Page 29 of Snarl First, Kiss Later (Alpha’s Prophecy #2)

TWENTY-NINE

AVA

T he sutures had come out that morning.

Ava stood in front of the cracked bathroom mirror, her shirt pulled aside, fingers ghosting over the pink, angry scar slicing across her ribs.

Clean work. Neat stitches. A shifter healer had done it in half the time it would’ve taken her to bleed out, but the ache remained. Not in the wound. Deeper.

She rolled her shoulder slowly, watching the reflection for any sign of weakness.

There was none. Not on the outside.

Behind her, the small quarters the court had assigned her sat still and quiet. The thick stone walls made the place feel more like a bunker than a room. Shelves were stacked with maps, translated reports, notes scrawled in her own hand in shorthand PEACE field code.

But even though she was healed, the attack still hung heavy on her mind.

The attack hadn’t been random. Someone from the Red Pack had come for her. Not Sonya. Not Caz. Not Silas. Her.

And that meant someone knew something. Not only that, but she was a part of something that she had no idea about. This wasn’t just about Landon’s heir now. The worst part is the feeling she had about who would know the most.

She stepped out into the corridor. The court halls buzzed. The Red Pack warriors had been asked to leave the main compound two days ago, ordered to patrol outside the walls until things settled. No one said it aloud, but everyone knew what it meant.

They didn’t trust them.

Neither did Ava.

Especially not after the knife meant for her throat.

She found Silas near the training yard, rolling his shoulders as he readjusted the bandage wrapping his left bicep from a separate scuffle the day before. His eyes met hers across the court and that familiar gravity pulled her forward.

But she didn’t stop.

“Ava,” he said, stepping in her path.

“I need to ask you something.” Her voice was rough. “And I need the truth.”

His jaw tensed, but he nodded once. “You’ll get it.”

She pulled the knife from her jacket. Not drawn. Just held. “You recognized this. You knew whose it was.”

“I told you. Your father’s.”

“No.” Her eyes narrowed. “You said he was a PEACE operative. Embedded under Roman’s nose. But Roman had you.”

Silas was quiet for a second too long.

Ava’s voice dropped. “You knew him.”

“I didn’t lie.”

“You didn’t tell the truth, either.”

He looked down at the knife, at the initials burned into the hilt. “I was one of the wolves they sent to find him,” he said finally. “After they figured out what he really was.”

Ava’s stomach turned.

“I didn’t know what he was when I took the job,” Silas added quickly. “We were told a spy was compromising Roman’s assets. I was ordered to track and detain. Not kill.”

“Detain,” she echoed, voice flat. “That’s what you call it?”

“I know how it sounds and that’s why I didn’t want to tell you,” Silas said, voice low. “I could never kill him.”

Her heart thudded once. “Why?”

“Because he saved me. Weeks before, in a raid that wasn’t supposed to go down the way it did. I was bleeding out behind enemy lines, and he dragged my ass through snow, patched me up, and vanished before command found us.”

“You owed him.”

“I respected him.” Silas looked up. “I still do.”

“And you never thought to tell me this before?”

He flinched. “I didn’t want that to be why you stayed.”

Ava stepped back like he’d struck her.

“I’m not your mate, or whatever you all call it. Partner is what us humans call it. But if I’m your burden then I’m not anything to you,” she said, sharp and quiet.

Silas’s eyes went wide. “That’s not?—”

She turned before he could finish.

The corridor felt too long. Too narrow.

Voices chased her, but she didn’t slow. She needed air. Needed space.

She passed Sonya in the courtyard\ and one glance told the Luna everything. Sonya didn’t call after her.

Good.

Outside the gates, the world opened into gray skies and sweeping hills. She didn’t shift like the others. Didn’t sprint into the trees to blow off steam. She just walked, boots thudding into the ground like she meant to crack it.

Roman had known who her father was. Silas had hunted him. PEACE had branded him a traitor.

And yet, that knife had passed to her like it had been meant to.

What the hell had Daniel Monroe been?

The sky darkened. Distant thunder growled low.

She kept walking.

She didn’t know where she was going, just that it wasn’t here.

She needed answers. Not just from Silas or PEACE or Landon.

Roman.

He was the one who’d tried to have her killed. He was the one who’d raised these Sons like shadows.

And maybe he knew if her father had lived.

Maybe he was the reason her father never came home.

Ava swallowed back the lump that had risen in her throat.

If she stayed, she’d be someone else’s risk. Someone else’s liability. But if she left, if she hunted the truth down herself, she could finally get the answers that no one else had ever given her.