"Council isn't coming for us because we're rogues," I said. "They're coming because of Lily. If she didn't exist — if I were just a rogue Alpha with a territory and an alliance — they'd have offered me a charter two years ago and moved on. Rogues aren't a threat to Council. Lily is."

"So it IS about her."

"It's about what she represents. Sera — the system that made you a rogue, the system that decided you didn't deserve territory or protection or the right to exist — that system wasn't designed to keep order. It was designed to prevent something. Something that Lily is."

Sera's eyes narrowed. Not suspicious — calculating. "You're being vague."

"I don't have the full picture yet. I have fragments. Old texts. Things that Kieran found in Council archives." I chose my words the way you choose steps on thin ice. "But the shape of it is this: Council's founding wasn't what the history says. There's something underneath it. Something they've been hiding. And whatever it is, it's connected to Lily."

"Connected how?"

"I'm not sure yet. But I'm trying to find out. And if I'm right — if what I think is buried in those records is real — then this alliance isn't about protecting one child. It's about the fact that the entire system we've all been living under was built on a lie."

Sera looked at me for a long time. The kind of look that measured not just what you were saying but what you were willing to bet on it.

"That's a big claim," she said.

"Yes."

"And you don't have proof yet."

"No."

"So you're asking me to stay on faith."

"I'm asking you to stay until I have facts. If I'm wrong, or if the facts don't exist, you'll know. And you can take Council's offer then."

She didn't answer immediately. She went to the window and looked out at the compound — her wolves and mine, mixed together, running drills and building walls and eating at the same fire. Three months of integration. Three months of something that worked.

"I'll stay for now," she said. "But I need more than faith, Rhea. I need facts. Real ones. Something I can hold and point to and say 'this is why we're here.' My wolves deserve that."

"I know they do."

"And one more thing." She turned from the window. "If it comes to a choice — the alliance or your daughter — I need to know which one you'll pick."

The silence after that question was the longest of the conversation.

"I'm not going to pretend those are separate things," I said. "Right now, they're not. Protecting Lily and protecting this alliance are the same fight. The day they're not — the day I have to choose — I'll tell you. And you can make your decision then."

Sera nodded. Not satisfied — assessed. She'd gotten what she came for: not a promise, but a position she could work with.

She left without closing the door.

* * *

Kieran found me an hour later. He'd heard — not the conversation, but the weight of it. He could read the aftermath in the way I was standing at the map table, both hands flat, staring at the pins without seeing them.

"Sera?" he asked.

"She got the offer. She's staying. For now."

"For now."

"She wants facts. Proof that what we're fighting for is bigger than Lily." I looked at him. "She's right to want it. And the only place those facts exist is in the Ashford Archives."

He came to the table. Stood beside me. Close enough that his shoulder touched mine — the contact that had become our shorthand for I'm here and we'll figure this out.

"Then we find them," he said.

I leaned into the contact. One second. Then I straightened and looked at the map.

Vera was out there. The archives were out there. And every day we waited, Aldric's teams got closer.

"How do we find a woman who doesn't want to be found?" I asked.

"We don't find her," Kieran said. "We give her a reason to find us."