Page 49 of Conall (The Sunburst Pack #3)

T HE EMERGENCY PACK MEETING convened in the main hall.

Nadine sat beside Conall near the front, cataloging the tension that crackled through the room like electricity before a storm.

Pack members filed in, their expressions ranging from confusion to indignation to outright fury. No one had expected to be summoned at this hour, and the urgency in Malcolm’s and Larissa’s voices during the emergency calls had left everyone on edge.

Stephanie Gonzales entered with her usual quiet dignity, her silver hair gleaming under the lights, but Nadine noted the way the older woman’s eyes swept the room with unusual wariness.

Malcolm’s expression was grimmer than Nadine had ever seen it, and beside him, Larissa’s usual composure seemed strained.

Before we begin, Larissa said, I need to make an announcement. Robert Mitchell, who was arrested yesterday on suspicion of treason against the pack, is being released immediately.

The room erupted in confused murmurs. Robert Mitchell had seemed like an open-and-shut case of betrayal.

New information has come to light, Malcolm continued, his voice cutting through the noise. Information that exonerates Robert.

The real traitor, Larissa said, her words dropping heavily into the sudden silence, confessed to the council a little more than an hour ago.

Malcolm’s expression softened with something that might have been compassion as his gaze found Stephanie. Raymond Gonzales.

That’s impossible, Theo Kurtz said, his voice cracking with disbelief.

Beside him, Una’s brother, Dante, nodded. Yeah. Raymond’s been on the pack council forever. He trained half of us, taught us to track, to—

He’s been feeding intelligence to Gregory Torrance for months, Malcolm said, his voice dark with regret. Security protocols, leadership discussions, operational schedules. Everything Gregory needed to plan his attacks on other packs.

Nadine watched Stephanie’s face crumple, watched forty years of trust and love destroyed beyond repair.

The analytical part of her mind—the part Gregory had trained to observe and catalog—noted how betrayal of this magnitude didn’t just destroy the present; it unraveled the entire past, making every shared memory suspect.

Larissa moved to the older woman, her authority softening into compassion as she continued explaining the betrayal to the rest of the pack. He believed pack democracy was making shifters weak. Gregory convinced him that authoritarian leadership was necessary for species survival.

The same psychological manipulation Gregory had used on Nadine for years, turned against a pack member who’d trusted his community’s acceptance of diverse perspectives. Fear disguised as pragmatism, authoritarianism presented as necessary protection.

Raymond genuinely believed he was protecting the pack, Malcolm continued. Gregory told him whatever he needed to hear to make betraying his family seem like patriotic duty.

He gestured, and two guards marched Raymond into the room, his hands cuffed behind his back with silver chains.

At the sight of her husband, Stephanie’s composure finally shattered completely.

The woman who had weathered Vincent’s brutal regime, who had helped guide the pack through its transition to democratic leadership, who had been a pillar of strength for everyone around her, sagged in her chair with the weight of absolute loss.

Una rushed to Stephanie’s side immediately, wrapping her arms around the older woman as Sarah joined them. Both women offered what comfort they could to someone whose entire world had just collapsed.

Your punishment, Raymond, Malcolm said, is banishment from all pack territories. You will be stripped of pack protection, forbidden from entering any shifter community, and marked as a traitor to our species.

Malcolm’s voice carried both finality and regret. This wasn’t vengeance, Nadine realized. This was justice, measured and deliberate.

Larissa’s addition cut deeper. Furthermore, given the scope of his betrayal and the danger you represent to other packs, if you are found in any shifter territory after today, the sentence will be death.

Around the chamber, pack members stared with expressions ranging from fury to heartbreak. Someone beloved, someone who had been part of their lives since childhood, had been secretly working to destroy them.

As the guards escorted Raymond from the building—a broken man facing exile from everything that had given his life meaning—Nadine felt how close they’d all come to disaster.

But watching Stephanie weep for the man she’d thought she knew, surrounded by pack members offering what comfort they could, Nadine realized that some victories came at a cost that made celebration impossible.

It’s over, she said quietly, her hand finding Conall’s.

The words carried relief but also a hollow exhaustion.

Conall squeezed her fingers, and she felt the mate bond pulse with shared relief and lingering sorrow for what they’d all lost today.

Through their connection, she could sense his own complex emotions—gratitude for the truth finally being revealed, grief for the pack’s loss, and protective anger at how close they’d come to destroying an innocent man.

Without warning, Stephanie pitched forward in her chair, Una barely catching her before she hit the floor.

Malcolm was beside them in seconds, supporting the older woman as her legs gave out completely.

Get Dr. Chen, he ordered, and Anders moved toward the door.

I’m all right, Stephanie whispered, but her face was chalk white and her hands shook like leaves. I just… Forty years. Forty years I shared a bed with a traitor. How could I not have known?

The devastation in her voice hit everyone in the room. This wasn’t just the loss of a mate—it was the shattering realization that the foundation of her entire adult life had been built on deception.

Because he loved you, Una said fiercely, helping support Stephanie as Malcolm gently lifted her back into her chair. Whatever else he did, however he was manipulated, he loved you. That part was real.

Nadine felt an unexpected kinship with Stephanie’s anguish. She understood what it meant to discover that someone you’d trusted completely had been living a lie, had been capable of betrayals that contradicted everything you thought you knew about them.

