What a long fucking day it's been, I finally get to sit down.

Heading straight for my home office I notice Hayden, my granddaughter has left the letter, yet again, in the same place as always.

Not that suspiciously either as she always leaves it beside my office door, knowing that I would see it when I would open the door, she wants to join the shadow league and since my son, the current king Caelan said no, she has been coming to me almost daily trying to get me to change his mind with my influence.

Hayden is strong, she reminds me so much of a younger me when I was first Alpha, being Princess for her is just something stopping her from reaching her full potential, being in the Shadow League is dangerous, and as my granddaughter, I don't want to see her hurt, but she's stubborn, and she-wolves in this family tend to get what they want, eventually.

Things have changed, my son now has a daughter and son of his own, Hayden and Harriot, who are both very different in nature but happy, my daughter has three children, two sons and a daughter, Marigold, Bethron, and Damien who I see regularly on Friday's for dinner, and my wife, my mate, the love of my life, where do I begin?

I love her more than anything, with each passing day I fall more in love with Sora, my mate is the perfect woman, we fight- of course, at first I couldn't stand when we argued, with it being about food or things like my temper, we always made up and never went to bed angry at each other.

Walking over to my desk I see my phone beep, meaning someone has left me a voice message, there's only a few who have this number and only one who leaves me voicemails if it's important.

Pressing play, there's a crackle then theirs a voice, Larson's voice.

"Kane, ring me as soon as you get this, I finally found something... I-" There's a pause and banging in the background. "Shit, they found me, Kane he's ali-"

The call ends and I'm instantly ringing him back but his number is out of service and not going through.

Larson would never turn his phone off.

I phone my closest friend Lucas Philips, my ex Beta of Deepwater pack, who is now an Alpha at Rivera Pack and advisor to Caelan.

The call goes through and Lucas speaks.

"Finally got bored of fishing or is this an 'I miss you' call?" He jokes and I ignore him.

"Have you heard from Larson? I can't get through to him."

Lucas hums and I can hear him tapping on his desk. "No, why what's happened? I can ask around, I'm sure Emma will know, have you asked her?"

"No, not yet. Keep your ears open for info on his whereabouts then let me know." I say then hang up.

I go to call Emma and the call doesn't go through, like Larsons, it's out of service.

Again, Emma would not turn her phone off, something is fucking wrong and it's starting to bug me.

This isn't fucking good, the last I heard from him he was in The Vale gathering intel for Lucias and Caelan about a possible uprising within the Lycan community, relations have slightly improved since Caelan married his mate, who is half Lycan half-Fae, that small detail got out and the Lycan community have been whispering of an uprising with a possible war on the horizon.

Not within The Silver City, but The Vale.

It could just be whispers, we've heard it all before, but with Larson's sudden disappearance I fear something is coming.

What Larson said last in his message was a warning, someone from our past is alive, but who? There's a long list of people who would love to see me dead.

It's no secret I have had a bloody history before I met my mate, I was ruthless wherever I went, I was in my prime of dominating packs at will, nothing and no one got in my way, it sent a message to all that my pack is off-limits to invasions and I made that perfectly fucking clear, I made enemies and I killed those enemies, which is many, I don't regret a single fucking thing, it was them or me and I choose to live, every single time.

Even if my hands were dripping in blood, I did what I had to for the survival of my pack.

I hear cars pulling up to the house so I stand up and look out the window to see multiple people getting out of their cars holding gifts and making their way to the front door, I hear Sora downstairs opening the door and welcoming them all in.

Did I forget to mention that today is my Birthday? I'm 150 today and I wish the day was fucking over before the day even began.

Sora is making a big deal out of it, like every Birthday she is throwing a party and inviting pack members and friends, and honestly? I've made it very fucking clear to her I didn't want a party, I just wanted to spend it with her.

But the thing about Sora is, she's as stubborn as me and takes no for an answer, I'm afraid I rubbed off on her over the years, quite a bit but whose counting.

Sighing out I head out of my office and make my way downstairs, since my retirement me and Sora decided to move back to Deepwater and live in the house I had built, with some improvement I've made it bigger for the family to stay, this place is just home to us now, so why not make it permanent.

I make it downstairs and everyone is in the garden talking actively, I make my way to the kitchen where I smell my gorgeous mate is at, when seeing her humming to a tune as she places food on trays, I creep up quietly behind her and pinch her ass.

She jumps then turns around to glare at me. "..Kane!" She groans out. "You scared me."

I smirk then lean in to kiss her on the lips. "You look ravishing." I say admiring her. "Have you seen Emma by any chance?" I ask as I eye the food.

She frowns. "Thank you.. and no, why?" She asks concerned and I shrug and bite into a mini beef finger sandwich.

I should probably keep this to myself until I hear back, I don't want to make her stress about anything.

"Lucas was asking." I lie then avoid her eyes.

She stares at me. "Right, sure... no, the last time I saw her she was with Larson at our BBQ party last month." She says then picks up the tray of food.

I take the tray off her and she rolls her eyes with a smile. "You really went all out babe." I say teasingly, eyeing the food.

"Shut up." She mumbles shyly and I erupt with laughter as I follow her outside.

