“My theory? They were scouts. The forward edge of something larger. Sent to test our patrol pattern, identify the gaps, report back to whoever sent them with a window for a real strike. Miss Carter walked into them by chance. They saw her, recognized what she was, and attacked because they could not afford to be reported.”
The dawn behind my desk has started to warm my back. I do not move from where I am standing. “And the gap they were testing?”
Liam’s jaw tightens. “That’s the other thing, Alpha.”
“Speak.”
“The rotation was wrong that night,” he tells me. “Should have been four wolves on that quadrant from sundown to midnight. There were none. An oversight like that is not possible to miss. Unless it was deliberate.”
“Each squadron believed the other was on duty,” Reese continues. “They swear they saw the names of the others on the roster. The others swear it wasn’t them. And the actual roster for that day is missing.”
I sit down. The leather of my chair creaks under me. Outside my window, the sun is breaking the line of the eastern wall.
“Someone got into the duty book and altered it.” My voice is sharp.
Liam replies, “Yes.”
“And then stole that page.”
“Yes.”
“To create a gap that a scout could exploit.”
Reese answers this one. “That is the most likely interpretation. We have eliminated bookkeeping error, drunkenness, and personal grudge. None of them fit. The alteration was clean, professional, and timed to the hour the rogues breached. Whoever did it knew what they were doing.”
I press my thumb and forefinger to the bridge of my nose.
“The names of the wolves who had access to the duty book that day.”
“Eleven of us. Officers, captains, two senior trainers. Holt, Bishop, Donnelly, Wirth, Hartley, Jones, the two of us, plus three lieutenants.”
“None of whom you suspect.”
“All of whom we now have to suspect.”
Quiet settles in the office. Down the corridor, the first of the kitchen carts begins to roll.
“Increase the perimeter patrols,” I order. “Quietly. No announcement. Spread the work across whichever wolves were not on duty that night. I want the next two weeks watched twice as carefully as the last two.”
“Done.”
“Audit every duty book entry going back six months. Cross-reference against actual deployments. If anything like this has happened before, I want to know.”
Liam writes that down.
“Move the duty book itself. Out of the captains’ room. Into a locked drawer in your office, Liam. Only you and Reese have keys. Anyone wanting to make changes goes through one of you in person.”
“Understood.”
“And on the question of who did it.” I let my hand drop from my face. “Watch. Closely. I do not have a name. No assumptions. But if there is a wolf inside this estate who fed those rogues a window, that wolf is still here. He or she will act again. When they do, I want to know immediately.”
Reese’s eyes flick to Liam’s and then back to me. “You think there’s a traitor.”
I don’t reply. I just meet his gaze evenly, and they both nod, their eyes heavy.
Once they leave, I sit at my desk for a moment, thinking.
A possible traitor. This is going to be a problem.