A Brother’s Suspicion
Cassius’s POV
The dungeon was cold.
Damp.
Everything I’d always despised.
But I wasn’t worried.
I sat on the steel frame bed, legs crossed, hands folded.
Like I was waiting for tea, not my execution.
The guards outside were nervous.
I could hear their heartbeats.
Fast.
Uneasy.
They knew who I was.
Knew what I was capable of.
Good.
Fear was useful.
The iron door cranked open.
My brother stepped through.
Alone.
No guards.
No witnesses.
“Cassius,” he said.
Flat.
Emotionless.
“Brother.” I smiled.
“Come to gloat?”
“Come to ask questions.”
“Ask away. I’m not going anywhere.”
Ian crossed the room.
Stopped in front of me.
His hands were loose at his sides, but I could see the tension in his shoulders.
The rage he was trying to hide.
“Who else is working with you?” he asked.
“Working with me?”
“The assassins. The ones who attacked my chambers. They didn’t come from nowhere.”
I tilted my head.
“Assassins? I’ve been in this cell for hours. I don’t know anything about assassins.”
“You’re lying.”
“Prove it.”
Ian’s jaw tightened.
I watched the muscles in his neck strain.
He wanted to hit me.
I could see it in his eyes.
The same eyes that had always looked at me like I was beneath him.
“You’re not as smart as you think you are,” I said.
“You never were. You just got lucky. Born first. Born stronger. Born with everything handed to you while I had to claw for scraps.”
“Everything handed to me?” Ian’s voice was quiet.
Dangerous.
“I fought in a war while you hid behind our parents’ skirts. I watched people die while you played politics. I earned my throne. You just whined about not getting yours.”
I stood.
Slow.
Deliberate.
“Whined? I’ve been planning this for years. Every move you made, every ally you trusted, every decision you thought was yours alone—I was there. Pulling strings. Watching. Waiting.”
“And now you’re in a cell.”
“Temporary inconvenience.”
Ian stared at me.
Long and hard.
I could see the gears turning.
The doubt creeping in.
“Who are the others?” he asked again.
I laughed.
Low and ugly.
“You really think I’d tell you? You think I’d give you the satisfaction?”
“I’ll find them anyway.”
“Maybe. But not before they find you.”
Something flickered in his eyes.
Concern?
Fear?
It was gone before I could name it.
“Enjoy your cell,” Ian said.
“You won’t be here much longer.”
He turned.
Walked to the door.
“The execution is tomorrow, isn’t it? Public. Humiliating. Everything our parents would have hated.”
Ian paused.
Didn’t turn around.
“They would have hated you more,” he said.
“For what you’ve become.”
He left.
The door slammed shut.
I stared at the empty space where he’d been.
And I smiled.
Selena’s POV
He came back to the chambers looking like he’d aged ten years.
I was sitting on the bed.
The blood from the attack had been cleaned, but the room still smelled like copper and fear.
The body had been removed.
The blade had been taken for evidence.
But the memory lingered.
I saw it every time I closed my eyes.
The raised blade.
The moment I thought I was dead.
“Ian.” I stood.
Crossed the room.
“What did he say?”
“He didn’t say anything.” His voice was hollow.
“Just laughed at me.”
“Cassius laughs at everyone. It’s what he does.”
“It’s more than that.” Ian rubbed his face.
“He’s not scared. He should be scared. He’s facing execution tomorrow, and he’s not scared.”
I touched his arm.
Felt the tension in his muscles.
“Because he has something up his sleeve,” I said.
“Exactly.”
“And you think he’s got people on the outside?”
“I know he does. The assassins didn’t come from nowhere. Someone sent them. Someone with resources. Someone who knew exactly where to find us.”
I thought about it.
The masked warriors.
Their coordination.
Their blades.
They’d moved like soldiers, not common thugs.
“Who else would want you dead?”
Ian laughed.
Bitter.
“Half the Northern packs. The ones who support slavery. The ones who think I’m weak for wanting to abolish it.”
“One of the other Grand Alphas?”
“Maybe. Or someone closer. Someone in Silvermoon.”
I stepped closer.
Pressed my palm flat against his chest.
His heart was racing.
The same as mine.
“Then we find them,” I said.
“Together.”
His hand came up.
Covered mine.
