Chapter 1Kael and I had been together for six years.
Back then I was the heir of Northcrest, the only daughter of the Alpha King. My father said Kael, a small-pack Alpha, was nothing close to good enough for me. He almost cut me off. I gave up everything for love. I hid who I was and ran with Kael. The day I left, my father said only one thing.
"The day you regret it, I'll come for you."
I didn't think it would take less than six years.
The message had already reached me. The Marking ceremony with Vivienne was set.
I sat on the bed and remembered my father's face seven years ago, somewhere between furious and afraid. I closed my eyes. I was about to wake the wolf I had kept asleep for six years and reach back to my family in Northcrest.
The door opened behind me.
Kael was back from Vivienne's wing. His suit jacket was over his arm, tie loose, the top two buttons of his shirt undone. He tossed the jacket on the chair. A folded slip of paper slid out of the inside pocket.
I picked it up.
It was Vivienne's ultrasound photo. On the back, in his handwriting: "Everything's fine."
He saw me looking. He moved a little too fast to take it back. His voice softened. "Just a routine check. Vivienne's side is almost wrapped up. I'll spend more time with you and Asher these next few days."
He paused. "Vivienne thinks I should spend more time with you two."
When did it come to this. That woman has to nod before he comes home to me and his son.
He told me he'd missed me. He reached for me. I didn't pull away. I just saw what was on his shirt collar. A faint print, half a shade darker than the lipstick I wear. And under it the cloying woody perfume he was now carrying home with him. I would never wear that scent.
I went still. Kael didn't notice.
If a stranger walked in right now, they'd think I was the one breaking into someone else's marriage.
He was leaning in to kiss me when Asher came running over and climbed up onto the couch.
He held out a drawing from preschool.
"Daddy, look. It's all three of us."
Three figures holding hands. The one in the middle had a little tuft of hair sticking up at the crown. That was Kael.
Kael lowered his head, looked at the picture once, pulled Asher in, and rested his chin on top of his son's head. He didn't say anything.
He just sat there.
I stood in the kitchen doorway watching them. He knew how to be good to Asher. He had always known. He just never thought it was something he had to keep doing.
For a second the room blurred and I was seven years back.
Back when I was still on a small training field at the Northcrest border. I'd been bored, slipped past the perimeter alone, and a pack of enemy Rogues caught my scent and surrounded me. They were about to traffic me out. Kael was passing through and stepped in. He took two blades to the shoulder doing it. I crouched in the dirt with my hands pressed to the wound. He wiped the blood off his face, took my hand, and pressed it flat against his chest.
"That one was for you. From today on, you're mine."
Kael came out of the shower and sat across from me on the couch. He looked at me.
"What's been going on with Asher. He's barely talking."
Something shifted in my chest.
He had finally asked first.
For three months he hadn't asked one thing about me or Asher. Now he was asking, and I had so much to say. There was the training match last month, and the birthday before that. Asher had stopped calling out for daddy at bedtime, and now he only called for me. The grey wolf plush he used to keep by his pillow had been moved to the door.
I opened my mouth. "He—"
His phone lit up.
"Vivienne needs me. Let me take this."
He stepped out onto the balcony and shut the door.
Asher came down the hallway. He looked once at Kael through the glass, where Kael was hunched over with his voice low, and then went back into his room and shut the door behind him.
I sat where I was. None of what I had wanted to say came out.
The Kael who took two blades for me seven years ago, and the Kael with another woman's lipstick on his collar tonight, were not the same person.
I smiled in the direction he'd gone.
He was sure this was another small fight Vivienne had interrupted, and that two soft words later it would smooth over. He didn't know I had already received the message about him and Vivienne and the Marking ceremony.
The more he played at normal, the easier it was for Asher and me to leave with nothing in our hands.
I closed my eyes again, and I started pulling up the mind-link I had buried for six years.
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Chapter 2
"Dad. I have a child. His name is Asher. He's five."
"Come back. Now. I'm sending people." My father's voice, coming back through a link that had been dead six years, was shaking. Not the cold Alpha King voice I knew.
I'd meant to leave the next morning. But Asher was half-asleep when he murmured, "Daddy, you promised…"
His fifth birthday was in two days. Last month Kael had promised that as soon as the Marking business was settled, he'd take Asher to watch the pack training match. Asher had pinned three drawings of that match to the wall by his bed.
I looked at his sleeping face and decided to wait three more days.
The next morning Helena sent her housekeeper. We were summoned to the main estate. Asher thought his father was finally keeping his promise. He pulled on his little suit and went out with Kael.
In the car Asher asked, "Mommy. Where do my grandfather and grandmother live?"
"Up north. Far from here."
"Then why don't we go see them?"
Kael's eyes flicked to me in the rearview mirror. "Your mom's used to being on her own. There's probably no one waiting for her up north."
He said it the way you state a fact.
I didn't correct him.
He had always been like this. He thought I couldn't leave. He thought I would always wait. He thought loving him meant I would put up with everything.
