Chapter 52

Dominic

I rubbed at the bridge of my nose, scrolling through yet another flagged report.

The digital folder of harassment complaints linked to Renee was thicker than it had any right to be—anonymized emails, altered footage, manipulated screenshots. Many of them had come from people within my own pack. By the end of the month, I would be culling more than 10% of my pack, those that lived in my territory and those that helped run it. I suppose it wasn't a bad thing to be opening up pack applications again, but this isn't how I expected to be opening recruitment. Even if it was the best arm to start opening up recruitment, I didn't have time to manage it. Hazel had managed that. That was how Tyler and his family had gotten into the pack in the first place, though I was starting to wonder if it was. My misjudgment to let her handle it.

But it was always a lunar job to handle recruitment. To forge bonds in between packs…

I sighed again, rubbing my head. There was no way I could leave that sort of thing to Vivian the way things were now. But that was a problem for another time.

How had I not seen all these years? That Tyler's father, his entire family worst toxic as they were?

The deeper I dug, the more tangled it became. Some of it clearly came from outside actors, but the timing… the access… it reeked of someone with proximity. Someone inside, and more than a few things had popped up implicating Tyler's family in more than just this recent scandal.

I’d started flagging names. A few familiar ones kept cropping up. Too familiar.

Tyler’s little band of cronies. And, increasingly, traces that led to Vivian’s inner circle—contacts she’d once bragged about, people she claimed owed her favors. I wanted to believe she wouldn’t go that far, but after the fifth fabricated “cheating” post and trail leading right back to Vivian's inner circle, my patience was unraveling.

I had to admit, had to at least consider that Vivian had a bigger hand in this than I had hoped. Had they ever been anything like friends?

Then the door slammed open without warning.

I didn’t even look up right away. Only one person stormed in like that. It grated my nerves now, where I had once found it adorable. When she was too little to know better.

“Dad!” Vivian’s voice was shrill with indignation. “You cast them out? You exiled Tyler and his family from the estate without even telling me?”

I exhaled slowly, pushing back from my desk. “I have no reason to discuss pack decisions with you, Vivian. Especially considering the circumstances around why they've been exiled.“

"You do have to tell me!" She snapped, slamming the door behind her. “You humiliated them. You humiliated me. And for what? Some outsider? For Renee? I'm going to be your successor! I have a say in these things!”

I stood. Calm. Controlled. “It was a formal disciplinary action based on verified evidence of severe misconduct. Tyler’s father has misused Brightclaw assets. His mother may be mostly innocent, but she seemed more relieved to be returning to her birthpack than anything, and Tyler—”

“Tyler has been loyal to this pack since we were children!” she screamed. “So what if he made a few mistakes? You don’t just exile people like that! Bring them back."

I cocked my head at her. "No."

She flushed. "No?"

“It's a full sentence, one I realize I haven't said enough to you." I shook my head. "Based on their actions alone, exile is the least of their problems. They'll be lucky to not die in jail for all the charges I'm going to throw at them."

"You can't --"

"I already have. As a Panel member---"

"Cut the shit, Dad!" Her face twisted with rage. “This isn't about your position. This is about her, isn’t it? About Renee who you've always loved more than me. I saw you with her. I see the way you look at her. I know it's because of how much she looks like mom.”

Vivian’s expression turned smug, as if she’d drawn blood. “You think it's bad now, with everyone calling her out as a cheating whore--"

"Vivian--"

"Wait until I tell everyone how you're probably the one she slept with!"

I tilted my head smiling at her, it was a cold sort of smile, humorless as I stared at her.

"And what do you think that will accomplish, Vivian?"

She flushed. "Your reputation ---"

"I'll marry her." Her eyes bulged. "If you intend to try and ruin her life over your entitlement and ridiculousness, I'd take full responsibility for it and marry her. Full ceremony here on the grounds." She ground her teeth. "You'll be a bridesmaid, and every time you don't call her stepmother, or Luna, I'll put you out for a week."

"You wouldn't--"

"You want to force me into a tough position. You want to be a spoiled, selfish, ridiculous child, then you're going to have to deal with the backlash, but I am a man of honor, Vivian. I have only done what is right. The fact that she resembles your mother has no bearing on the fact that my pack members, familial and not, have wronged her and I have to make it right."

Her jaw trembled. I could see her still turning over the situation, trying to find a way forward, but I was dead serious. It wouldn't be a hard sell. Arielle would draw up a hell of a prenuptial agreement, but in the eyes of the world, I who hadn't dated a single woman and had devoted myself to taking care of Vivian, would barely get a social slap on the wrist. Renee would be Luna of my pack and at the least I could trust her to screen heavily with a bit of help from Arielle.

"I will not let anoyone try to rot our family's pack from the inside, Vivian. One day, if you become alpha of Brightclaw, you will understand why."

Her eyes welled up, though I couldn’t tell if it was real or another weapon in her arsenal. “You’ll regret this.”

I sat down again, staring at the flickering screen, at the name Renee glowing at the top of the report.

"I already do regret things…. So let's talk about it."

I fixed her with a stare I hadn’t used on her since she was a teenager trying to lie her way out of sneaking out when she could have just asked and nearly gotten herself killed being drunk.

“What do you know about the harassment Renee’s been facing? I’m not asking as your Alpha right now. I’m asking as your father.”

She turned slowly. Her mouth twitched—not in guilt, but in offense. She said nothing.

"Vivian."

"I don't have to answer you."

I set my jaw. "You don't… but if you don't answer me, you will be compelled to answer by the Panel."

"You would never."

"It won't be up to me when Mountainhowl's suit goes through and there's already enough evidence to incriminate you with at least collusion."

“You're supposed to be my Dad, you're supposed to protect me!"

"Not from the consequences of your own actions." I narrowed my eyes at her. "Are you involved, Vivian?"

She scoffed, crossing her arms, it was as good as a yes.

"I can understand you being angry, and I accept and acknowledge that I have spoiled you rotten. This is your one chance to come clean and try to earn some --"

"I don't need your fucking high-handed bullshit!" Her lips peeled back in a snarl. Then her whole body trembled.

I felt it before I saw it—her energy warping, flooding the room with raw emotion. Her breathing grew shallow, her fists clenched, and then—

The shift took her.

It wasn’t graceful. It tore through her like a dam breaking, and she collapsed forward with a cry of rage and pain. I backed away instinctively, giving her room. Her bones cracked, spine arching as fur spilled out across her skin like spilled ink. Her scream twisted into a lupine snarl, and then there she was—on all fours, panting heavily, eyes blazing with confusion and pain.

She had finally shifted.

After years of waiting, after all the frustration and false starts… my daughter had shifted for the first time.

Pride swelled up in my chest before I could stop it. I took a step closer, watching shake and stumble on her paws, she shuddered, panted and swooned on her feet.

And my breath caught.

My gut plummeted.

Her eyes were violet, not her mother's amber or my near-black.

Her claws were plain rather that the signature, glowing moonlight white of a Brightclaw wolf.

Her form was familiar, but I couldn't say why. I just knew that she wasn't a Brightclaw by blood.

She wasn't mine.