MasukZoshaBriar was already out cold, her small arms wrapped tightly around a stuffed plush wolf Griggs had bought her at the gatehouse.I stood by her bedside for a minute, smoothing a stray lock of hair away from her forehead. For the first time in five years, looking at my sleeping daughter didn't send a spike of raw panic through my ribs. We had a home. We had thirty days until the southern treaty made us completely untouchable.And, terrifying as it was to admit, I had Maddox.I picked up the leather folder from the nursery console. It was the finalized freight routing brief from Envoy Thorne, stamped and ready for Maddox’s signature. I could have left it on the kitchen island for the morning staff, but my feet carried me toward the east corridor anyway.My mouth still tingled where he’d kissed me by the map screen.I’d hand you this entire empire if you asked for it.The memory made my stomach flutter with a dangerous, stupid warmth. I was actually smiling as I turned down the quiet
ZoshaThe conference room wasn't an ordinary office. This was where the Fox bloodline had negotiated land treaties and trade routes for three generations. On the far wall hung a map showing the northern supply chains in glowing blue, with a red void stretching along the southern border.Maddox was standing by the window, rolling down his sleeves. He looked up when I walked in, his eyes tracking me from my black pointed flats up to the deep navy wrap dress that hugged my waist and hips.“You’re on time,” he said, the corner of his mouth twitching.“Mrs. Higgins warned me the Southern wolves consider three minutes late an insult,” I said, setting a folder of logistics notes on the table. “And since I’m officially running the household trust, I figured I should look the part.”He walked over, stopping right in front of me.His hand came up, his knuckles lightly grazing the neckline of my dress, straightening the fabric that didn't need straightening in a way that my wolf immediately perk
I woke up with Maddox’s arm resting across my ribs.For the last three weeks, we’d slept like two stone gargoyles on opposite sides of a ten-foot mattress, pretending the middle of the bed was an electric fence. But this morning, there wasn’t an inch of space between us.His hand was flat against my stomach, warm through the thin cotton of my tank top. His face was buried in the pillow inches from mine, dark hair messy, his breathing slow and even.I didn't move, heck I barely breathed.My mind went straight back to last night. To the way he'd looked at me in front of the wardrobe, the things he'd admitted, and those final words that had left me with nothing to say.I still hadn't figured out what to do with that.My mind was screaming at me to push his arm away, to remember the contract, to remind him of the rules. But my body completely ignored the panic. The feeling of his arm held me to the mattress in a way that made the rest of the world feel miles away.Then his thumb twitched,
By the time Maddox and I left the Council chamber, Sterling and his family were already gone.Their departure hadn't gone unnoticed. Neither had the whispers spreading through the gallery. Pack leaders who had arrived expecting to witness the end of my marriage were now discussing the spectacular failure of Sterling's petition.I caught fragments of their conversations as Maddox guided me towards the private corridor.House Sterling had been formally censured for abusing the Council's authority, along with a fifty-thousand-credit fine for administrative misconduct. The announcement had been made before the assembly dispersed, and judging by the expressions around us, the consequences would follow Sterling long after today's hearing.For a family like Sterling's, the money didn't matter. The censure did. In pack politics, a public reprimand from the high bench was a black mark on their name that could destroy their trading influence for the next five years.Valeria had left with her h
The gallery was completely full.Every seat in the curved benches was taken, mostly by older pack members who hadnothing better to do on a Thursday morning than watch someone else’s life get taken apart.Sterling was standing at the petitioner's table, flipping through a folder of papers with a smug look on his face. Valeria sat right behind him in ahigh-collared black dress, her legs crossed, watching me like she was waiting for a car crash. Julian was sitting next to her, looking at his fingernails, clearly wishing he was anywhere else in the world.Elder Fox hit the gavel once. The sound echoed off the wood-paneled walls, cutting off the chatter in the room.“House Sterling has submitted their supplemental filing,” he said, looking over his half-moon glasses at Maddox and me. “Elder Sterling, you have five minutes to summarize before the Council deliberates.”Sterling buttoned his jacket and walked to the center of the floor.“Elders, it comes down to a simple matter of pack law,
The Council’s follow-up order arrived by noon, stamped with Fox’s personal seal.They weren’t satisfied with our five-minute shouting match yesterday. Apparently, showing up and trading insults with Sterling wasn’t enough to prove a lifelong mating bond.The Elders demanded we attend the seasonal Council reception at the glass conservatory tonight. Not as witnesses behind a wooden desk, but as guests among three hundred high-ranking wolves whose only job would be watching how we stood, how we spoke, and whether we actually touched when nobody was directly interrogating us.“Social surveillance,” I muttered, staring at the invitation propped against the bathroom mirror. “They want to see if we trip over each other when there's an open bar.”You would think a body like that would have better things to do than interrogating a couple which goes to show just how much time they had on their hands once it came to destroying Maddox. Behind me, the door from the master bedroom opened.Maddox







