And Ansel. He wanted the freedom to choose a life with Bryn. But that wasn’t the only thing convincing me that my brother would join us without a second thought.

I would never betray the Keepers. Unless you asked me to . . . alpha.

And it wasn’t just Ansel. By keeping my first encounter with Shay a secret, Bryn had risked her safety. She was just as loyal as my brother.

“Yes,” I said. “They’ll join us.”

“Your parents?” she asked. “It would be all the more helpful if the elder Nightshades would come over to our side.”

“Maybe—” My heart jumped beneath my rib cage, leaving me breathless. My father and mother were alphas, my alphas. I’d always submitted to their will. What would they think of their own daughter trying to lead them? Guardians weren’t big on shifting hierarchies.

“What about the Banes?” Shay asked. “Don’t you want all the wolves?”

“Some of the younger Banes, maybe,” Monroe said. “But the elders won’t join us.”

“How do you know that?” Shay asked.

“We have some history with the packs,” Anika said lightly. “Emile Laroche would never seek an alliance with us.”

History.

“You mean they won’t join you because the Banes that would have revolted are already dead,” I said. “They died the last time you tried for an alliance. When Ren’s mother died.”

Monroe drew a sharp breath. “How do you know about that?”

“We found the Keepers’ records of the Guardian packs,” Shay said. “We know that Corrine Laroche was executed for planning a revolt with Searchers.”

“But all I’d ever been told about her was that she was killed in a Searcher ambush at the Bane compound when Ren was only a year old,” I added. “Until the night you attacked Rowan Estate, we were the only ones who knew otherwise.”

Silence swept over the Searchers, all their faces paling as they exchanged troubled glances.

“No wonder the Guardians serve so loyally,” Anika murmured. “The Keepers have twisted your minds about the way lives around you have been broken.”

A trembling began in my shoulders, traveling down my back. “That’s what Ren believed, but the night we ran, I told him the truth.”

They all stared at me.

“You told him?” Shay hissed. “You didn’t say anything about that!”

“It’s the reason he let us go,” I whispered, unable to return his gaze. Part of the reason. I kept my second thought hidden, remembering again the desperation in Ren’s face. The way he’d kissed me. And he was somehow caught up in this. The Searchers weren’t telling us everything.

Monroe suddenly turned on his heel, walking swiftly away. “If you’ll excuseme.”

“Monroe!” Anika called, but he was already out of the door.

“I’ll go after him,” Connor said.

Adne was shaking her head. “It’s always the same.”

What just happened? I glanced at Shay, but he seemed just as confused as I was.

“Maybe he shouldn’t be part of this mission,” Anika said.

“You think he’d ever let it happen without him?” Adne laughed, but it was a bitter sound. “He’s waited years for another shot at this. He’s waited my whole life.”

Anika’s mouth flattened. “Show a little respect for your father, child. You don’t understand how much he lost.”

“Your father?” Shay asked. He looked at her in a way not unlike how he’d just looked at me, like he’d been betrayed.

The sudden bite of jealousy was sharp as teeth snapping at the back of my neck. How close had they gotten while I was recovering?

Adne cringed, blushing as if she’d revealed a terrible secret. “Yeah. Monroe is my father.”

“You never told me that,” he said. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“It’s not that important.” She turned away, crimson painting her cheeks.

I frowned. “Why do you always call him Monroe?” I’d deferred to my own father as Nightshade alpha, but I still called him Dad.

“Because I don’t want special treatment,” she said. “And because it drives him crazy.”

“Respect, Ariadne,” Anika said. “It matters more than you think.”

“I’ll try,” Adne said, but it looked to me like she was trying not to roll her eyes.

Anika clasped her hands at her waist. “Despite this unfortunate little disruption, what you’ve said confirms our hopes about the Guardians. We’ll execute the mission accordingly.”

“When?” I asked. “When am I going to find my packmates?”

Anika smiled. “Now.”

FOUR

NOW? BUT THAT MEANT . . . Could they really be planning an attack on the Keepers this soon? The thought of returning home frightened me as much as it compelled me. I wanted to get back to my pack as soon as possible, but was I ready to fight side by side with Searchers? I didn’t trust these people. My captors. They wanted an alliance, but they had yet to tell me anything else.

“Excellent,” Lydia said, re-entering the room. “I would have been so disappointed if I’d sharpened my daggers for nothing.”

A ripple of tension slid through my body. Lydia’s appearance was ferocious enough that it was a struggle for me not to shift when she was nearby. The scent of her clothes, the gleam of steel at her waist—she was everything I’d been trained to kill.