<b>Chapter </b><b>62 </b>


    <b>** </b>Parker’s POV <b>** </b>


    The moment Paige takes Jaxon upstairs to bed, I pull out the file our intel guy handed me at the pack meet from where I shoved it in my jacket.


    I flip it open on the kitchen ind, careful not to spread everything out too wide in case Paige wanders back in. She doesn’t need to deal with this tonight, not after the day she’s had. She’d


    been radiant today, nerves hidden under that quiet grace of hers, standing tall before a crowd


    that looked at her with suspicion.


    The first picture almost guts me. Paige in a white dress. It’s simple yet elegant, the kind of beauty that doesn’t needce or sparkle to shine. Her hair is pinned up in soft curls, a few strands loose around her face. The sunlight streaming through the church windows catches her eyes, making them brighter. She looks younger here, and there’s a hope there I’ve never seen in her. It makes my chest ache; I want to make her look that way. I want to bring that


    hope back into her eyes.


    Greg stands at her side, smiling for the camera, his hand pressed too tightly against her waist. It looks like an image of possession, not love. I clench my jaw and force myself to keep looking, even though every instinct screams at me to tear the photo in half. My mate is stunning; she always has been, but there’s a bitter, jealous part of me that wishes I could have been the one beside her that day.


    The next photo is a close–up of Jaxon. He’s barely more than a toddler, dressed in a tiny white shirt and a crooked little tie that someone clearly wrestled him into. His cheeks are round, and his hair fluffier, but those eyes are the same. He’s pping at something out of shot, his joy spreading across his entire face. My chest tightens. That little boy, that moment of pure happiness. Paige gave him that, held his world together while Greg yed at being a


    husband.


    I shuffle through the stack. There’s more of the ceremony, Paige crouching to straighten Jaxon’s tie while Greg stands aside, disinterested. Shots of the reception, tables of food, dancing andughter. Paige is smiling in all of them, but when I look closely, her smile never reaches her eyes. It’s like a mask, and it makes me wonder how early she’d begun to realise


    the mistake she’d made.


    Then I notice it.


    < Chapter 62


    More Rewards


    The shots zoom closer, faces picked out from the crowd. At first, I don’t recognise them, but as I flick to the marked images, my stomach sinks and a growl rumbles in my chest.


    One man in the background, wearing a dark jacket, blends into the crowd, but his eyes are


    familiar. I’ve seen him here on packnds just a few days ago, just after he shot a wolfsbane


    dart into Callen. In another photo, two tables back, is a male in a blue tux. I know that face


    from an intel list from another pack. Another hunter.


    “f**k,” I whisper under my breath.


    It isn’t a coincidence. Hunters don’t just show up at weddings, blending into the background,


    unless they were invited. Unless someone wanted them there.


    Footsteps on the back porch have me flipping the folder halfway closed, but when Ryder,


    Callen, and Remy stride in from a quick perimeter check, I rx.


    “Did


    you


    find something?” Remy asks, ncing at the file.


    I slide the folder across the table. “Pictures from Paige’s wedding. Our intel guy marked a few


    faces.”


    They lean in, each man taking in the images. Ryder’s jaw tenses, Callen frowns, and Remy lets out a low growl.


    “Those two,” I say, pointing to the close–ups. “Confirmed hunters. They weren’t random


    guests. Which means Greg had connections all the way back then.”


    The silence is heavy. Then Ryder’s fist ms against the ind. “He brought hunters into her


    life. Into Jax’s life. That bastard.”


    “Exactly,” I nod. “He’s not just some deadbeat ex. He’s tied to them, and now we’ve got proof. I highly doubt this was an ident on their part. I suspect Paige was just a pawn to them all along.”


    <i>“</i>We should tell her tonight,” Remy snaps. His voice is sharp enough to cut. “She deserves to know<i>.</i><i>” </i>


    Ryder shakes his head immediately. “No. Not tonight. She just stood in front of the pack for the first time. She was terrified, but she did it anyway. You really want to dump this on her before she’s even had a chance to sleep?”


