42: Ada's POV

Armored guards gathered me mere hours after my fireside conversation with Nik. I had stayed awake all night in anticipation of the trip toward my home pack. The leathers I’d dressed in the day before were still clinging to my body, the material was still somewhat foreign to my body but has also somehow started to feel like a second skin. My mind was still reeling from all of the things that Nik had told me, and I’d spent some time after he left me trying to piece together timelines. 

If he was 16 when he saw my mother with Fane Rosu, then I was six. And that was *before* she’d died. Or, apparently, *didn’t* die but disappeared. 

Nik had more secrets than I could possibly fathom at his fingertips. I trusted him, for some unknown reason. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t weary of the armory of knowledge he had at his disposal. While his shadow-wielding didn’t concern me too much, our conversation had led me to be more concerned about where it had come from. If Nik’s mother had been an ally of Fane Rosu and Fane saved Nik’s life as a baby, it could have very easily been from him.

I didn’t know enough about the man to determine. Sure, the Forest the Forgotten wasn’t a casual hangout place. It was more of a thing parents in the Kingdom of the Moonglade used to whisper to their children about in order to coerce them into behaving. Monsters lived there. Maybe not monsters that could hurt you while you were shifted, but while you were in human form… that forest would bring nothing but death and despair. 

The sun was just beginning to peak up over the horizon as I walked down the road toward the train station that I had emerged from months earlier. It was odd how I already felt like a new person. Despite the Kings new orders of separation from the Princes, I *had* been healing and becoming healthy over the last few months. My body had filled out, my strength returning. Couple that with my few partial shifts from Sahara and I was almost back to where I’d been when I was nearly exiled at fourteen. 

Steam puffed up from the top of the train in bright white clouds. The train was a sleek black and only three cars long. I had a guard to the left and right of me and both were the silent and brooding type of soldier. They led me to the car furthest from the engine and the door slid open silently. I stepped into the car and nearly gawked. 

Months earlier, I’d been loaded onto a train with women in fanciful clothes and had been so exhausted, so hungry, that I hadn’t been able to see much else. This train was the exact opposite — a traveling arsenal. Boxes of supplies, walls full of guns and soldiers bustling between the cars abounded. As I stepped forward, trying to determine which car I needed to make my way to, a head popped out of a room to the right. 

Phoenix grinned, “Ada! Over here.”

The leather combat boots hugged against my calves as I strode over to the sliding door he was holding open. I stepped into a room that the Princes occupied, but was otherwise empty. Considering where this train was headed, and the reasons behind the trip, I was surprised to find them all dressed casually. Suddenly, I felt a bit ridiculous in the leathers I’d stayed in. Phoenix was in a casual t-shirt and shorts, while Darius was still clothes in pajama pants and a thin white tank top, sleep still heavy in his eyes. Nikolai was the most put together and was dressed in dark blue jeans and a black shirt, a pair of thick-rimmed black glasses on his face. 

Darius shot me a small smile, reaching up to rub at his eyes, “Morning, Ada.”

“Mornin’,” I sighed, sinking into an open chair across from them and looking at the map sprawled out on the table, “A little light breakfast conversation?” I furrowed my eyebrows, crossing my arms over my chest as I looked at the map, “This is the Midnight Pack’s territory— well, kind of.”

Nik arched an eyebrow, “Kind of?”

“There’s some things that are wrong,” I swept my hand over the left side of the map closest to me, “You’re missing entire towns and farming communities. Is this map to scale?” My eyes met Nik’s and he gave me a curt nod, “Who gave you this intel?”

“Your father,” Darius answered swiftly, eyes now alert as he leaned over the map and looked where I had indicated, “He sent it with Aiden. A map of each packs territory was requested at your introductory ball.”

My heart was thudding fast. Aiden had brought the map, but that didn’t mean he looked it over. After his confession to me in the garden, I doubted he would have done anything to jeopardize not only my standing here but his chance of being with me after. Still, my father sending him as the messenger and getting caught with incomplete information… he could be killed. Actually, that may have handled two problems for my father— give those he was rebelling against incomplete information in order to give him an advantage *and* kill of a member of his pack who has proved to be more than a mindless meathead. 

I could hear the whooshing of my blood in my ears as I shook my head, “Aiden wouldn’t have provided you such an incomplete map knowingly.”

“We know that, Ada,” Nik sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, “The seal was untouched when he gave it to us. Can you fill in the missing areas?”

