Pursuing My Rejected Luna by Cara Anderson novel Chapter 298

Ch. 68

Cassandra

“Well, that’s not right.” I mutter, pouring over the documents spread out on my desk.

I’ve been working on building a picture of the moventients of Alpha Donovan Reeves for three weeks. Not because anyone asked me to, which is probably an issue in and of itself. But I am constitutionally incapable of looking at incomplete information and not completing it. It’s probably a character flaw. It’s how I noticed the timing correlation in the first place.

“What’s not right?” I look up to find Jack leaning in the doorway, his arms crossed like he’s been there a while

“Hi, you.” I return his smile. “Uh, just something I’ve been working on. It’s not making any sense to me.”

“What’ve you got so far? Maybe I can help.” He offers.

“Okay.” I agree. “So, first I cross-referenced all eastern correspondence against the border incident reports and the council meeting schedule. I also got the patrol rotation logs going back four months, which is when the border attacks first began.

“I remember. I was involved in the first one.” Jack recalls. “Thankfully, there weren’t any casualties. In fact, I remember thinking it was strange at the time. It was almost like they weren’t trying that hard.”

“Hmm, that is strange.” I tap my nails on the desk, lost in thought. But no answers to that conundrum appear.” I’ll have to give that more thought. I found a

correlation weeks ago. Reeves moves in the windows after council meetings because that’s when leadership is visibly occupied with internal governance. Noah used it to close that window.”

He raises his eyebrow at my familiar use of my ex-mate’s name instead of his Alpha title, but doesn’t comment. So I continue.

“I’ve been working on the second layer to all this. Reeves isn’t just watching our schedule, I can see that much. Based on these reports, he’s been watching our response patterns-how long it takes Ironwood to mobilize from the Alpha house to the eastern boundary, which sections of that boundary have longer gaps in the patrol rotation, what our standard first-response protocol looks like and how it can be predicted. He’s been mapping weaknesses for months before he started testing them. The skirmishes aren’t random tests. It looks like they’re targeted. Each one is probing a specific gap in a specific section.”

“Which means he has more information about Ironwood’s internal operations than he should.” Jack echoes what I’m thinking.

“Which can’t be right, can it? I mean, no one in Ironwood would put pack members at risk that way, would they?”

I’m not sure how to interpret the look on Jack’s face. Disbelief, concern, anger, maybe all the above at once. “I sure as fuck hope not. I’ve gotta go sweetheart.”

He leans in to kiss my cheek before leaving, but I’m too lost in thought to return the gesture. Because I’m not sure yet what any of this means, but I sure as hell know it’s not good.

And I also know it means the countermeasures Noah put in place aren’t enough. He needs to do more than just closing the timing window-he needs to address the information leak, and redesign the response pattern so it becomes unpredictable, rotating the patrol coverage on the specific sections he’s been targeting.

I write it up. Hopefully I can slip it to Cole and he can convince Noah to take a look.

1/3

Ch.68

+15 Bonus

It’s mid-morning before Cole is in his office. He looks up when I knock and his expression does the thing it always does when he sees me, the thing where he hasn’t decided yet whether to entertain my presence or toss me out on my ass for the interruption.

“I have more information,” I say before he can choose the latter.

He looks at the folder in my hands. “Come in.” He doesn’t sound enthusiastic, just resigned.

He reads it in silence. I stand perfectly still and watch him read, not wanting to distract him from the details. I can see when the information lands, his expression moving from skepticism to engagement.

He looks up and I briefly wonder if I should be offended by the surprise on his face.

“This is good,” he admits, though he looks like the admission pains him. “This is really good.”

Yep, I should definitely be offended. But I let it go. He’s been skeptical of me for months so it’s not like it’s anything new. At least he acknowledged my work. From Cole, that’s significant.

He picks up the folder. “I’ll take it to Noah.”

“Thank you,” I say. “Same deal as last time, tell him it came from you.”

He nods and I take that as all the confirmation I’m likely to get. So I go back to work.

I tell myself acknowledgment is not the point. I don’t need it and Noah wouldn’t give it a second look if he knew it

came from me.

I did this because it was right. Because Ironwood’s border security matters and Reeves is a real threat and the analysis needed to be in the right hands regardless of whether my name appears next to it. I’m not here to build a reputation. I’m here to do work and not make things worse and take care of my son.

I’m definitely not here to impress Noah Stephens.

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