Chapter 4

When he learned the matter involved me, the Council Head came to the house himself with a team in tow.

"Luna, we received a call. The caller said that you—"

Lyra cut the Head off, burrowing into his arms with her face streaked with tears, and pointed at me in fear.

"Mommy is a bad woman, a trafficker. She said she kidnapped me."

No one noticed the triumphant glint in Lyra's eyes.

On her face was that smugness of someone who could once again humiliate me under the banner of "just being honest."

The Head signaled that I needed to keep my distance from the child.

When he spoke, his tone was polite but full of authority.

"I must ask you to open the safe and let us take a look."

My husband kept his face cold, holding back the overwhelming Alpha pressure that wanted to escape.

The Head looked at us apologetically, sensing our reluctance.

Then he simply motioned for the caseworkers behind him to force the lock.

I looked at Lyra. "Lyra, hasn't Daddy been telling you these past few days that it was all a joke? Why did you call them here anyway?"

Lyra pressed her lips together and turned her head, doing nothing to clear it up, content to watch the show.

"It's a pity. Once the safe is open, you may come to regret it."

I looked at Lyra, my tone flat, my heart already sunk to the depths of disappointment.

At my words, my daughter pouted, utterly indifferent.

"It's Mommy's own fault for always lying. I have to punish you. Then you'll learn to tell the truth, just like me."

The words had barely left her mouth when the lock of the safe gave way.

Inside was a sealed pouch packed with documents.

I asked Lyra one last time. "If you really aren't my daughter, will you go back to your birth parents' home?"

"Of course. I hate you. Every time I tell the truth you get upset, so I don't want you anyway."

I understood then.

Whatever urge remained in me to protect her snapped for good.

The pouch bore a seal I'd had a witch place on it, one that only I could open.

Watching the caseworkers struggle over it, sweat on their brows, I spoke up.

"I can open it, but first I need Lyra to sign a release of adoption with me."

Lyra had no idea what a release of adoption was.

But she wanted the pouch opened quickly, so she agreed at once.

With the help of the Council staff, she confirmed the agreement, signed it, and pressed her thumbprint to it.

I wrote Lyra's birthday in my own blood.

At last the pouch came open.

Inside lay several documents.

The first was the adoption agreement.

The second was the border rogues’ wolf-pup trafficking case, along with the report from the day I rescued her.

The third was her birth parents' records.

The Head read the first document and said nothing.

When he reached the second, his face filled with shock, and he turned it over and read it again and again.

When he looked up again, his eyes were full of awe.

"Luna, what a heavy burden you've borne! To think you saved so many children from those rings."

Instead of hearing the caseworkers say I was in the wrong, Lyra watched everyone's admiration for me, and her little face froze.

He quickly turned to the third file.

One brief glance, and he turned to me in shock.

"This. You. Is this real?"

These were the child's birth parents.

"Do you really mean to send her back?"

The other caseworkers, who hadn't caught the exchange, crowded in, confused, to look at the file in the Head's hands.

The next instant, as one, they turned complicated looks on Lyra.

Everyone was waiting for my answer.

I only lowered my eyes and nodded.

They knew I wasn't lying, even though I kept my power reined in.

But every one of them could feel the scent shift around my husband and me.

"The release of adoption has been signed. There is no taking it back."

In that eerie silence, Lyra seemed to grasp something at last, and her whole body gave a shudder.