. He thought mostly with his cock. Let his feelings override his judgment. Made decisions based on momentary desire instead of long term strategy.

And the omega. She’d done exactly what I’d expected. She’d wormed her way past his defenses. Used her body and her tears and her pathetic attempts at being helpful to make him forget why he’d despised her in the first place.

It was almost too perfect. Almost too easy.

No matter. The words formed in my mind with absolute certainty. The one thing I could count on my nephew to do was make life difficult for himself. Whatever frivolous rubbish that omega seemed to be setting in motion would fail. It always did. Cian’s attempts at rebellion always circled back to exactly where I needed them.

She would only end up hurt. He would only end up more isolated. And I would be there to pick up the pieces. To guide him. To shape him into exactly what Skollrend needed. Six feet under.

I picked up the phone again and typed out a response.

’How many allies of ours did you have to sacrifice?’

The reply came quickly.

’Too much.’

Another message followed.

’Won’t this hurt anyone who might still be considering allying with us?’

I smiled as I typed.

’I’ve already thought of that. Just play your role and I will play mine.’

I set the phone down on the table. Let it rest there beside the genealogy volumes. My eyes returned to the page still open in front of me.

Isobel Hughes. Hazel Hughes. The documented. The recorded. The ones who mattered enough to preserve in detail.

And below them. Barely mentioned. Barely acknowledged.

Fia Hughes. Daughter of Muna Sterling. A nothing name attached to a nothing girl who somehow threatened everything.

I looked back at the name of the daughter and mother who would definitely have it out for this bastard girl.

There had to be something I could use here. Some weakness. Some vulnerability. Some thread I could pull that would unravel whatever protection she’d managed to wrap around herself.

I would find it. I always did. No one stayed hidden forever. No one kept their secrets safe once I decided to uncover them.

The library was still silent. Still absorbing every sound. But in my head the gears were turning. Plans forming. Contingencies developing.

The omega thought she’d won something. Thought she’d saved Morrigan and earned Cian’s gratitude and secured her place in the pack.

She had no idea what was coming. No idea that every victory I let her have was just another step toward her destruction.

I pulled out my phone one more time. Opened my contacts. My thumb hovered over a name I’d been avoiding all night.

Madeline.

She could help. She had resources I didn’t. Knowledge I needed. A record of magic practitioners. But every message I sent her since the Omega bitch dampened my plans revealed more than I wanted. Showed cracks in my control. Made it clear that something had rattled me.

I couldn’t afford that. Not now. Not when everything was so close.

I closed the contacts and set the phone down again. The blood test would be enough. I just needed to be patient. Needed to wait for the right moment.

And that moment would come. It always did.