    “She needs to know the danger,” Callen counters, calm but firm. “If Greg is connected to hunters, he connects them to her and Jax. Keeping it from her makes her more vulnerable.”


    < Chapter 62


    “They won’t get near her here. Let her rest for tonight,” Ryder shoots back.


    More Rewards <b>> </b>


    Remy leans forward, eyes hard. “You think she’d rather we coddle her? Keep her in the dark? She has a right to know her husband was crawling into bed with hunters and using her.”


    <i>” </i>


    “She has a right to peace for one night,” Ryder snaps. His wolf is close, sharp in his voice.” You weren’t there when she was shaking whilst walking through the pack. You didn’t see the


    way she looked at me. She needs some space to breathe.”


    “You think I didn’t feel it? You think I don’t know what she can handle? She doesn’t need


    space,” Remy snarls. “She needs the truth, and if you can’t give it to her, I f*****g will.”


    The tension rises. Callen ms his hand down between them, not loud, but final. “Enough.”


    He snaps. “We are not fighting each other when the threat is out there. This is exactly why


    the pack doubts our bond. If we can’te together and agree for our own mate, then what


    right do we have to lead this pack?”


    For a moment, the only sound is our breathing as we all see the truth is Callen’s statement.


    Then Callen looks at me. “And you? Where do you stand?”


    I don’t answer right away, because I think both sides are right. “I think Ryder’s right,” I say


    finally. “She deserves to know, but not tonight. Not when she’s barely had time to breathe. Let


    her recover. Tomorrow, when she’s rested, we tell her.‘


    Remy res at me like I’ve just betrayed him. “You’re just trying to spare yourself the fallout.


    She’ll hate us for holding it back.”


    “Or she’ll hate us for crushing her tonight,<i>” </i>Ryder growls.


    “She’d rather have the truth than be lied to,” Callen cuts in. “I know her better than that.”


    The argument starts up again, sharp words flung back and forth until Ryder pushes away from the counter, his chair scraping across the floor.


    “I’m not doing this,” he snaps. “Not while she’s upstairs. I’m going to check on her.”


    He strides up the stairs, leaving the three of us staring after him.


    For a moment, I think they’re both going to turn on me, arguing their case. But then Callen turns <i>to </i>me, his expression hard. “Get a team on Greg. I want him followed. Discreetly. I want to know where he goes, who he speaks to, every f*****g meal he eats. No contact, not yet,


    just eyes.”


    < Chapter 62


    I nod, already pulling my phone from my pocket. “Consider it done.”


    More Rewards <b>> </b>


    Callen stares at me for a moment longer, like he’s deciding whether to push the point about Paige, but then he just exhales. “We can’t afford to miss a single thing with him.”


    Remy sinks into a chair, running both hands through his hair. “She’s going to break when she


    finds out.”


    “No,” I say softly, shutting the folder atst. “She won’t break. She already knows about this deep down. This is just confirmation. She’ll fight back, and we’ll fight with her.”


    The room falls silent, each of us lost in our own thoughts, but mine circles back to the image


    burned into my mind: Paige standing before the pack today, shoulders squared and fire in her


    eyes, despite her nerves. She didn’t flinch when they looked at her like an outsider. She didn’t


    run away when the whispers started. She stood tall, a Luna in every sense.


    My Luna.


    She isn’t mine alone; I know that. She never will be. But when I looked at her on that tform,


    facing an entire pack of wolves with her chin lifted, it was all I could do not to fall to my


    knees in front of her. I’ve seen alphas lessposed than she was. I’ve seen warriors


    crumble under less pressure. But Paige… my Paige, she carried herself like she’d been born to <ol><li>it. </li></ol>


    I worship her. Not just the way she looked in that wedding dress years ago, or the way she


    looks now when Jax clings to her side. I worship her strength, her stubborn heart, the way


    she’s carried pain and still kept moving.


    She doesn’t even know how much I already love her. I’d burn the entire world down before I let


    Greg, the hunters… or anyone, take her from me. And tomorrow, when the truthes out, I’ll


    be at her side. Whatever it costs.


    Get Bonu