The Snow Wolf's Mate

The Letter That Unraveled Her:

[POV: Hayden]

The second letter wasn’t sealed properly with the Midnight Crest Alpha’s mark. That was the first thing I noticed.

The second was the signature. Not Julius, not Minerva.

Dayana Nightshade, Future Luna of the Midnight Crest pack.

I stared at the delicate handwriting, each line soaked in honey and venom. It had arrived in a diplomatic courier pouch marked as urgent. I’d been expecting a response to the inquiry I sent nearly a week ago—about rumors of their possible connection with a rogue band causing disturbances along our shared borders.

This was not that response. No. This was something far worse. And it was personal.

I read the letter once. Then twice.

By the third time, I had almost crushed the parchment in my fist, the seal snapping beneath the pressure. Sirius’s growl echoed in my mind, deep and unsettled.

The tone of the letter dripped with false concern—Dayana’s written performance of grief and sisterly love was so transparent it made my teeth grind.

She claimed to worry for Aria’s wellbeing. Claimed the girl had gone “missing,” that the family had “searched tirelessly,” only to now “discover” her within my pack.

She hadn’t asked for her return. No, Dayana had been clever.

She’d only suggested that I “remain cautious,” because “Aria has always had a… fragile nature. Prone to confusion. To delusion.”

She called her delusional. Unstable.

And somehow, I was expected to read this and smile? I stood abruptly, tossing the letter onto my desk.

“Bring Junior Warrior Aria,” I ordered the nearest guard. “Now.”

The man hesitated. “Alpha—should I ask if she’s—”

“Wherever she is. Whatever she’s doing. I want her in my office immediately.”

He bowed stiffly and vanished without another word. Sirius stirred again, pacing in the back of my mind.

“Don’t scare her again,” he growled. “Don’t lash out. Let her explain.”

“I’m not promising anything,” I muttered under my breath.

I tried to sit. Couldn’t.

Instead, I stood by the window, fists clenched behind my back as the fury churned hotter and higher inside me.

When she finally arrived, she looked startled—flushed from whatever task she’d been pulled from, breath slightly shallow, eyes wide. But the moment she saw my face—saw what I held—everything in her stilled.

She knew. And the color drained from her face like blood from a wound.

I walked forward slowly and placed the letter in her hands.

“Explain,” I said, my voice low.

She stared down at the parchment, at the mark of Midnight Crest pack, fingers trembling. “Hayden—”

“Read it.”

Her lips moved over the words. Her eyes flickered. And then, slowly, her shoulders curled in on themselves as horror overtook her features.

“It’s not what you think,” she whispered.

“Then what is it?” I demanded, my voice sharp. “Tell me.”

She opened her mouth, searching for words that didn’t come fast enough.

Through clenched teeth, I asked, “What do you think I’ll assume, Aria?”

She stepped back slightly, her gaze darting between the letter and my face. “I… I think she’s trying to twist things. She always has. She’s trying to make me seem dangerous so you won’t trust me.”

I laughed—short and bitter. “Well, she’s doing a damn good job.”

Her brows pinched. “You don’t actually believe her, do you?”

I lost it.

“You think this is about belief?” I shouted. “This is about the truth—something I’ve almost begged you for since the moment you arrived in this pack! But every time, every damn time I offered you the chance to come clean, you chose to keep your secrets!”

“Because I was scared!” she cried.

“Of me?” I stepped closer. “Of the wolves who protected you? Fed you? Gave you a rank?”

“I didn’t know then if I could trust you!”

“And I’m the one who’s supposed to trust you?” I roared. “When you still can’t tell me the whole story? When I keep finding pieces of your past scattered like landmines across my territory?”

She backed into the wall, hands gripping the letter like it might shield her from the storm. “Hayden, please—”

“Are you a spy?” I growled. “Did they send you here to gain our trust, earn a title, learn our defenses—what?”

“No!” she shouted, eyes wide with panic.

“Then what?” I demanded, slamming my hand on the wall beside her head. She flinched, and Sirius snarled so loud inside me I almost staggered.

“You’ve gone too far!” he snapped. “Stop it. Now!”

But I couldn’t. Not yet. Not until I knew.

“You show up here with half a story, a mysterious past, a rogue that shouldn’t have been silent as long as it was, powers you don’t understand—and now your sister writes to warn me?”

“I didn’t know she’d do this,” Aria said through clenched teeth, tears starting to form. “I didn’t ask her to. I haven’t spoken to her since I left. I didn’t even know she knew where I was!”

“Then explain how she found out!”

“I don’t know!”

“Liar!”

“Then why do you keep me here?” she screamed. “If you think I’m a traitor, if you think I'm a threat to this pack—why haven’t you thrown me out already?”

“Because I feel something for you!” I shouted back before I could stop myself. “And I don’t understand why!”

Silence. She stared at me like I’d struck her.

And then, quietly—broken—she asked, “Then why do you believe her over me?”

My jaw locked. I turned away for a breath. Just one. Because her voice cut me deeper than any blade. And I didn’t have an answer that wouldn’t hurt us both.

When I finally speak, my voice was a low growl.

“How am I supposed to trust someone,” I said, “who never trusted me first?”