Chapter 5 The Half Truth

The motel room asked no questions and accepted cash without documentation. I sat on the bed with Kael's laptop, trying to access the Crescent Moon Pack's secure server through an encrypted connection. Around me, the warehouse fire's aftermath was being scrubbed from every news source.

Twenty-three dead. Official story: faulty wiring. Unofficial story: hunters with flame accelerants designed for werewolf bodies.

Someone had known exactly where we'd be. Someone from inside the pack.

"Stop searching for patterns that aren't there," I muttered, but I was already cross-referencing omega records with Lysander's supply requisitions. Numbers emerged. Connections formed. A systematic program operating for decades.

My phone buzzed. Unknown number: Stop searching. You're looking for truth in a place designed to hide it.

Kael pushed through the door with coffee, looking exhausted. Since the fire, he'd been oscillating between protective and paranoid.

"Tell me about your father," I said.

His expression went neutral. "That's classified, Isabel. The kind that gets people killed."

"We're already being hunted."

After a long silence, Kael spoke. "My father didn't rise through normal succession. A woman appeared in Crescent Moon territory sixty years ago. She taught him that omegas were dangerous, that their genetic markers could challenge traditional hierarchy. That stability required systematically weakening them."

My stomach dropped. "Lysander became Alpha after meeting her?"

"His father died mysteriously shortly after her arrival. Then Lysander ascended with her blessing."

"Who was she?"

"Unknown. But Marcus said she smelled like old magic. The kind that predates pack hierarchy."

An ancient council. Mother Sage had hinted at it, and now Kael was confirming generations of manipulation.

"Why tell me this?" I asked.

"Because Logan called forty minutes ago," Kael said, his voice heavy. "He said to tell you the truth about your mother."

I froze. "What truth?"

"She's not dead. She was relocated because she was becoming something far more powerful than the pack could handle. Your father was Alpha. Your mother was supposed to be contained until she could be neutralized."

The room spun. My father had been Alpha. The destruction had been calculated specifically because of what my mother was capable of becoming.

"Logan also said something else," Kael continued quietly. "Your fated bond has been severed permanently. He never loved you, and he wants you to understand that clearly so you won't harbor hopes of genuine emotion."

I looked up, seeing raw truth in his amber eyes. Logan was lying. Everyone knew it. But he was lying to protect me from something.

"Why would he tell you that?"

"Because I asked if I could trust him. He gave the answer that would make me most willing to keep you safe and unbound. He knows the surest way to keep you alive is ensuring you're not tethered to pack machinery."

Understanding crashed over me. My rejection, my banishment, all orchestrated. Logan had rejected me deliberately to sever our bond. A bonded mate would've been trapped, vulnerable to his father's plans.

"He played me," I said, anger rising clean and clear.

"Yes. But why would an Alpha destroy his fated mate to protect her?"

I didn't have an answer. The missing omegas, the ancient council, my mother's hidden strength, all connected to something larger.

"What happens now?" I asked.

Kael moved to the window. "Now you decide. Accept your destiny or carve your own path. You can hide, find a normal life, forget everything. Or you can fight."

"Fight what?"

"The hunters came from inside your pack. The conspiracy goes deeper than Lysander. The only person with enough power to orchestrate this is Logan himself."

My phone buzzed: Love and war are not opposites in my family. They're the same instrument, played at different volumes

A confession and warning wrapped in riddle.

"What if Logan isn't the antagonist?" I said slowly. "What if he's dismantling the system from inside?"

Kael studied me. "Then we have a complicated problem. If Logan's trying to save the pack, the line between ally and enemy becomes dangerously blurred."

"I need to contact him."

"Not yet. If hunters are tracking communications, we'll reveal our position. If Logan's compromised, it's a trap."

Kael moved closer, his expression softening. He tucked hair behind my ear, achingly tender.

"We do what the pack trained you never to do," he said. "Trust your instincts. Your omega nature, supposedly your weakness is the only thing that can distinguish truth from manipulation."

I closed my eyes, opening to emotional currents I'd suppressed my entire life. From Kael: longing and resignation. From Logan: something more complicated. Not love, a weight, a responsibility he'd chosen knowing it would destroy him.

"He's telling the truth about the rejection," I whispered. "But lying about why."

Kael's hand cupped my cheek, trembling. "Then we're in trouble, Isabel. Protecting you from Logan just became impossible. And falling in love with you became inevitable."

The door exploded inward.

Three figures in tactical gear moved through, weapons raised. But the figure in the hallway made my breath catch.

Lysander Cross stood there, haggard and desperate, holding a magical restraint glowing with binding runes.

"I didn't come to hurt you," Lysander said quietly. "Come willingly, or I'll activate the spell that permanently suppresses your nature. The only way to save you both is telling me exactly what you've figured out about the prophecy."

My world shifted.

Behind Lysander, stepping forward with absolute devastation, was Logan.