Chapter 3

The call came through while I was still staring at my laptop screen, pretending to work.

Kael's voice was tight, controlled—the voice he used in pack councils when a negotiation was about to go sideways.

"The coat," he said. "I can explain."

"Can you?"

"It was cold that night. Raven didn't bring a jacket. I was being polite."

"Polite." I let the word sit there. "You told me you lost it visiting the Northern Packs."

A pause. I could hear him breathing, recalibrating. Kael Blackwood didn't get caught off guard. He was the one who laid traps, not the one who stumbled into them.

"It turned up," he said finally. "Slipped my mind."

"Clearly."

"Sera." His voice softened, sliding into that low register he used when he wanted something. "Don't make this bigger than it is. It's a coat. I'll buy you ten more if that's what this is about."

My stomach twisted. Once, that voice would have made my wolf roll over in submission.

"It's not about the coat, Kael."

"Then what—"

"Was there something else?"

Silence. I could almost hear his jaw tightening.

"Marcus's bonding celebration," he said. "I needed someone by my side. It was pack business. Don't make this into something it isn't."

"I'm not making it into anything."

Another pause. He wasn't used to this—no tears, no accusations, no desperate questions. Just flat, empty nothing.

"I'm picking you up at seven." His tone hardened. Pure Alpha command. "Marcus is hosting a formal dinner tonight. Be ready."

The line went dead before I could respond.

At seven fifteen, his black Range Rover pulled up outside my office.

I opened the back door and froze.

Raven was already in the passenger seat. My seat. She turned, burgundy silk catching the streetlight, lips curving into that smile I'd come to recognize. The smile of a she-wolf who believed she'd already won.

"Sera!" She leaned between the seats, close enough that her perfume wrapped around me. My wolf recoiled. "What a fun surprise. Kael didn't mention you were joining us!"

I looked at Kael. His knuckles whitened on the steering wheel, but he didn't turn.

"Last minute," I said, and slid into the back.

The private room at the pack's territory lodge was already full when we arrived.

Marcus met us at the door. "Alpha." His eyes shifted to me, softening. "Luna. Honored you could make it."

At least someone remembered who I was.

Kael's palm settled on my lower back as we entered—warm, possessive, his wolf's dominance bleeding through the touch. A gesture that used to make me lean into him.

I kept my spine straight. Gave him nothing.

Halfway through the main course, the server appeared at Kael's elbow.

"Alpha Blackwood, sir—those rare bottles you and Miss Sterling set aside last month. The vintage wolfsbane wine. Shall I open them for the table?"

The conversation around us stuttered. Forks paused mid-air.

Kael's hand froze on my thigh. "That was for the territory negotiation. Business."

"Of course, sir." The server smiled, oblivious. "Miss Sterling mentioned she'd been looking forward to it."

I reached for my water glass. Took a slow, deliberate sip.

"Open them," I said pleasantly. "No sense letting good wine go to waste."

Then I stood. "Excuse me."

When I returned from the restroom, Kael was leaning toward Raven, his arm stretched in front of her, blocking the wine glass someone was trying to pass her way.

Shielding her. Protecting her.

The memory slammed into me so hard I had to grip the back of an empty chair.

Two years ago. A dinner just like this one. They'd pressured me to drink the ceremonial wolfsbane toast, insisting it was pack tradition. I told them my wolf was sensitive to it.

Kael didn't shield me. He pressed his hand down on my shoulder and murmured, "One drink, Sera. Don't embarrass me in front of the pack."

I drank it. To keep the peace. To be the Luna he wanted.

That night, I burned with fever. Two days later, I woke in the pack healer's clinic, my body seizing with cramps.

The healer told me I'd been one month pregnant. The wolfsbane had been too much for the fragile life inside me.

My pup was gone.

Kael burst into my room. He didn't ask how I felt. Didn't hold my hand.

"I told you not to come," he'd said. "But you just had to force your way into pack business. This is what you get for not listening."

The memory burned behind my eyes.

I walked back to the table. Picked up my purse. And left without a single word.

The front door slammed open an hour later.

Kael stormed in, his eyes blazing amber, his wolf barely leashed. He found me on the couch, watching TV, utterly calm.

"What the hell was that?" His voice echoed through the room. "Walking out in front of my pack? In front of my Beta? You wanted to humiliate your Alpha—is that it?"

I didn't look away from the screen.

"Sera!" He stepped in front of the TV, blocking my view. "Answer me!"

I said nothing.

His breathing grew ragged. Through our bond, I felt his wolf pacing, snarling.

"Fine. You want to play it this way?" A bitter laugh escaped him. "Maybe we should just end this. Reject the bond."

This was the second time he'd said it.

The first was a year ago. He'd thought I'd been talking to another male wolf. I'd dropped to my knees, tears streaming, baring my throat in submission, swearing I'd never make him angry again.

But now, I looked up at him. Met his glowing eyes with steady calm.

"Okay."

The word landed like a silver bullet.

Kael went still. The amber faded from his eyes, replaced by something I'd never seen before.

Confusion. Then disbelief.

"What did you say?"

"I said okay." My voice was steady. Quiet. "Let's break the bond."

He stared at me. His chest rose and fell, but no words came.

For the first time in eight years, Alpha Kael Blackwood had nothing to say.