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I hadn't heard. But I hadn't been focused on the next generation of wolves, just the matriarchs who wielded the power my mother coveted.

"You should make some time to meet Elias while you're in town, Astrid," Mei Ling chimed in, her tone carrying that gentle, immovable authority only an Alpha matriarch could muster.

Even through my dark lenses, I felt the dramatic roll of Astrid’s eyes. A heavy sigh escaped her lips. Her heart beat with the annoyed rhythm of a daughter who hated being managed.

I could relate.

"Astrid," I interjected. "Would you like to commit some serious credit card abuse with me under the guise of retail therapy?"

Astrid's posture instantly shifted; the prickly hostility melting away into pure, unadulterated interest. Her heartbeat picked up with eager enthusiasm.

"Let me grab my purse."

"Why? We're not spending our money."

Astrid's head cocked. Her body turned to her mother. "I like her. Come on, new sister. Let's go do some damage."

We took Astrid’s sleek sports car into the upscale shopping district, pulled up to valet parking outside an exclusive high-end boutique, and immediately set about putting the Blackwood family fortune through its paces.

"Do you need my help?" Astrid asked after the valet sped off, and we stood on the curb.

I didn't. I'd shopped here before. But I offered my elbow, and she took it. Inside the store, Astrid held my elbow with a light, surprisingly polite touch as we navigated the racks.

"So," Astrid said, flipping through a rack of heavy silk blouses. "How is it? Being an only child born to Sorsha Lobo?"

"Exhausting," I answered honestly, running my fingers over a rack of cashmere coats, feeling the texture to judge the weave. "Every breath I've ever taken has been weighed, measured, and evaluated for political utility. Being born a girl in a pack is already a sentence. Being born a daughter to a female leader is an apprenticeship in a gilded prison."

Astrid let out a sharp snort. "Tell me about it. Growing up with Mei Ling as a mother isn't exactly a walk in the park either. I was expected to be poised, lethal, educated, perfectly manicured, and completely obedient—right up until my parents decided which Alpha’s bed I belonged in."

"I take it you aren't thrilled about your match with Elias?"

"I can manage Elias. My brothers did, and they're all wrapped around my pinkie finger, so I'll be fine. But that’s not the point. The point is that my life was mapped out before I even cut my first tooth. My mother spent nineteen years turning me into the perfect bargaining chip."

I paused, catching the underlying note in her voice. "You sound like you resent her."

"I do," Astrid admitted, then sighed, her heart beating with a complex, heavy rhythm. "And I don't. That’s the thing about it. I curse Ma under my breath five times a week, but... I love her. I respect her more than anyone else. She protected us, shielded us from the worst of the pack wars, and carved out a place where I actually got to go to university instead of being locked in a compound like most pack princesses."

Astrid took a breath, turning to look at me. I felt her heavy gaze on my face. The look she leveled at me felt earnest. "So, yeah. I hate the arranged marriage thing. But I know why she did it. She did it to keep our family safe. How can you completely hate a woman who would burn the world down just to keep a roof over your head?"

I kept my face perfectly flat behind my dark sunglasses. Inside, a cold wave washed over me. That was the difference between us. Mei Ling burned the world to protect her children. Sorsha burned her child to protect her throne.

"Your mother sounds... remarkably dedicated," I said, carefully steering the conversation. "It’s impressive how much she controls without ever raising a weapon. I suppose she holds the entire structural grid of the Blackwood pack in her head?"

"If Ma ever got sick, the entire infrastructure of the Blackwood empire would stall out within forty-eight hours. Gunnar handles the muscle, Vidar handles logistics, Magnus handles the public face... but Ma is the lifeblood. The actual mechanics of how the pack survives."

I filed every single word away, cataloging the weaknesses. Mei Ling wasn't just the backbone of the Blackwood pack—she was the central node. If you severed Mei Ling's network, the entire pack structure would collapse in on itself, leaving Gunnar's muscle and Vidar's logistics stranded without a foundation.

It was precisely the kind of systemic vulnerability I needed.

Astrid handed a stack of silk dresses and leather jackets to an attentive sales associate, her voice bright and unburdened as she chatted about a shoe designer she loved.

I listened to her light laughter echoing off the marble floors of the boutique. She was smart, sharp-tongued, fiercely loyal, and completely oblivious to the war brewing around her. Underneath the spoiled college-girl facade, there was a genuine warmth to her—a girl who loved her brothers and adored her parents.

In another life—one where I wasn't raised as a weapon, one where the pack system hadn't crushed every soft part of me—Astrid and I might have been friends. We could have sat in cafes, gossiped about arrogant Alphas, and committed reckless credit card fraud together for fun.

Too bad I’m going to destroy the only life she’s ever known.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN