The Vicious Vixen: Mother To The Panther Lord’s Pups Chapter 07
The Night Road Trail
I found the records at two in the morning.
After the drill, the staff feared me enough not to stop me.
Isolde’s office sat on the second floor of the west wing. She told everyone it was only for house business.
I let myself in. Closed the door. Pulled every file from every drawer.
It took me three hours to understand it.
Lord Darian sent Night Road revenue home every month. A lot of money. Enough to raise two pups in comfort, pay for their training, and fill their trust.
The trust was empty.
Every coin had been moved out. Cash withdrawals. Transfers to a name I did not know: Rafe Calder.
I found more. Spending records under Isolde’s name. Large payments to traders outside Nightfall territory. Shipments marked only with numbers. Money sent to Rafe month after month.
Rafe Calder was a jackal fixer. He moved goods and information across territorial borders for anyone who paid.
Then I found the route logs.
Passkeys. Convoy schedules. Night Road timing codes.
Isolde had been using Nightfall money to pay Rafe Calder, and in return, she had been feeding him the Night Road route keys. Every passkey. Every schedule change. Every convoy path through the northern border.
The same routes that kept getting hit by raiders. The same attacks that kept Lord Darian pinned at the border month after month.
She was not just stealing from the pups. She was selling Nightfall’s most guarded secrets to the enemy.
I sat back in Isolde’s chair and looked at the numbers.
Cassian didn’t have a winter coat. Liora’s shoes were falling apart.
These pups were heirs to the strongest House in the Northeast.
Isolde had left them in rags while she sent their money to a jackal who sold their father’s routes to raiders.
I didn’t contact Lord Darian.
That was what a weak woman would do. Send word to a lord at the border, beg him to fix it, and wait for justice.
I was not weak.
By sunrise, I had a plan.
I found Gideon Vale in the guard barracks. He was already awake, checking the night reports.
“Gideon. I need every account Isolde controls locked. Today.”
He looked up. “On whose order?”
“Mine. I’m Lady Nightfall.”
“With respect, my Lady, Isolde has managed house finances for years. Lord Darian never—”
I dropped the files on his table. Statements. Transfer records. Passkey logs with Rafe Calder’s name on them.
Gideon went quiet. He read for a full minute.
Then he looked up. His face changed.
“Route keys,” he said. “She leaked route keys to a jackal.”
“Through a fixer on the eastern border. Paid for with money stolen from the pups’ trust.”
Gideon closed the file. His jaw was tight.
“I’ll have her accounts locked by noon. And I’ll send guards to the border to find Rafe.”
“Good.”
At noon, I walked into Isolde’s bedroom without knocking.
She was at her mirror, brushing her hair. She saw me in the reflection, and her hand stopped.
“Get out of my room.”
I dropped the files on her bed.
Isolde turned slowly. Her face drained of color.
“Where did you—”
“Three years of Night Road money,” I said. “That’s what you stole from Cassian and Liora’s trust. All of it. Gone. To a jackal who sold our routes to raiders.”
“You don’t understand—”
“I understand perfectly.” I stepped closer. “Every account you touch is locked. Rafe cannot pull money from us anymore. It’s done.”
She stood so fast her chair fell. “You can’t DO this—”
“Already did.”
“That money is MINE. I earned it. I kept this house running while Darian was gone—”
“You starved his pups. You dressed them in rags. You let your son terrorize Cassian with a lighter.” I stepped closer. “You didn’t earn a single coin. You stole it.”
Isolde grabbed her phone and called once. Twice. Three times.
Nothing worked.
She turned to me, shaking.
“I’ll tell Lord Darian. I’ll tell him you’re stealing from the house—”
“Go ahead. Tell him. And when he asks for proof, I’ll show him these.”
I tapped the files on her bed.
“Every payment. Every lie. Every route key you sold through Rafe Calder.”
Her mouth opened. Closed.
“Oh, and Isolde?”
I picked up the onyx necklace on her nightstand.
“This gets sold today. So does everything else in your jewelry box.”
“NO—”
“Consider it the first payment back. You owe those pups three years of stolen money. I intend to collect every necklace, every bracelet, and every ring you bought with their future.”
I walked to the door.
“You’re a monster,” she whispered.
I looked back.
“No, Isolde. I’m their mother.”
That afternoon, Gideon sent two guards to collect Isolde’s jewelry for sale. She locked herself in her room and screamed for an hour.
Nobody came to help her.
By evening, Cassian had a new winter coat, Liora had boots that fit, and the pups’ trust had its first deposit back.
It wasn’t enough. Not yet. But it was a start.
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