The gravel crunched beneath the SUV’s tires as we finally pulled up behind the pack house. The air was still crisp, but the late afternoon sun was hitting the pine needles, releasing that sharp, clean scent that I was slowly starting to associate with home. Amara was still dead to the world in the back seat, her little fingers loosely wrapped around her new plush cat.
“I’ll carry her up to her room,” GG murmured, opening her door quietly. “Knight and Rhett should be down in the security hub with Stormy anyway. You go show the guys those papers, Roni. They’ll need to change the security details.”
“Deal,” I whispered back, popping the glove box and pulling out the legal-sized envelope. My thumb traced the rough paper edge. Amara Ka’Alani Newsome. She belonged to the Moon Shadow Pack now. She belonged to me.
I walked through the heavy back doors of the pack house, my boots echoing slightly on the hardwood before I hit the rugs. The house was deceptively quiet, but my inklings were already humming—not a warning of immediate danger, but a low-frequency vibration that told me the men were deep in tactical mode down the hall.
I didn’t bother knocking on the office door. I just pushed it open.
Stormy was leaning over his heavy cedar desk, his massive frame casting a long shadow over a set of updated topographical maps. Beta Knight was on his left, a red pen in hand, while Gamma Rhett was tapping away furiously on a ruggedized laptop, his long blonde hair pulled back in its usual neat ponytail.
“Veronica,” Stormy rumbled, his ice-blue eyes lifting instantly. The tension in his shoulders dropped a fraction the second he saw me, but his gaze narrowed when he noticed the envelope in my hand. “Did you get her to the terminal safely?”
“She’s on her way to California,” I said, walking straight up to the desk and dropping the envelope right on top of his maps. “But she didn’t leave empty-handed, and neither did I. You three need to look at this.”
Knight reached for it first, unfolding the certified letter while Stormy moved around the desk to stand right beside me, his heat instantly casing me in like a shield. I let myself lean into his side for just a second before the fighter in me took over.
“What is it, Roni?” Rhett asked, looking up from his screen.
“It’s an insurance policy,” I said, my voice cold and even. “Rachael signed over full legal custody of Amara to me. Veronica Lane. But that’s not the headline. Read the attached statement, Knight.”
Knight’s jaw went completely rigid as his eyes scanned the notarized pages. The red pen in his hand snapped clean in half under the sudden pressure of his grip. “Jackson J. Jenson,” he growled, the name coming out like a curse. “The Alpha of Red Moon. She put it all in writing. The abuse, the narcotics pipeline, human trafficking… everything.”
Stormy took the papers from Knight, his eyes moving over the words with a slow, terrifying calmness. The static in the room grew so thick I could feel the hairs on my arms standing up. This wasn’t just pack drama anymore; this was a legal and supernatural declaration of war. Jackson was a monster, and he now had a direct reason to target the Moon Shadow borders if he ever found out his cub was sitting in our leadership wing.
“Rhett,” Stormy said, his voice dropping into that low, vibration-heavy Alpha register that made the floorboards hum. “Sync the night cameras to the western ridge. If Jackson has scouts anywhere near Roseau or the border airport, I want their faces on your screens before they even touch our tree line.”
“I’m already on it, Alpha,” Rhett said, his fingers flying across the keys with a new, intense focus. “I’ll run a continuous diagnostic on the perimeter sensors. Nobody blinks without me knowing about it.”
Stormy turned to me, his large hands reaching out to cup my face. His thumbs traced my jawline, his ice-blue eyes searching mine with a weight that felt like an iron contract. “You did a brave thing today, Veronica. You brought a target onto your back for a cub that isn’t yours.”
I looked right back at him, my heart doing that familiar rhythmic stutter, but my chin stayed high. “She is mine now, Storm Maverick Kinkaid. Rachael gave her to me, and the moon brought me to you. If this Jackson character thinks he can just walk into our sanctuary and take my flower girl, he’s going to find out exactly what kind of rage is hiding behind this sinnocent smile.”
Stormy let out a low, approving rumble deep in his chest, leaning down to press a firm, lingering kiss to my forehead. “Then we prepare for the ceremony,” he breathed against my skin. “We show the pack—and the rest of the world—exactly who Moon Shadow is.”