He found his brothers first.
Not because Eve didn’t have the right to be there. Because this was pack. And pack ca to the alpha first.
Damon read Vessa’s note.
Handed it to Silas.
Silas read it.
Set it on the table.
The three of them stood in the study and nobody said anything for a mont.
"Within the hour," Damon said.
"Yes," Damian said.
"He walked out of your study and...." Damon stopped. His jaw was tight. "He sat across from Silas every morning for three weeks. He had access to the border rotation. The east wing schedule. The nas of...." He stopped again.
"Damon," Silas said.
"I know," Damon said. "I know."
He turned to the window.
Stood there with his back to the room.
Shoulders tight. The specific tension of soone keeping sothing inside through will alone.
Silas looked at Damian.
Damian looked at the note.
"How do we want to do this," Silas said.
"Quietly," Damian said. "No spectacle. No public confrontation." He paused. "I’ll do it myself."
"I’ll co," Silas said.
"So will I," Damon said. Still at the window. Didn’t turn around.
Damian looked at his brothers.
Both of them.
"Alright," he said.
***
They found Callum in the east wing.
He was checking inventory. Clipboard in hand. Reading numbers off shelves the way he’d been reading numbers off shelves for twenty years.
He looked up when they ca in.
All three of them.
Sothing crossed in his face.
Small and brief, there and gone.
But Damian saw it.
That was the tell. Not in the study. Not over coffee. Here....the three of them in a doorway when it should have been a routine check....that was when Callum’s composure did the one thing it hadn’t done all week.
Slipped.
Just for a second.
Then it was back.
"Alpha," he said. Looked at Silas. At Damon. "What’s....."
"Put the clipboard down," Damian said.
Callum put it down.
Looked at Damian.
And this ti he didn’t look away.
This ti sothing in him....so decision, so calculation....landed visibly. His shoulders dropped. Just slightly. Just enough.
He knew.
He’d known the mont they walked in together.
"How long," Damian said.
Callum was quiet.
"How long Callum," Damian said again.
"Four months," Callum said.
The east wing was very quiet.
Shelves of inventory. Afternoon light through a high window. Twenty years of a man’s presence in a place that had been ho to both of them.
"Why," Damon said.
He said it from the doorway. Hadn’t moved further into the room. His voice was controlled and flat and entirely without the warmth that usually lived there.
Callum looked at him.
Sothing moved through his face.
Not guilt exactly. Sothing more complicated than guilt.
"Because I have a daughter," he said. "She’s eight. Her mother left two years ago and it’s just us." He paused. "He ca to through soone I trusted. Said he wasn’t asking to hurt anyone. Just....report. Just tell him what was happening." Another pause. "He said if I didn’t he’d make sure my daughter’s school found out her father worked for a pack bonded to a succubus. That she’d be pulled. That the other families...."
He stopped.
His jaw moved.
"He had her na," Callum said. "Her teacher’s na, He knew everything."
The room was still.
Damon had turned away.
Looking at the wall.
Silas was looking at the floor.
Damian looked at Callum.
At the man who had been twenty years of reliability and had been frightened into four months of betrayal by a man who used children’s nas like weapons.
He felt the anger.
"You should have co to ," he said.
"I know," Callum said. Quiet.
"The mont he approached you. You should have co straight to ."
"I know," Callum said again. "I was...." He stopped. "I was afraid. I didn’t know if you’d believe . I didn’t know what he had on the estate already. I didn’t know who else...." He exhaled. "I made the wrong call. I know that."
Damian looked at him for a long mont.
At the face he’d known for twenty years.
"Your daughter," Damian said. "She’s safe?"
Callum blinked.
Like he hadn’t expected that to be the next sentence.
"Yes," he said. "She’s....yes."
"She’ll stay safe," Damian said. "Whatever happens next she’s not touched. You have my word."
Callum looked at him.
His composure did sothing it clearly hadn’t been planning to do.
Held. Just barely.
"Thank you," he said. Barely audible.
Damian nodded.
"You’re off active duty," he said. "Full access suspended. You stay on estate grounds until I decide what cos next." He paused. "You don’t contact anyone outside this estate. Not anyone. If Malachai’s people reach out you tell imdiately."
"Yes," Callum said.
"And Callum."
Callum looked at him.
"Everything," Damian said. "Every contact. Every piece of information you passed. Every na he gave you and every na you gave him." A pause. "All of it. Starting tonight."
"Yes," Callum said.
"All of it," Damian said again. Not a threat. Just....certain.
Callum nodded.
***
They walked back through the east wing corridor in silence.
Damon was still tight. Still holding the thing that had wanted out since Aldenre. But underneath it sothing had shifted.....Damian could feel it. The specific shift of soone who had heard sothing that complicated the anger without erasing it.
Silas walked quietly.
Processing. Always processing.
They reached the main corridor.
Stopped.
"His daughter’s na," Damon said.
"What," Damian said.
"What’s her na," Damon said.
Damian looked at him.
"I don’t know," he said. "But I’ll find out."
Damon nodded.
Didn’t say what he was thinking.
He didn’t need to.
Eve was in the sitting room.
She looked up when they ca in.
Read their faces.
Didn’t ask if it was done.
She already knew.
"Malachai pulled the filing," Damian said. "He won’t risk Vessa going public." He sat down. "And Callum...." He paused. "It’s contained."
Eve looked at him.
"He has a daughter," Damian said. "Eight years old. Malachai used her."
Eve was quiet.
Her hand went to the pendant at her chest.
Held it there for a mont.
"Is she safe," Eve said.
"Yes," Damian said.
She nodded.
Looked at the window.
"So Malachai pulled back," she said.
"Yes."
"He lost the clause. He lost Callum as an asset now that we know." She paused. "He’s going to need a new angle."
"Yes," Damian said.
"Which ans we have a window," she said. "Small. Before he finds one."
"Yes," Damian said.
She looked at him.
"Then we use it," she said.
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