Rolf stared at his Beta, his mouth slightly open, caught somewhere between disbelief and dread. Jake stepped forward and raised the documents in his hand, holding them high enough for the whole hall to see.
"These documents right here are the original records that show who truly owns the Moonfang pack." His voice didn’t waver, even as his knuckles whitened around the paper. "I also have photographs to back up every word of it."
"What are you doing?" Rolf hissed at him, his eyes narrowing to slits.
A few feet away, Kira and Claire exchanged a quick, startled glance, both of them trying to make sense of the crack that had just split open between an Alpha and the man who’d stood loyally behind him for years.
Jake held Rolf’s stare without blinking. "I’m telling the truth."
Rolf closed the distance between them in two strides, his jaw tight with fury. "You’re my Beta. Your loyalty belongs to me."
"And you were supposed to be my Alpha!" Jake shot back, his voice cracking with something raw underneath the anger. "Loyalty runs both ways!"
Rolf’s frown deepened, confusion bleeding into the rage on his face. "What are you even talking about?"
Jake tore his gaze away from him and looked past his shoulder, straight at Scott, who was now on his feet, watching the two of them unravel in front of the entire hall with a look of complete bewilderment.
Rolf followed his Beta’s line of sight and landed on the same face. Something shifted in his expression the instant he understood. His shoulders dropped a fraction, and when he turned back to Jake, his voice came out low and shaken.
"How did you find out?"
"We told him," a voice called from the crowd.
Rolf spun round to find Derek and Kai making their way towards the centre of the hall, unhurried, as if they had all the time in the world. His frown carved itself deeper into his face.
Derek walked straight up to Kira and slid his hand into hers, lacing their fingers together, and looked down at her with a small, satisfied smile before lifting his gaze back to Rolf.
"Surprised?"
"What did you do?" Kira asked, staring up at him, her eyes wide with a mix of shock and something close to admiration.
Derek’s grin only grew as the memory of exactly how it had all come together settled over him.
***
Flashback...
A few days earlier, in Kira and Derek’s nursery.
"I’ll miss you," Kira said softly.
"You will?" Derek tilted his head, watching her with warmth.
She nodded and rested her head against his chest, breathing him in, content to stay just like that a while longer.
Your Grace. Connor’s voice came through the mind-link. Kai has found something I think will really interest you.
Derek pulled back with a reluctant sigh, resting his forehead against Kira’s. "I need to meet with Connor for now. Something important came up."
"Is it something we should be worried about?" Kira asked, searching his face.
"Not at all." He pressed a gentle kiss to the tip of her paint-streaked nose, lingering there a beat longer than he needed to. "I’ll see you in the morning. For now, you need your sleep."
She nodded, and neither of them moved right away, both reluctant to let the quiet, playful bubble around them pop. Eventually Derek took her hand, and they left the nursery together.
Once he’d freshened up and tucked Kira into bed, he made his way down the corridor to his study, where Connor and Declan were already seated at the table, a laptop propped open between them with Kai’s face grinning out from the screen.
"What have you got?" Derek asked, shutting the door behind him.
Kai chuckled through the speaker. "I dug up some proper dirt on that bastard Rolf. You’re not going to believe this one."
Derek dropped into his chair, brows drawing together. "Go on."
"Turns out the boy Rolf has been trying to marry off to his so-called heir, Chloe, is actually his own son. Not his Beta’s."
"How is that even possible?" Derek’s frown deepened. "How could he do that, knowing full well they’re both his blood?"
Kai shrugged on screen, entirely unbothered by it all. "That’s exactly what we need to find out."
"This could work in our favour," Declan said, leaning forward, elbows on the table. "Especially if Rolf has no idea his Beta’s found out."
"Exactly," Kai said. "Jake knows him better than anyone alive. If we want to bring Rolf down, he’s the one to go through."
Derek steepled his fingers under his chin, considering it. "Betas don’t turn on their Alphas easily. What if he refuses to budge? The hearing is only days away."
"Which is why you need to start paying me properly for this job, Your Grace." Kai flashed a cocky grin at the camera. "I’ve turned over every stone there is. Trust me, Jake’s going to sing like a canary."
***
Jake left Rolf’s office after they’d finished going over strategy for the hearing and was walking back towards his quarters when his phone buzzed against his hip. He pulled it out, expecting nothing more than a routine update, but the number on the screen wasn’t one he recognised. His brow creased as he tapped the notification open.
The moment the message loaded, his stomach dropped somewhere near his feet, and every trace of colour drained from his face. He staggered back a step and glanced around quickly, checking that no one had seen whatever had just happened to his expression.
Nice family you have over here. I wonder what your Alpha would say if he found out you’ve been siphoning pack funds to keep them fed all this time.
His hands had started shaking before he even reached the photographs attached below. They were recent, taken in a park somewhere in human territory. His wife and her children, laughing, sunlight on their faces, utterly unaware of the danger sitting a few taps away on a stranger’s phone.
Underneath the images, another message waited.
I wonder what it’d feel like, watching her scream. You can’t reply to this, so I’ll get straight to the point. Be at the location below by noon tomorrow. Come alone, and don’t try anything clever. You won’t live long enough to regret it. I’ll be waiting. Don’t waste my time.
Jake’s thumb flew to his call log, and he dialled his wife’s number with fingers that wouldn’t stay still. It rang through to voicemail. His heart sank straight into his gut. He tried again. Voicemail. Again. Nothing.
He was halfway through dialling a fourth time, his hands trembling so badly he nearly dropped the phone, when a voice came from behind him.
"Dad?"
Jake nearly jumped clean out of his skin. The phone slipped from his grip and hit the floor with a crack that made him flinch harder than the fright itself. He spun round to find Scott watching him, one eyebrow raised.
"You alright? You’ve gone white as a sheet."
Jake nodded quickly, too quickly. "I’m fine. I’m fine." He forced the words out, his voice not quite steady. "Just caught a bit of a cold, that’s all."
He bent down, scooped up his phone with its newly spider-webbed screen, and walked straight into his quarters without another word, leaving Scott standing in the corridor, staring after him, thoroughly confused.