Dr. Chen arrived within minutes, immediately going to Stephanie’s side to check her vital signs. After a brief examination, he nodded to Malcolm. Shock and exhaustion, but nothing physically dangerous. She needs rest and time to process.

Take her home, Malcolm said gently. Una, Sarah, can you stay with her?

Of course, both women said simultaneously.

As the three women left the hall, Una and Sarah flanking Stephanie like protective guards, the remaining pack members sat in heavy silence.

We need to warn the other packs, Anders said finally. Some assets may not have been fully disabled. Others might be dealing with the psychological aftermath of sudden freedom from neural control.

Personal contact, Malcolm decided. This kind of news requires face-to-face delivery.

I’ll coordinate messaging teams, Quinton offered.

Nadine found herself studying Conall’s twin with new understanding, recognizing that his earlier suspicion had come from legitimate concern for pack security rather than simple jealousy.

He’d been protecting his brother, his community, his understanding of family—all reasonable motivations, even when they’d led to conflict.

Malcolm nodded. Take the Stardust Pack. They had more assets—both activated and nonactivated—than almost any other pack. Dylan Montoya will need detailed briefings about asset identification protocols.

Of course, Quinton replied, then surprised everyone by looking directly at Nadine. Your analysis of Chimera’s operational patterns—I’ll need copies for briefing materials.

The request was professional, practical. But underneath it carried acknowledgment that her intelligence had been crucial to preventing disaster, that her investigation had ultimately protected rather than threatened the people she’d come to care about.

Absolutely, she said, recognizing the public olive branch. I’ll prepare comprehensive briefing packets for all teams.

After everyone gets some rest, Larissa said firmly. It’s been a long night, and we could all use some downtime.

As the meeting dispersed, Nadine found herself alone with Conall in the gradually emptying hall.

Silence stretched between them, loaded with everything they’d left unspoken.

Larissa’s right. We should rest, he said quietly.

Should, she agreed but made no move to leave.

Instead, she found herself studying his face in the hall’s light. The strong line of his jaw, his dark eyes, the quiet strength that had anchored her through revelations shattering her understanding of everything she’d believed about the man who’d called himself her father.

They’d been fighting it ever since they’d met—the biological imperative insisting they belonged together, the growing emotional connection defying logic and timing and every rational reason that it was complicated and dangerous and inconvenient.

But standing in the empty hall where they’d just helped save the entire shifter community from systematic destruction, she surrendered.

I love you, she said, the words coming out rough with honesty. I don’t know how it happened so fast, don’t understand why the universe decided to pair me with someone whose pack I was hunting. But I love you.

Joy and relief flooded their connection as Conall closed the distance between them in two swift strides.

I love you too, he said against her mouth, his words barely audible before his lips claimed hers with desperate hunger.

The kiss said everything their bond was singing to them, carried all their suppressed emotion, his wolf’s satisfaction at her surrender, her wolf’s howling desire.

Her own recognition that this moment marked the end of running from what they were and his that it was the beginning of building something together.

All their love for each other.

When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, she rested her forehead against his and marveled at how right this felt.

The bond, she said, not quite a question. If we stop fighting it…

It completes, he finished, understanding exactly what she was asking. Full mate bond. Permanent. No going back.

The possibility should have terrified her—that level of connection, the vulnerability, the way their lives would be fundamentally intertwined in ways she’d never experienced.

Instead, she found herself smiling with a fierce joy that had nothing to do with tactical advantage and everything to do with choosing to trust someone completely.

No going back, she repeated, then met his gaze with no trace of the fear that had defined so much of her adult life. Good. I’m tired of running from the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

This time when he kissed her, the mate bond didn’t just pulse between them—it opened completely, barriers dissolving as their emotions merged in ways going far beyond simple connection.

Suddenly she could feel his wolf as clearly as her own, could sense his thoughts and reactions and the profound relief that came from finally accepting what biology and choice had created between them.

The completed bond was overwhelming—not just shared awareness but shared strength, enhanced healing, perfect coordination that would make them more effective together than either could ever be alone.

But underneath all the biological advantages ran something simpler and more precious: absolute certainty that they belonged together, that they’d chosen each other completely despite every obstacle that had stood in their way.

For the first time since childhood, Nadine found herself looking forward to an uncertain future with anticipation rather than dread.

She’d spent years as Gregory’s weapon—then, when she’d met Conall while hunting innocent people based on her father’s lies, she’d pivoted to fighting a connection that terrified her with its intensity.

Now she was exactly what she’d chosen to become: protector, partner, and mate to someone who saw her not as a tool to be used but as a person to be loved.

For a moment, Nadine simply reveled in her certainty that she’d finally found her real family. Not the father who had shaped her into a weapon, but the pack that had chosen to trust her despite every reason for suspicion.

The mate who had refused to let her face danger alone.

And the twin brother who had learned that love multiplied rather than divided.

Let’s go home, she said.

As her mate wrapped one arm around her waist and led her out onto the sidewalk of downtown Sunburst, she glanced around at all the pack members going about their day around her. In Conall’s arms, surrounded by the pack that had become her family, Nadine truly understood what home meant.

And she’d never been more ready for anything in her life.