My eyes roamed over the yellowed parchment. Once I found the denotation for the packhouse, I was able to pick up on a few other landmarks, but a vast majority of the map was blank. My voice was soft, “I can try, but I can’t promise it will be accurate. It’s been years since I have been anywhere other than the farm or the packhouse.”

“Where’s the farm you were on?” Phoenix asked as he looked over the map, “There’s no agricultural markings here.”

“In fact,” Nik sighed heavily, sitting in the chair right behind him, “the Midnight Pack has been begging for assistance with food and grain for years. Your father has claimed they have no workable land and no means to provide food to their people.”

“Well that’s a lie,” I snorted, bringing my finger down on a vast expanse of emptiness on the parchment, “That property is here. It is nearly forty acres of workable land. The owners run it with prisoners or basic workers. They have an entire unit of armed guards assigned to protect the property and keep people in line,” I held my hand out and gripped the quill that Phoenix placed in it tightly, “This won’t be perfect, but based on what I know *this*,” I drew out the property lines in shaky circles, messily notating areas of crops with signs of wheat, vegetables or meat, “is roughly what that farm alone looks like. They produce a metric fuck-ton of food.”

Darius’ eyebrows shot up and he chuckled as my cheeks flushed, “When you say a unit of armed guards, what are you referring to?”

My eyes scoured over the map. There were no denotations of barracks, armories or training grounds that I *knew* were on the outskirts of the territory. Quickly, I noted the twelve or so separate barracks that I was aware of. The three princes watched as I moved to the mountains on the outskirts of the territory and drew symbols for strongholds and training grounds. Unfortunately, I was only able to notate one armory near to the castle. 

I set the pen down, “If he has claimed to have no armies, he’s hiding more than you thought. Each unit of soldiers has between twenty-five and fifty armed wolves. There are multiple units at each barracks,” I tapped the areas I drew, “Wolves coming of age are being trained at the grounds. Armed units are present on every farming property, and there are multiple companies at each stronghold through the territory,” I shook my head as I grabbed the quill and quickly denoted a few more farming territories I was absolutely certain of, “They have *thousands* of armed and trained wolves throughout the pack.”

“Did you mark anything you are hesitant of?” Phoenix spoke gently, resting a hand on my shoulder as he leaned over to make eye contact.

“No, only things I know are absolute fact,” I shook my head, scanning over the map again, “I know they are in serious debt. I always assumed it was because of the extravagant parties that Francine would host,” I sucked in a deep breath, “But maybe it’s because of all the secrets they’re keeping from the King.”

Nik contemplated my words for a moment, eyes never leaving the map. Slowly, he nodded, “Let’s come up with a game plan,” the train lurched forward, horn blowing as we started down the tracks, “Get Aiden in here. We’re going to need him.”

No one moved within my line of sight, but I was sure he had been speaking to someone. It took me nearly a full minute to see the swirling mists of shadows cascading from beneath the table. They caressed my ankles gently when I noticed them, as if saying hello, before shoving through the crack in the door and disappearing. 

Silence filled the room until Aiden sauntered into the room, warm eyes hesitating slightly when they saw me. There was a second where everyone seemed to suck in a breath. I felt the discomfort of the beta being in this room, saw it in the way he shifted from foot to foot. Phoenix’s disinterest in the man was palpable, his brooding silence and relaxed expression in direct conflict with each other. Darius was the first to jump into conversation with Aiden, pulling him in toward the table. But it was Nik’s feelings about Aiden that unnerved me. 

His gaze was cold, but not unfeeling. His eyes were filled with distaste, hatred. Nik’s strong jaw was set, his teeth grinding. Even when he jumped into the conversation between Aiden and Darius, he would glance at me every fifteen or so seconds. When Aiden happened to step toward me, he *growled.* It was as if his accelerated heart rate wasn’t just something I could hear but was also beating in my own chest. My eyes were locked on Nik as they group all conversed over the map. I watched as nearby shadows slowly sank back into him, a few seeming to go near to his ear. Whispering. 

I froze in my chair. I gripped the arm rests as I realized that Nik *knew.* He knew what Aiden had confessed to me in the garden. I could only assume the only reason Aiden was still alive was because he had a plan for that bit of information. Either way, he *knew.*

*The only reason that mutt is alive,* Nik’s voice was low, raspy, in my mind, *is because I* know *that you don’t feel the same way about him. Even if you don’t.*