Sora can't cook for shit, but damn I love how much she tries to make an effort for me, but one thing she is good at is finger food, small pieces of food, which I hate because 1, I'm a wolf and 2, I'm not a child.

Fucking finger food, I need plates of meat or fish, not baby sandwiches with cheese sticks.

I see Caelan and his mate Acela standing near the food, they see me walk up to them and they both smile.

"Happy Birthday old man." Caelan says coming up to me with his mate Acela.

"Happy Birthday Kane." Acela says, handing me a gift bag after I put the food down on the table.

I grunt. "Thanks, where's the kids?" I ask, looking around and not seeing or smelling them.

Caelan frowns and Acela takes a drink and avoids my eyes. "Hayden went AWOL again, I got a guard on it and Harriot is on his way with his mate." He says with a look I know well.

Mate? I laugh out and pat him on the back. "About time, why the long face you should be happy."

Acela coughs nervously and then goes to where my mate is, talking to some pack members near the grill. "That bad?" I ask amused.

Caelan's shoulders tense and his eyes grow hard. "He calls me Dad and I want to strangle him every time he does." He spits out and I grin.

Snorting loudly I hand him a beer. "Get used to it, Hayden is next."

That makes him groan and drink half of the bottle, I feel Sora come up behind me as she pokes me in the back with something, turning around I see my beautiful mate holding onto a box with my name on it, not dressed like every other gift in wrapping, it's an old cardboard box with just 'KANE' written on.

"Hey, this just arrived for you." Sora says as she frowns down at the box and I take it off her hands.

"It smells odd, doesn't it?" She says worriedly and I put the box on the table and sniff the air.

Flesh.

And it's fresh, there's a strong scent of fresh blood coming from inside the box.

Caelan gives me a look when he smells it too then puts his bottle down. "Mother, can you grab me a glass of water please?" He asks and Sora nods her head slowly, eyeing the package suspiciously before walking away, back into the house.

I open the box and what's inside makes my stomach churn at what I'm seeing, a thousand thoughts are racing through my head right now but only one is replaying.

Who the fuck did this? 

Who the fuck would do this?

"Is that a fucking- wait.. is.." Caelan mutters and I close the box shut.

I swallow hard and stare at Caelan. "Get rid of everyone and get fucking Lucas over here."

He nods his head and goes into his pocket and starts dialing as he yells out that the party is over, I grab hold of the box and make my way inside, heading for my office I bump into Sora and she looks around panicking as she watches as people start to leave.

"What's going on?" She asks confused, watching sadly as people leave.

I would feel guilty if I wasn't holding this box in my hand, nothing is more important now than finding who the fuck did this and why they sent it directly to me, I'm going to have to tell Sora everything if this is who I think it is.

I had my suspicions about the last part of Larson's message, 'he's alive' is what he was going to say before the call cut, and there's only one that comes to mind from my past, one that I think about sometimes but try not to, the early days of me as Alpha were dark days, those times were different to now, the human realm wasn't as safe as people thought it was, I did things just to protect my people.

Bad fucked up shit, but every Alpha did the same just to stay afloat, it was bad days, werewolves packs were being attacked, humans were being taken in the night, and only one name kept coming up every time someone got word on who was behind it.

I grab hold of my mate's hand and lead her up the stairs in the direction of my office, not looking back as people begin to leave through the front door. "Kane? Where are we going?" Sora calls out as I drag her up the stairs, with the box in my hand.

"I.. I need to tell you something, but first." I open the door to my office. "I need to show you something."

She looks at me confused and I shut the door behind me, I'm beyond furious right now, some fucking dead man walking is messing with me, to send me this to my own home with my mate inside, it's clear that they don't give a fuck and this is them 'sending a message'.

Fuck, this is bad, really bad, if they have him-

This is bad.

"What's going on, you're starting to scare me Kane."

I sigh out heavily and open the box, when Sora comes up behind me she screams and covers her mouth with her hand as she looks at what's inside.

"I-Is that someone's hand!?" She shrieks back as she stares in horror.

"Larson's hand." I correct her and she gasps then starts to sob as she moves back to sit on the sofa, distraught.

The hand has a ring on it, the same ring Emma gifted to Larson many years ago when they had first met as mates, it's a cross with their initials on it, it's custom made and impossible to recreate as Emma's old man had made it with special steel that's now rare and not available to purchase anymore.

"Omg.. w-who would do t-this?" Sora cries out as I inspect the box. "Is he alive? W-Where's Emma? O-Oh god." She cries out.

Nothing is inside, no note, nothing that tells what they want or who they are, to cut off Larson's hand is a statement more than a message, to do this has to have meaning behind or why else would they send it to me? Someone is doing this to get back at me by doing this to Larson.

Whoever did this is not done.

I need to tell her about my past, Larson was trying to warn me about whoever did this to him, I can't hide my past any longer, I've only told Sora bits and pieces of my life as a young Alpha, but I had sugarcoated it when in reality it is anything but sweet, the past had shaped me into the man I am today, I did things I was not proud of and I did things I was proud of.

It's time to tell her.

I kneel in front of my mate and kiss her tear-soaked hands, her eyes meet mine. "I need to tell you something Sora."