1 - EX IS BACK

The numbers were not adding up.

I stared at the open ledger on my desk, tapping the end of my pen against the worn paper. Grimclaw’s winter harvest was going to be short by at least twenty percent. We needed more grain to survive the frost, but the pack treasury was basically empty.

I let out a slow breath and leaned back in my wooden chair. I flipped to the previous page, my eyes scanning the long columns of expenses. If I shifted the budget from the border patrols and delayed the repairs on the western cabins, we could afford to buy surplus from the Riverbend pack.

It was not a perfect solution. But it would keep our people fed.

I wrote the adjusted numbers in the margins. Three years ago, I didn't know the first thing about agricultural yields or trade deficits. I grew up in a palace with servants and endless resources. I was raised to be a political asset, not an accountant. Now, I spent most of my afternoons buried in these books, pinching pennies to keep my husband's pack afloat.

I liked the quiet. I liked the routine. It gave me a sense of purpose.

Tobias hated dealing with the finances. He hated the stress of it. He hated disappointing people when he had to say no to funding requests. He was a kind man, but he was terrified of conflict. So, I took over the ledgers. It was what a good Luna did. She fixed the cracks her Alpha couldn't reach, and she did it without making a fuss. I had spent three years shrinking my presence, hiding my royal blood, just to be the quiet, supportive wife he needed.

I smiled a little, closing the thick book. Tobias would be relieved. He had been pacing the floor over the winter prep for weeks, losing sleep over the threat of starvation. I planned to show him the new budget over dinner tonight. I just needed to double-check the final totals.

A loud crash echoed through the packhouse.

I jumped. My pen clattered onto the desk, rolling off the edge and hitting the floor.

The sound came from the main entrance downstairs. It wasn't the usual noise of warriors returning from a hunt or pups playing in the halls. This sounded like the heavy oak doors being violently slammed against the stone walls.

Then came the shouting.

"Get a healer!" a man yelled. His voice was frantic. "Now!"

I grabbed the ledger and hurried out of my office. The hallway was already filling with the nervous energy of pack members rushing toward the stairs.

I pushed past a group of omegas who were whispering frantically. "Move. Let me through."

When I reached the top of the main staircase, the scent hit me before I saw anything. Copper and dirt. Sweat. Fresh blood.

My heart picked up pace. I gripped the wooden railing and looked down into the grand foyer.

Tobias stood in the center of the room.

He was out of breath. His clothes were torn and covered in mud. He looked like he had been running through the woods for hours. But it was the woman in his arms that made the entire packhouse go dead silent.

She was practically limp against his chest. Her blonde hair was matted with dirt and dark, dried blood. Her clothes were torn at the sleeves and stained heavily at the waist. She looked like she had barely survived an animal attack.

For a second, my mind went blank. I didn't recognize her.

Then she turned her face toward the light.

Lily Sable.

The name echoed in my head, dragging up old stories I thought we had moved past. Tobias’s childhood best friend. His former fiancée. The woman who disappeared without a trace right before I ran away from my own home and stumbled into his territory. The pack assumed she was dead. Tobias spent our first year together grieving her absence.

"Tobias," I said. My voice cut through the stunned silence of the room.

I hurried down the stairs. My training kicked in, pushing aside the sudden spike of unease in my chest. She was hurt. That was all that mattered right now. I could ask questions later.

"Clear the hall," I ordered the gathered crowd. I pointed at one of the guards standing near the door. "Go get Marcus from the clinic. Tell him we need bandages, clean water, and a trauma kit immediately. Move."

The guard blinked, staring at Lily, before nodding and running down the corridor.

I reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped toward my husband. "Tobias, bring her this way. We need to lay her down on a clean surface so we can see where she is bleeding from."

He didn't move.

He just stood there in the center of the foyer, holding her tightly. His chest heaved with rapid, panicked breaths. He stared straight ahead, his eyes wide and unfocused. He looked like a man trapped in a nightmare.

"Tobias," I said again. I reached out to touch his arm. "You need to let her down so the healers can check her wounds. You are holding her too tight."

He flinched when my fingers brushed his sleeve.

He didn't look at me. His gaze remained locked on the wall behind me.

Lily let out a weak, broken sob. She shifted in his arms, turning her face to bury it into the crook of his neck. Her bloody fingers curled into the fabric of his shirt, gripping him with desperate strength.

"Don't let me go," she whispered. Her voice was raspy, trembling with tears. "Please, Toby. Don't let them take me."

Toby.

No one called him that. He hated that nickname. He corrected anyone who tried to use it. But when she said it, his hold on her tightened. He wrapped his arms around her back, shielding her from the rest of the room.

He shielded her from me.

"I've got you," he muttered. His voice cracked. "I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere."

I stood inches away from them. Suddenly, I felt like I was standing in another room. The distance between us felt massive. I watched my husband hold another woman the way he usually held me when I woke up from a nightmare.

"Tobias," I tried one more time, keeping my tone level. I refused to cause a scene in front of the pack. "She is bleeding. The clinic is ready. You have to let her go so they can help her. She needs medicine."

"No!" Lily cried out. She thrashed weakly in his hold. "No, no, no. Just you. I only want you."

She didn't even look at me. She just buried herself deeper into my husband.

"It's okay, Lil," Tobias said softly. He pressed his cheek against the top of her matted hair. "No one is taking you."

He finally looked at me.

I expected to see relief that he had found his old friend alive. I expected him to ask me for help, to lean on me the way he always did when things got hard. But the look in his eyes made my blood run cold.

It was pure, unfiltered panic. And beneath that panic was a deep, crushing guilt.

Why was he looking at me like he had done something wrong?

"Zinnia," he started. His voice was barely above a whisper. "She needs..."

He trailed off. He couldn't finish the sentence. He looked back down at the woman in his arms.

The packhouse was so quiet I could hear the rain starting to hit the windows outside. Dozens of pack members stood in the archways, watching us. Watching their Alpha hold his ex-fiancée while their Luna stood uselessly to the side. They were waiting to see what I would do.

I tightened my grip on the agricultural ledger I was still holding. I needed to regain control of the situation. This was my pack. This was my house. I was his wife.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice tight. I took a half-step forward. "Where has she been for the last three years?"

Lily shifted again. She turned her head just enough so her face was visible over his shoulder. Her pale cheeks were streaked with tears and dirt.

She looked up at Tobias.

She didn't whisper it to him privately. She spoke just loud enough for her voice to carry through the dead-silent foyer. Every single person in the room heard her.

"I lost him, Tobias."

Tobias froze. His breathing stopped.

Lily let out a ragged, heartbreaking sob and closed her eyes.

"I lost our baby."

The words hung in the air.

My fingers went numb. The ledger slipped from my hand.

It hit the stone floor with a loud, hollow thud that echoed off the walls.

I stopped dead at the bottom of the stairs. My mind went blank. Those three words looped over and over again in my head, drowning out the sound of the rain.

Our baby.

Tobias slowly raised his head. He met my eyes across the small space separating us.

He didn't deny it. He didn't look confused. He didn't tell her she was lying.

His face was shattered. It was the expression of a man holding a secret that had just destroyed his life. He looked at me with a guilt so deep it knocked the breath straight out of my lungs.