<h4>Chapter 597: A Solid Lead</h4>


    <strong>Evaline:</strong>


    The moment Jasper’s familiar voice filtered through the car speakers, something inside my chest tightened so sharply it almost hurt.


    "Alpha," he greeted, his tone respectful but carrying that underlying urgency I hade to recognize over the past year.


    My heart immediately began to race... but not with fear. Not exactly. It was anticipation. Hope. Dread. All tangled together into one unbearable knot.


    Jasper and his team had been digging into Naira’s incident for days now. Every lead had either dissolved into nothing or circled back to the same frustrating dead end. So if he was calling River directly... if there was urgency in his voice...


    There might finally be something.


    Beside me, River’s hand moved slowly up and down my back, warm and steady through the thin fabric of my dress. The gesture was almost absentminded, yet impossibly grounding. He must have felt the shift in my breathing, the way my body had gone rigid.


    "What is it?" River asked calmly. "You wouldn’t call unless you had something."


    My pulse jumped.


    There was a brief pause on the other end before Jasper replied, "We do, Alpha. We finally have a lead. A solid one."


    The words hit me like a physical force.


    River didn’t respond immediately. Instead, he nced at me, his dark green eyes searching my face as if silently asking whether I was ready to hear whatever came next.


    I didn’t trust my voice, so I just nodded.


    "Hold on," he told Jasper.


    Before I could even process what he was doing, he handed the phone to me. Then he leaned forward, his long arm reaching toward the tinted divider separating us from the driver.


    He knocked twice.


    The divider slid down instantly.


    "Stop the car," River instructed, his tone leaving no room for hesitation. "Step out. Walk ahead until you are well out of hearing range."


    "Yes, Alpha."


    The driver obeyed immediately. Within seconds, the car slowed, pulled over to the side of the road, and came to a smooth stop. The door opened, shut, and through the windshield I watched the driver stride forward along the empty roadside until he was far enough that even enhanced wolf hearing wouldn’t pick up a conversation from inside.


    Only then did River turn back to me.


    "You can speak," he said quietly into the phone. "It’s just us."


    Jasper didn’t waste another second.


    "We have been going through all the alcohol orders from the diner during the week of Miss Naira’s incident," he began. "Every single customer. We met most of them personally to confirm timelines and deliveries."


    I held my breath.


    "Initially nothing stood out," he continued. "But then we found an order with fake name and address."


    My fingers tightened around the phone.


    "They paid in cash," Jasper added. "So there was no bank trail. But we didn’t stop there. We spoke to the diner staff again and checked the records of nearby CCTV footage from surrounding buildings and traffic cameras. It took a while, but eventually... we found them."


    I held my breath.


    "Two individuals," he said. "Young. They ordered the delivery. And when we ran facial recognition..." He paused, letting the significance settle. "They turned out to be former students of Silver Moon. They graduatedst year."


    For a moment, I couldn’t speak.


    I slowly lifted my gaze to River. He was already watching me, his expression serious, mind clearly racing along the same path mine was.


    "River..." My voice came out barely above a whisper. "What if... what if Naira went to deliver the alcohol to them? At the academy?"


    The words felt heavy in my mouth, yet frighteningly logical.


    If Naira had entered academy grounds that night... if something had happened there...


    Her soul death.


    It would finally make sense.


    It fit.


    River gave a slow nod.


    "It’s possible," he said. "But we don’t assume. We confirm."


    His calm steadiness anchored me again before panic could spiral.


    He took the phone gently from my hand.


    "Jasper," he said, his voice shifting fully into Alphamand. "Locate their current positions. I want full profiles... family, pack affiliations, movements since graduation."


    "Yes, Alpha."


    "I’m sending Kieran," River continued. "He’ll question them personally."


    There was no mistaking the implication in his tone.


    "Understood," Jasper replied immediately. "We’ll have locations to you within the hour."


    The call ended shortly after and silence filled the car.


    The outside world felt strangely distant, like I was suspended in a bubble between past and present.


    River turned slightly toward me.


    His hand slid from my cheek to my chin, tilting my face so I had no choice but to meet his eyes.


    "Evaline," he said firmly. "Listen to me."


    Something in his tone made me go still.


    "Your focus right now," he continued, "is the Council meeting. Your position. Your work. That is where you are needed."


    My lips parted, but he kept going.


    "Kieran and Jasper will handle the investigation until we have concrete information," he said. "If there’s something to act on, you’ll know. But until then... you don’t divide your attention."


    I knew he was right.


    Still didn’t make it easier.


    "What if they find something and I’m not there?" I asked quietly.


    "You will be," he said. "When we have answers."


    His thumb brushed across my lower lip, a soothing gesture that somehow carried authority and reassurance at the same time.


    "You trust me?" he asked.


    Always.


    The answer lived in my bones.


    I nodded.


    A faint smile touched his mouth.


    "Good," he said. "Then leave this to us."


    Outside, the driver was still standing far ahead on the road, exactly where River had ordered him to be.


    He probably asked his driver through mind link because I noticed him walking back toward the car.


    Within moments, we were moving again... back toward the Council building, toward responsibilities that suddenly felt both trivial and enormouspared to the storm brewing beneath the surface of my life.


    River’s arm settled around my shoulders, pulling me closer into his side.


    And for the rest of the drive, I leaned into him... holding onto the fragile, terrifying hope that after all this time... the truth about Naira might finally be within reach. And we would be one step closer to the truth.