Free Web NovelChapter 65: Chapter 65 The King Makes His Move
_Author’s POV_
Alaric found out about the banquet on Tuesday.
Reid put the report on his desk with his morning briefing, sandwiched between a territorial update from the northern border and a trade dispute filing from two mid-tier packs. Alaric read it, set it down, picked it back up, and read it again.
Noble families. Unmarried men. Under twenty-eight. Fifth rank and above.
A formal selection in three days.
For his Rowena.
He put the report down a second time and stared at the wall for a moment.
“She doesn’t know about it yet,” Reid said, from across the room. He had been watching Alaric’s face and had apparently decided to offer what useful information he had.
“Who organized this?”
“Seraphine Ashthorne primarily. There’s some indication Alice had a hand in planting the idea, but Seraphine ran with it independently.”
“Alice?” Alaric asked.
“Yes.”
“The woman who has been running a criminal operation inside the Ashthorne family for twenty-six years?”
“The same.”
Alaric stood up and walked to the window. “Why would they ever trust whatever comes out of her mouth after everything she’d done?” He asked, anger bustling up already.
He thought about Rowena in a room full of men presenting themselves. Young fools from families with good standing and no complicated history.
He thought about watching that happen from a distance and spirit be damned he let that happen.
He thought about Kaelen, who had been handed something remarkable and had spent three years not looking at it and come home and thrown it away.
He was not going to watch that again from a distance.
He turned around.
“I’m organizing the Regional Pack Endurance Race,” he said.
Reid blinked. “The annual one?”
“We missed it last year. It’s overdue. The region has been asking about it through three different channels since the eastern dispute resolved.” He moved back to his desk. “Open registration. All ranked wolves who qualify on merit. Full three-day format across the northern terrain. Regional broadcast, full ceremony, proper prize structure. This would definitely pause that banquet.”
Reid almost rolled his eyes. Of course it was to pause the banquet.
The Regional Pack Endurance Race was old, actually older than Alaric’s tenure, older than his father’s. It ran three days across open land, testing everything a wolf had. Speed, strategy, endurance, decision-making under pressure. It had been dominated historically by men because the training it required had historically been given primarily to men.
Rowena’s father had competed. One of her brothers had won the junior category. Rowena herself had been trained for it by a man who didn’t train his children to be decorative.
“I want you to send out the announcement today,” Alaric said. “Registration opens tomorrow morning.”
Reid looked at him.
“My wolf told me to tell her how I feel,” Alaric said. “With my mouth. Like a normal person.”
“And he is right.”
“My wolf has never found a mate and has never had a complicated situation in his life.” Alaric sat down. “I’ll tell her. When the time is right. When things have settled enough that it doesn’t land on top of everything else she’s carrying.” He picked up his pen. “The race is step one.”
“Step one of telling her how you feel is organizing a regional athletic competition?” Reid asked unbelievably.
“Step one is creating a context where I can be in the same space as her without it being official business or a legal proceeding.” He looked at Reid as he explained. “Is that so strange?”
Reid pressed his lips together and said nothing, which was how he agreed with things he found slightly absurd.
“Send the announcement,” Alaric said. “And Reid, make sure the prize structure is worth competing for. I want this to be a real event. Not a pretext. A real, well-organized competition that the region has been waiting for.”
“Understood, Alpha.” Reid said. He moved toward the door and then stopped. “She’s going to enter under a fake name.”
Alaric looked up. “What?”
“Rowena. If she enters, which she will, she won’t use her real name. Not with Drake still loose and the network still partially intact. She’ll disguise herself.” Reid tilted his head. “I’m just preparing you for the discovery that your step one involves your person of interest competing anonymously in a field of several dozen wolves and you potentially not recognizing her until she wins.”
Alaric stared at him.
“I’m going to go send the announcement,” Reid said, and left before Alaric could respond.
Rowena saw the announcement posted on the regional pack network board at the Ashthorne Group’s main building.
She was there to meet Gabriel, but she arrived ten minutes early and walked through the lobby and saw the printed announcement on the community board near the entrance, then she stopped.
Her father’s name was on the historical winner list printed at the bottom of the flyer.
Third place, twelve years ago.
Her brother Ren’s name was below it, Junior Division Champion, nine years ago, the last race held before everything fell apart.
She stood there looking at those names for longer than she planned to.
The lobby was busy around her. People moved past, going about their morning, and she stood in the middle of it holding her folder of documents and looking at her brother’s name on a community board.
She had watched him train for that race.
She had run beside him in the early mornings before the sun was up, both of them cutting across the back fields of the estate while their father called time from the fence. Ren had been faster than her over short distances. She had always been stronger over long ones. He had complained about that extensively and without grace, which had been very Ren. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
She missed him so much that it surprised her.
She took a photo of the announcement and went upstairs to find Gabriel.
He was in the meeting room when she arrived, and he had already seen the announcement too.
She set her folder on the table.
“Corby first,” she said.
He nodded.
She told him everything, the intake photo discrepancy, the substitute, the timing window, the implication that someone had fed the network information before Gabriel’s team arrived. She laid it out in order and watched his face while she did.
He went quiet when she got to the timing window part.
“You already suspected a leak,” she said.
“I had a question,” he said carefully. “Not a suspicion. A question about one specific clearance decision that was faster than it should have been.”
“Who made it?”
“I’m not ready to say that out loud yet,” he said. “I need to be certain before I move on it. If I’m wrong, I damage someone’s career without cause. If I’m right and I move too early, Drake gets warned.”
She accepted that. It was the right reasoning.
“Drake will rebuild something,” she said. “Smaller than what Dickson had, but functional enough to be dangerous. Corby knows enough to help him. We have a window before the network is operational again and then it becomes considerably harder.”
“I know.” He looked at her directly. “I’m going to find them both. I promise you that.” He paused. “But Rowena, your body. The doctor’s report was not casual.”
“I’m managing it.”
“You’re ignoring it.”
He deadpanned.
“I’m managing it,” she said again, firmly enough that he let it go, though not without the expression of someone letting something go against their better judgment.
They worked through the rest of the case documentation for an hour. Gabriel was thorough and organized. Whatever personal history existed between them, it had never compromised his work. She had always respected that about him.
At the end of the meeting he looked at the announcement she had set on the corner of the table.
“Your father’s name is on that list,” he said.
“I know.”
“And Ren’s.”
“I know.”
He was quiet for a moment. “I’m entering,” he said.
She looked at him.
“The race. I’m registering.” He kept his voice even and professional. “As senior enforcement officer I have standing to represent the King’s authority in regional competitions. It’s precedented.” He held her gaze. “I’m going to win it if I can.”
She understood there were multiple things he was saying and chose to address only the surface one. “It’s a strong field,” she said.
“I know.” He paused. “Are you entering?”
She picked up her folder. “Registration opens tomorrow.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have right now.” She stood. The ribs sent their usual complaint, which she ignored.
“Thank you for the meeting. Let me know when you have something on the leak.”
“Rowena.” His voice stopped her at the door. She turned. He was looking at her with the expression she had no clean response to. “Be careful.”
“I’m always careful,” she said.
He looked like he had several things to say about that and was choosing none of them.
That evening, she sat alone in the study after the household had gone quiet.
She looked up the race registration requirements. She read through the entry criteria.
She opened the registration form, but didn’t use her name.
She chose something simple and forgettable, a name that would pass through the system without flagging, with credentials that were hers by right but traceable only to someone who knew exactly where to look.
Then she submitted the form.
With that done, she turned off the iPad and went to find Velvet to ask about the disguise options available on short notice.