He wasn't wrong about loving him. Six years, I had.
But I had my own pride.
What I couldn't put up with was watching Asher grow up here and spend his whole life calling his own father "uncle."
The Silverfang delegation was already inside the main estate when we arrived. Vivienne's father had come in person. Kael stood beside Vivienne with his hand on her waist.
Helena announced it in front of everyone.
"Vivienne is pregnant. Her child with Kael will be the next heir of Ironridge. The bond between our two packs will be sealed permanently through this child. The Marking ceremony will be held very soon."
The Silverfang side clapped. Kael turned to the elders of both packs. "This child is the future of Ironridge."
His own son was standing right next to him. He didn't even look this way.
Asher tugged at my sleeve. He tipped his face up and asked quietly, "Mommy. What about me?"
His voice was small but the whole room went quiet.
Vivienne's father frowned. He turned to Helena. "Whose child is that?"
Helena cut in before anyone else could. "An orphan we took in. A Rogue child. Poor little thing. Sera here is the nanny we hired to look after him."
Asher froze. He looked up at me.
"I'm not an orphan," he said quietly. "I have Dad and Mom."
Helena's snort buried his sentence. The Silverfang table started looking us over. The way you look over staff. One of the older men next to Vivienne's father said, half-laughing, "Does the Ironridge pack adopt just any rogue wolf?"
Kael's face changed for a fraction of a second. He opened his mouth.
Vivienne picked that exact moment to slip her arm through his and lean up to his ear. "Not in front of my father. Please."
Kael said nothing.
Asher didn't cry. He didn't ask again. He started, very quietly, undoing the third button of the small suit he'd refused to take off all morning.
His eyes flickered darker for a second. That was the wolf cub pushing up, and then pushing back down. On this pack's ground, in front of this room, he could not let himself cry.
I crouched down and folded his cold little hand into mine.
"Sweetheart. Come with mommy. There's no place for us here."
I stood up. I looked at the room. My voice was even.
"My son is not an orphan. He has a mother. His father is dead."
The hall went still for three seconds. Helena's face was darker than my words.
I took Asher's hand and started walking. Vivienne's voice came from behind me. She moved around in front of me and slowly raised a finger, manicured nude, and tapped the silver chain at my collarbone.
"Sera. That pendant has been passed down to the Luna of the Thorne family for generations. The Marking ceremony is coming up. Time for it to go home."
That pendant. Kael had put it on me himself, the winter Asher was born, and told me the Luna of the Thorne house was the woman who wore that chain.
So that was why we'd been summoned. To strip the son of his place and the mother of her chain. Both jobs in one afternoon.
I stopped and looked at Kael.
Kael dropped his eyes to his own shoes. He spoke in a voice I had never heard him use with me, small and almost coaxing.
"Vivienne's right. The pendant should go to the Luna."
The lipstick mark on his collar was much clearer in the chandelier light than it had been in our bedroom that morning.
I reached up, took the chain off, and set it down on the center of the long table. Right where Vivienne wouldn't even need to stretch.
I led Asher out of the main estate. He held my hand the whole way. He didn't let go once.
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Chapter 3
Asher didn't speak the rest of the day. He went into his room and closed the door.
That afternoon Vivienne came by to pick something up. Kael wasn't home.
She let herself in. Asher was in the living room drawing. She walked over and looked down at his paper.
She said, "You know your daddy's going to have a new baby soon, right? That baby is the heir of Ironridge. You…" She paused. "The pack register lists you as an orphan."
I came out of the kitchen. Asher was sitting where she'd left him. The drawing was still on the table but the pen was down.
"Get out," I said to Vivienne. "You are not welcome here."
Asher walked himself back to his room. After a while I pushed his door open. He was sitting on the bed. He looked up. His eyes were red.
"Mommy. What's an orphan?"
"Mommy. Daddy doesn't want me anymore. Did I do something wrong?"
I pulled him into my arms. "Asher didn't do anything wrong. This is a grown-up thing. None of it is on you."
He leaned on my shoulder and didn't speak. I told him about the north. About Northcrest. About a grandfather and grandmother. About an estate ten times the size of this apartment. About a lake the size of an ocean. About a yard full of pack kids his age who wrestle on the grass all day.
He listened for a long time.
Then he pulled a folded, badly creased paper out from under his pillow. The family-of-three drawing. Mommy, daddy, him. With that little tuft of hair sticking up.
"Mommy," his voice was very small. "Can I give this to daddy myself? I want him to remember me. After that I won't call him daddy anymore."
I held my breath and held the tears down. I said yes.
The next morning I took Asher to the main estate. The two guards at the gate stopped us. The Alpha is in a meeting.
Asher sat down on the steps without a word. He put the drawing on his knees and held the edges down with both hands so the wind wouldn't take it.
We waited four hours.
I called Kael. The first two times he didn't pick up. The third time he did, in a tone he had never used on me in six years.
