Chapter 2

After dinner, I opened the pack's private social feed.

Adrian had recently introduced me to an account he said belonged to an old friend from another territory. Apparently this friend was holding a public vow ceremony for a woman he had promised to protect.

Apparently that explained why my husband was spending so much time helping him.

The latest post showed a man in a burgundy suit.

His face had been cropped out. His throat hadn't.

I knew the small red mole above that collar. I had kissed it that morning.

In the next photograph, his hand was threaded through a woman's. A pale groove marked the place where he usually wore his wedding band.

On his wrist was a watch Vanessa had shown off at a council reception. She'd said she was saving it for someone special.

The caption read: Some moons find their way back to you.

I went to the study.

Under Adrian's laptop lay an old journal. I had never read it. There were still things I had believed belonged to him alone.

Now I opened it.

The same sentence was written across a page, above Vanessa's name.

I sat in his chair until the room stopped moving.

The holiday. The invented friend. An entire account built to hide in plain sight.

He hadn't stumbled into this. He had planned it carefully, in the spaces between our dinners and council meetings, while I slept beside him.

I picked up my phone and messaged Leah, my oldest friend.

Is the partnership offer still open?

Her reply came almost immediately.

For you? Always.

Months earlier, she'd asked me to join a trading venture based in Norway, on land under the protection of the Northlight Pack. She and her two partners had offered me thirty percent in return for building their operations. No cash investment. They wanted my experience.

I'd said I couldn't uproot my family.

Now I typed: I want it. And I need a lawyer who handles pack separations as well as civil divorce.

There was a pause.

Then: I'll call you in five minutes. Are you safe?

It was the first question anyone had asked that evening that made me feel less alone.

Adrian came home close to midnight.

His shirt was open at the throat. Beneath the alcohol, I could smell Vanessa's perfume. There was lipstick near his collar, badly rubbed away.

“Still up?” He smiled. “Waiting for me? You should know better. I lose track of time with the boys.”

He went straight to the shower.

Once, he used to find me first. Even when he was exhausted, his hand would reach for the back of my neck, his forehead settling against mine.

I stood in the hallway listening to the water.

Then I heard Finn crying.

He was sitting against his pillows, holding the old phone I let him use for games and calls to his grandmother.

“Bad dream?” I asked.

He shook his head and turned the screen toward me.

Vanessa's daughter, Lily, sat at a pink piano with a tablet in her lap. Her smile filled the photograph.

The caption said: Thank you to the best daddy in the world.

Finn touched the corner of the screen.

“I saw Dad looking at that piano. On his computer.”

My chest tightened.

“He said the truck cost too much. Is a piano less?”

“No, sweetheart.”

“Oh.”

That little word nearly broke me.

Adrian said an Alpha's son had to learn restraint. Toys made boys soft. A future leader should know how to go without.

When I took Finn for ice cream after a difficult school day, Adrian accused me of spoiling him. When Finn wanted a new set of paints, he was told to use what he had.

Now another child sat surrounded by gifts, calling him Daddy.

“Did I ask wrong?” Finn whispered.

I took the phone from him.

“No. You didn't do anything wrong.”

I stayed until he fell asleep with his fingers hooked around mine.

Then I went downstairs and waited.

Adrian emerged from the shower, toweling his hair.

“You said you'd bring Finn something.”

He winced, as if I had mentioned a minor errand.

“Forgot. I'll get him something next time.” He sat beside me and reached for my waist. “Besides, you know how I feel. A boy doesn't need a reward for breathing.”

I moved his hand off me.