Chapter 4

“We’re private investigators working directly for Alpha Dean Monroe, the Alpha of Silvercrest Pack, and we’ve spent years following leads connected to the daughter who was taken from him.”

I stared between them. “How is it that you don’t realize how insane this story is? You both seem too confident that I might be his daughter, why?”

Ryan opened the briefcase while Caleb kept his attention on me. “Your face is what made Caleb stop, because you look like a split resemblance of him.”

“And Natalie too.”

I blinked in confusion, my brows furrowing in a bit. “I’m sorry, who?”

Caleb rested one hand against the bar. “Natalie Monroe was Dean’s mate and Silvercrest’s Luna before she died, and you look enough like her that I noticed you before I even knew your name.”

Ryan pulled out a sealed testing kit. “The resemblance could still be a coincidence, but we want to confirm.”

Caleb nudged the packet toward me. “Powerful Alpha families keep verified genetic records through their pack physicians, especially for missing heirs, disputed parentage, and succession claims, so we can compare your DNA directly against Dean’s.”

I looked up. “You already have his profile sitting somewhere ready to go?”

“His physicians have had it for years, and every credible lead gets checked against it.”

Ryan broke the seal. “One cheek swab and a small blood sample will settle this faster than another hour of arguing.”

I let out a rough breath. “What happens if it comes back negative?”

Caleb pulled out the stool across from me. “We apologize, pay for whatever inconvenience we caused, and you never have to see either of us again.”

“And if it comes back positive?”

His expression changed. “Then there’s a father who has been waiting years for this phone call.”

My wolf pushed harder.

“Do it. We have suffered too long and this might be our chance to make our life better again. Imagine being an Alpha’s daughter?”

I stared at the swab for another second before holding out my hand. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

The test took less than ten minutes, and Ryan handled the cheek swab first before collecting the blood sample and sealing everything inside the case.

Caleb handed it to a Silvercrest courier waiting outside, while I watched the man disappear through the door.

“How long?”

“Less than an hour,” Caleb replied.

***

Forty-something minutes later, Ryan’s phone buzzed.

His entire face lifted. “What did they send?”

Ryan stared at the tablet screen for a long, heavy second before slowly lifting his head to look at me.

My stomach instantly dropped into my ass. I jerked straight up, my heart jackhammering so loud it was genuinely making me dizzy, just waiting for him to spit it out.

“The paternal match is 99.98 percent,” Ryan said, his voice deadly quiet and totally shaken. “The bloodline markers are an exact match to Silvercrest’s ruling line.”

Be so fucking for real right now.

My grip completely failed. The glass slipped right out of my hand and slammed onto the bar, sloshing ice water all over my knuckles and soaking my sleeve.

My brain literally blue-screened. I just stared at him, desperately waiting for the punchline, praying this wasn’t some sick, twisted joke.

“They ran the comparison a second time,” Ryan added, his eyes locked on mine, grim and dead serious. “To confirm there was no margin for error.”

Before I could even form a single coherent thought, my wolf slammed straight into the front of my skull, losing its absolute mind:

“Wait, we literally have a dad?! For real?!”

I dragged my fingers through my hair. “I spent my whole life thinking I was just some regular wolf with no important family and no bloodline anybody cared about, so you can’t drop Alpha Dean Monroe into that and expect my brain to catch up in thirty seconds.”

Caleb stepped closer but gave me space. “We know this is a shock to you, just take it easy.”

I stared at him. “So what exactly does that make me?”

“You’re the Alpha heiress.”

A sharp gasp ripped straight out of my chest. All of these were hard to take in.

“Are you sure there’s no mistake? This can’t be possible.”

“This is completely real, Hailey or should I say Courtney Monroe?” Caleb assured me.

Every stronger wolf I had ever stepped aside for, every pack event where rank decided who mattered, and every moment I had accepted that some wolves were simply born above people like me suddenly looked different.

I sat back down slowly. “Call him.”

Caleb hesitated. “You want Dean here?”

I could only nod.

He pulled out his phone, stepped away and dialed.

“Alpha, we confirmed her.”

The silence from the other end lasted long enough that Caleb looked toward me.

“Yes, I’m sure.”

Another pause passed. “She’s at Moonfang.”

He ended the call and returned.

“He’ll be here in about twenty minutes.”

I took another drink of water. “That is absolutely not enough time to prepare for meeting your biological father.”

Twenty-three minutes later, every wolf inside Moonfang reacted before the door even opened.

Conversation dropped around the room, shoulders straightened, and several wolves near the entrance lowered their gazes without anybody asking them to.

You didn’t even need to look up to know an Alpha just walked in; the pressure in the room got so heavy you could barely breathe.

I locked up completely. My feet wouldn’t even move.

Dean’s eyes cut through the place, scanning over everyone until they landed right on me. Gray-green, staring dead into mine.

The DNA test had just been some random numbers on a screen, but seeing him in real life? It messed me up instantly. He had gray streaks through his dark hair and his face looked tired and weathered, but looking at him felt like looking right into a mirror. It was literally my own face on a grown man.

The terrifying, untouchable Alpha act dropped off him immediately. His face completely cracked. The same guy who just scared the shit out of every wolf in the room looked like someone handed him a dead person back to life. He looked completely wrecked.

“That’s him. That’s literally our blood.”

My throat closed up so fast it burned. I stood there, shaking, looking at a stranger who was supposed to be mine the whole time, feeling this insane pull in my chest like I’d been missing him my entire life.

Dean’s face totally shattered the second he looked at me. “Courtney?”

“I spent years wondering if I’d ever get to call your name again.”

“Are you really my father? Please, tell me this is not a joke.”

I clamped a hand over my mouth, totally losing the fight against the tears streaming down my cheeks. “I don’t remember you. I hate that I don’t remember.”

“You were just a baby when they took you. You don’t owe me memories you weren't even allowed to keep.” His voice cracked hard as he took a step toward me. “I remember enough for the both of us.”

That completely broke me.

Dean held his hands up, stopping himself before he actually touched me. “Can I hug you, or do you need some space?”

My wolf didn’t even let me think.

“Go to him right now!”

I closed the distance between us fast. Dean didn’t rush me, he just stood there waiting until I crashed into him, and then his arms wrapped tight around me.

The second he pulled me in, his scent hit me dead-on. My wolf went dead quiet, completely locked in on the bond. There was zero doubt left in my head.

A messy, ugly sob ripped out of my chest. My fingers balled into the front of his jacket, clinging to him for dear life as he squeezed me even tighter.

“I can’t believe this,” he choked out against my hair, his voice completely giving out. “I finally found my baby girl.”

“I never stopped looking for you,” he murmured against my hair. “There was never a year, a month, or a day when I accepted that you were gone forever.”

I cried harder. “I don’t even know what to call you.”

“You can call me Dean until you’re ready to call me father and I’ll still know exactly who you are to me.”

It made everything worse in the best and worst way.

I pulled back enough to look at him. “What happens now?”

“Come with me, and let me show you where you came from and the life waiting for you”

I placed my hand in his.

My father’s fingers closed carefully around mine, while something inside me finally stopped fighting every answer I had gotten tonight.

We walked out of Moonfang together.

The Silvercrest wolves outside lowered their heads when Dean appeared, but their attention shifted toward me almost immediately.

I climbed inside the SUV, and Dean took the seat beside me without crowding me while the car pulled away from Moonfang.

My entire life had changed in a few hours, and I still had no idea what waited for me inside Silvercrest territory.

My wolf did not seem afraid anymore, more like she felt like she knew exactly where we were going.