"Sera, I'm working out contract details with Silverfang. Don't make a scene."
A voice came through faintly from the other end. It was Vivienne, laughing.
Asher was less than four inches from the phone. He heard it.
He folded the family drawing in half. Folded it again. Tucked it into his shirt pocket.
"Mommy. Daddy's busy. Let's go home."
He didn't speak on the way back. As we got close to the apartment he asked,
"Mommy. Can I just call him Uncle Kael from now on? Calling him daddy makes things hard for him."
That night my phone buzzed. A text from Kael: "Bring Asher to the main estate tomorrow morning. I have a surprise for him."
The screen lit up. Asher launched himself across the couch into my lap. "Mommy. Daddy remembered. We're going tomorrow!"
He couldn't sleep that night. He got up three times to check the time.
The next morning we walked into the main estate. There were white rose arches at the doors. Petals on the floor. Rows of candles lined up in the hall. Two crossed family crests on white linen at the center of the long table.
There was no surprise. It was a rehearsal for the Marking ceremony.
That was when I understood. The text had not been from Kael. It was from Vivienne's hand on his phone.
Asher stood in the doorway. He saw Kael bent over Vivienne's collarbone, practicing the angle of the bite. Vivienne with her head tipped back, eyes closed.
The drawing dropped from his hand. It hit the marble with a soft sound, but the whole hall heard it.
Kael looked up and saw us. The blood went out of his face. Vivienne opened her eyes slowly, turned them on me, and the corner of her mouth pulled up.
"Sera," she said. "Come to give us your blessing?"
Kael pushed her off and started toward Asher. Vivienne grabbed his wrist. Her voice rose sharp. "Kael. She brought the kid here to ruin this on purpose. The whole pack is here. Take a side."
The room around us started to murmur.
Kael's feet stopped. He looked from Vivienne's nails to Asher's eyes and back, three seconds. Then he lowered his voice for me alone.
"Take him home. I'll come tonight and explain."
He had said "I'll come tonight and explain" too many times in six years.
"He is your son." I looked at him. One word at a time. "Stand up for him here, today, or never again."
Kael opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
Vivienne's face went cold. She lifted a hand at the guards. Two of them stepped forward and took my arms. They started dragging me toward the door.
Asher charged. Five years old, all of him at once, both small hands pushing at a guard's leg. The guard swung his arm. Asher went flying. His knee hit marble and split open.
He didn't cry.
"Enough," Kael shouted.
He didn't move toward us.
Asher picked himself up. He picked up the drawing from the floor. Someone had stepped on it. He walked over to Kael. He looked up once, his grey-blue eyes the same as Kael's, and then with shaking hands he tore the drawing into pieces.
He pressed the handful of paper into Kael's palm.
"Uncle Kael. This was for you."
He took my hand. "Mommy. Let's go."
At the door, Kael's voice came from behind us.
"Sera."
I stopped. Asher stopped.
I heard footsteps, and they stopped two paces behind me.
"I'll come home tonight. We'll talk."
I turned. I looked at him. His fist was closed around the torn paper. The edges had pressed a red line into his hand.
"Asher. Go wait outside."
Asher glanced at Kael once and left.
I looked at Kael. "When those two guards had me by the arms, where were you?"
"Silverfang's people were all there, I couldn't—"
"When Asher was waiting four hours for you, where were you?"
"Sera, the northern alliance negotiation is at a critical point. I couldn't do anything in there."
"You said you'd come home tonight and talk. Six years, Kael. How many times have you said you'd come home tonight and talk."
He looked down at the handful of paper.
"He called you Uncle Kael. Do you know why."
He raised his head and looked at me and said nothing.
Back at the apartment I threw every piece of Kael into the fire. Asher stood beside me and put the small wolf totem in too. "Mommy. You forgot one."
We watched it burn.
"Mommy," Asher asked, "is daddy really coming home tonight?"
"I don't know."
"What if he does?"
"We won't be here."
A pause. "Will he look for us?"
"He will."
"Should I wait for him?"
I looked down. His face was tipped up. He was waiting for an answer.
"No, baby."
He nodded.
A little later he turned his face away from me and wiped his eye with his sleeve. He thought I didn't see.
A wolf cub feels his mother's emotions. He had always felt mine. He had just never said anything.
He took my hand. He didn't speak.
Just then, I received the mind-link from my father.
"I have sent people. They will arrive tomorrow."
Asher looked up. "Grandfather?"
"Yes."
He thought about it. "Will he like me?"
"Yes."
I made one last call to Kael.
He picked up on the first ring. There was the noise of ceremonial music behind him. "Sera."
"Congratulations on your wedding." I said. "I'm taking Asher with me—and I hope we never meet again."
"Wait, listen to me."
"Goodbye."
I shut the phone off, pulled the SIM card out, snapped it in half, and threw it in the fire. The melting plastic made Asher cough. He didn't speak. He just pressed his face into my coat.
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