Chapter 1

A week before the Spring Moon Festival, Adrian Blackwood slipped a ticket to the Northern Territories into my hand and told me to rest for seven days.

I thought my mate had finally learned how to care.

Then I heard him talking to our son on the staircase.

"Dad," Noah asked, clutching his little racing car he had wanted for months, "are you really giving Aunt Bianca the Luna name? What about Mom?"

Adrian went quiet. Through the mate bond, I felt the careful wall he always raised before doing something he knew would hurt me.

"It's only a title," he said. "Matteo is gone. Bianca and Sophia are exposed, and the Pack Council is circling his estate like vultures. If the rogues at the border smell weakness, they'll come for them. They need the Blackwood name. They need the Luna seat to look untouchable."

"Does Mom know?"

"She can't know yet." His voice softened. "Keep this between us, Noah. On your birthday, I'll get you that rare Aston Martin model you wanted."

So the ticket in my pocket wasn't care. It was a way to get me out of the packhouse while my mate handed another woman my name.

After dinner, I opened Adrian's private pack account on the study computer. A new post sat at the top: no faces, only an Alpha's hand fastening a black ceremonial shawl around a woman's shoulders. I knew that hand better than my own. And I knew the obsidian signet ring on it, too, because I had put it there the night I became his mate.

The woman in the photo wore Blackwater's moonstone necklace. The Luna necklace. Mine.

The caption read, "A family name keeps danger outside the territory. If the Council is watching, protection has to look complete."

My fingers went cold.

I opened the drawer Adrian always kept locked and found his leather Alpha ledger beneath a stack of Council reports. Inside were registration papers, a seating plan for the Spring Moon banquet, a list of pack elders, and one note in his sharp handwriting: During Evelyn's seven days in the North, complete temporary Luna recognition and public protection ceremony.

He had timed my absence down to the day.

I took out my phone and messaged Liv Arnesen in Oslo. She had been my closest friend since my training with the Northern healers, and a few months earlier, she had offered me a founding partner seat at Skadi Medical Research. I had refused because I couldn't imagine leaving Noah, the packhouse, or the life I had spent ten years building around Adrian.

Now I could picture it with perfect clarity.

[Is the partner seat still open?]

Then I sent another message.

[I need a neutral elder and a bond-severance petition. Quietly.]

Liv answered within a minute.

[Yes. To both. Come north.]

When I went upstairs, Adrian was fastening a burgundy tie in front of the mirror.

"You hate burgundy," I said.

His expression barely moved. "Council lawyers are coming to Saint Gabriel's tonight. Old blood, old rules. I need to look respectable."

"The lawyers are for what?"

"Pack business." He crossed the room, kissed my forehead, and smiled like he hadn't already rehearsed the lie. "Don't worry about it. Go north, rest, and let me handle things here. When you get back, I'll bring gifts for you and Noah."

Burgundy was Bianca's favorite color. Since she had returned to Blackwater territory with her daughter, Adrian had worn more of it. That alone would have meant nothing if not for everything else.

Everyone used to call us the perfect Alpha pair. Adrian had the bloodline, the command, and the name. I kept the pack standing. For ten years, I handled the healers, the charities, the border treaties, the Council wives, the human lawyers, the donor families, and every public room that mattered. Wolves called me the woman behind the Alpha, and they were right.

Only I knew how much of myself that role had eaten.

Noah ran in and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Mom, no matter what happens, you won't leave me, right?"

I knelt and brushed his hair back. "If one day your dad and I didn't live in the same house anymore, who would you want to stay with?"

His eyes filled before he could answer.

I pulled him close. "I'm sorry, baby. I shouldn't have asked that. Go wash your hands. I'll make dinner."

I made tomato pasta, meatballs, mushrooms, and garlic bread, all the safe little things he loved. He stared at his plate until the food went cold.

"Mom," he whispered, "do you already know?"

I stayed quiet.

"Dad said he had to do it. He said you're still his real mate. He said you're the one he loves." Noah's voice cracked. "Please don't go."

Children think adults can fix anything if they explain it hard enough. Adults know some choices are already the answer.