"Understood, President Presgrave," Rey's voice came through the phone, steady and obedient beneath Elliot's Alpha pressure.
Elliot ended the call, but the silence that followed wasn't empty. It was layered with thought, with instinct trying to reconcile what didn't fit. Announcing an illegitimate daughter after years of silence didn't align with Lucas' known behavior—not unless something deeper in the pack hierarchy had shifted.
Everything Elliot knew about Lucas belonged to a time when his father still stood at the top of the old order, treating Lucas as a respected senior Alpha. After his father's passing, that connection had frayed. Ten years of distance had turned Lucas into an unknown variable—one Elliot could no longer read through inherited history alone.