His fingers curled around my knuckles.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he said.
“You’d still be alive. You’d still be strong. You were doing fine before I came along.”
“That’s not true.” His eyes met mine.
“I was surviving. I wasn’t living.”
My throat tightened.
“Ian—”
“Don’t.” He pulled me closer.
“Don’t tell me I’m wrong. I know what you’ve done for me. You gave me a reason to fight. A reason to hope. A reason to believe in something other than duty.”
I pressed my forehead against his chest.
Listened to his heartbeat.
“Whatever happens next,” I said.
“We face it together.”
“Together,” he agreed.
The hunt began after midnight.
Ian gathered his most trusted warriors.
Silent.
Lethal.
They moved through the pack house like ghosts, searching for any trace of the conspirators.
I stayed at his side.
I wouldn’t leave him.
Not now.
Not ever.
The warriors found a trail.
Footprints leading from the pack house into the woods.
Tracks from six men—same number as the assassins.
We followed.
The woods were dark.
Moonless.
The only light came from the torches the warriors carried.
They flickered and danced, casting long shadows.
Ian moved at the front.
His blade was drawn.
His eyes scanned every shadow.
“There,” he said.
Pointing.
Through the trees, I saw it.
A small cabin.
Smoke rising from the chimney.
Lights in the windows.
“Occupied,” one of the warriors whispered.
“Then we’re in the right place.”
Ian signaled.
The warriors spread out.
Surrounding the cabin.
I gripped my blade tighter.
“Stay behind me,” Ian said.
“No.”
“Selena—”
“If you die, I’m next anyway. Might as well fight beside you.”
He looked at me.
Something warm flickered in his eyes.
“Stubborn,” he said.
“Wrath.” This chapter is updated first at g.com.
“Same thing.”
We moved toward the cabin.
The door splintered under Ian’s shoulder.
We poured inside.
Warriors flooding through the entrance.
Blades raised.
The cabin was empty.
Tables.
Chairs.
A fire still burning.
Food still on the plates.
But no people.
“Gone,” Ian said.
“They knew we were coming.”
I moved through the room.
Touched the plates.
Still warm.
“They left fast,” I said.
“Like they knew exactly when to run.”
“The trail?”
Ian’s warrior shook his head.
“Fresh. They took the horse track heading east.”
“Then we follow.”
“Wait.” I stopped at the table.
Picked up a piece of paper.
It was half-burned.
Nearly destroyed.
But I could still read the words.
“Silvermoon. Dawn. Be ready.”
And at the bottom—a signature I recognized.
My blood went cold.
“What is it?” Ian crossed to me.
I handed him the paper.
Watched his face change.
“That’s not Cassius,” I said.
“No,” he agreed.
“It’s not.”
The signature was Mason Clawbane’s.
CLIFFHANGER
The paper crumbled in Ian’s fist.
“Mason,” he said.
“Your old master.”
“He’s not my master. He never was.”
“But he’s involved. With Cassius. With the assassins.”
I thought about Mason.
His leering smile.
His wandering hands.
Melinda’s blind devotion.
The way he’d tried to trap me in that wine cellar.
“He’s always wanted power,” I said.
“He’s always resented you. The Grand Alpha title. The authority. The respect.”
“Enough to try to kill me?”
“Enough to do anything.”
Ian’s eyes were dark.
The same color as the woods around us.
“If Mason is involved, then Clawbane is involved. That means—”
“It means we’re not just dealing with Cassius anymore.” I took his hand.
Squeezed.
“We’re dealing with a full pack.”
Ian looked down at me.
In the flickering torchlight, his face was all hard angles and shadows.
“Can you fight them?” he asked.
“Can you lead them?”
He didn’t answer.
Just pulled me close.
“Whatever happens next,” he said.
“You and me.”
“Together.”
Then we heard it.
A howl.
Distant.
Coming from the east.
Clawbane’s howl.
Ian’s grip tightened on my hand.
“They’re coming,” I said.
“Let them come.”
He looked toward the sound.
His blade was still drawn.
His eyes were still burning.
“Let them come,” he repeated.
“We’ll be ready.”
But I saw his fingers tighten around the hilt of his blade.
And I knew.
He was ready to face them.
Even if it killed him.
END OF CHAPTER 25