collision

Chapter 5: The Collision

The business meeting ended with handshakes and promises of contracts worth more than most people saw in a lifetime. Gerald Hastings looked pleased. Lucian looked satisfied. I felt nothing but the overwhelming need to get out of this building.

"Gentlemen, if you'll excuse me," I said, closing my laptop with a decisive click. "I have another appointment."

Gerald nodded, already absorbed in his phone. Lucian's eyes tracked me as I stood, but he didn't try to stop me. Small mercies.

I grabbed my clutch and headed for the door, my heels clicking against the marble floor of the hallway. The gala was still in full swing in the ballroom behind me, music and laughter bleeding through the walls. I just needed to make it to the front entrance. Get in my car. Leave.

I turned the corner toward the main entrance and stopped dead.

A boy stood in the hallway, tugging at his tie with obvious irritation. Dark hair that fell across his forehead. Gray eyes that I'd spent five years memorizing every shade of. Taller than I remembered, his baby fat replaced with the lean build of a growing child.

Kai.

My son.

He looked up at the sound of my heels and his eyes passed right over me. No recognition. No spark of memory. Just a polite, blank look that children give strangers.

"Excuse me," he said, moving to step around me.

"Kai." His name fell from my lips before I could stop it.

He paused, frowning. "Do I know you?"

Every word I'd planned to say if I ever saw him again died in my throat. He didn't know me. Three years and a complete transformation, and I was just another stranger in an expensive dress.

"I—" I started, then stopped. What could I possibly say?

His eyes narrowed, studying my face with an intensity that reminded me painfully of Damien. Then something shifted in his expression. Confusion. Uncertainty.

"Wait." He took a step closer. "Your voice sounds..."

My hand moved unconsciously to adjust my bracelet. The thin leather cord with wooden beads. Child-made and falling apart, completely out of place with my designer dress. I should have thrown it away years ago.

Kai's eyes locked onto it. His face went white.

"Starlight?" The old nickname I'd called him, the one I'd whispered during bedtime stories and nightmares, came out as barely a breath.

His expression changed completely. The polite confusion shattered into something cold and hostile.

"You." He said it like a curse. "You're actually here."

"Kai, I—"

"Don't." He stepped back like I'd tried to hit him. "Don't talk to me. Don't call me that. You have no right."

The words were like knives. "Baby, please—"

"I'm not your baby. I haven't been your anything for three years." His voice cracked slightly, betraying his age, but the anger in it was real and sharp. "You left. You abandoned Dad and me because you were too weak to handle being a Luna. That's what everyone says. That's what I remember."

"That's not what happened."

"Then where were you?" His hands clenched into fists at his sides. "Where were you when I had my first shift? It hurt so bad I thought I was dying, and I kept crying for you, but you weren't there. Mom was there. She helped me through it."

Mom. He called Sera mom.

"Kai, listen—"

"No, you listen." Tears were forming in his eyes now, but his voice stayed hard. "You're selfish. You always were. Dad said you couldn't handle the responsibility. That you cared more about yourself than us. And he was right, because you left. You left me."

Each word landed like a physical blow. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Three years of building walls and armor and power, and it all crumbled in the face of my eight-year-old son's hatred.

"Oh my." A familiar voice cut through the tension like acid. "What's going on here?"

Sera appeared at the end of the hallway, her gold dress shimmering under the lights. Her red hair was perfect. Her smile was venomous.

She walked toward us with the confident stride of someone who knew she'd already won. When she reached Kai, she placed her hands on his shoulders possessively.

"Sweetheart, what are you doing out here? Your father is looking for you." Her eyes moved to me, widening with fake surprise. "Oh! Amara. I didn't see you there."

Liar.

"We were just talking," I said, trying to keep my voice steady.

"Were you?" Sera's fingers tightened on Kai's shoulders. "That's so sweet. You know, Kai and I were just discussing his upcoming advanced training. He's the youngest in his class to qualify. I'm so proud of him."

She said it casually, but every word was calculated. Another moment I'd missed. Another milestone she'd been there for instead of me.

"His first shift was incredible too," Sera continued, her voice dripping with false warmth. "I know it must be hard for you, missing all these important moments. But I've been so blessed to be there for everything. First day of school. First training session. Every nightmare and scraped knee. I've been his mother in every way that matters."

Kai leaned back against her slightly. The gesture was unconscious but devastating.

"He calls me mom now," Sera said, smiling down at him. "Don't you, sweetie?"

"Yeah." Kai's voice was quiet. "She's been there. You weren't."

My wolf was thrashing inside me, howling in pain and rage. I could feel her trying to push forward, trying to force a shift despite the silver damage that made it agony.

"You have no right to be here," Sera said, her mask slipping slightly. "You gave up that right when you walked away. Damien and I have built a beautiful life together. We're a family. A real family. And you're just—"

"Just what?" I asked, my voice colder than I meant it. "Say it, Sera."

"A cautionary tale." She smiled. "A story we tell Kai about what happens when you're too weak to handle responsibility."

My hands were shaking. The silver scar on my abdomen was burning, the phantom pain shooting through my system. My wolf was screaming to break free, to show them exactly how weak I wasn't.

"Amara." Sera's voice turned sickly sweet. She grabbed my hand, pulling it close to her face. "I know this must be hard for you, seeing what you gave up. But you need to accept—"

Then she screamed.

The sound was piercing and sudden. Sera stumbled backward, clutching her face, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"She hit me!" Sera sobbed, her voice carrying down the hallway. "She slapped me! Someone help!"

I stood frozen in shock. I hadn't touched her. Hadn't moved.

"What?" I started, but people were already appearing. Pack members. Guests. And worse—paparazzi who'd been covering the gala.

Camera flashes exploded in my face.

"Mom!" Kai rushed to Sera's side. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, sweetie," Sera whimpered, playing the victim perfectly. "Your... Amara just got upset. It's okay."

"It's not okay!" Kai turned to me, his face red with anger. "How could you hit her? What's wrong with you?"

"I didn't—"

"Ms. Cross, is it true you assaulted Ms. Sera?" A reporter shoved a microphone in my face.

"Were you trying to intimidate your replacement?"

"Is this about jealousy over your ex-husband's new relationship?"

The questions came rapid-fire. More cameras. More voices. The hallway was filling with people, all staring at me like I was some kind of monster.

"What's going on here?" Damien's voice cut through the chaos. He pushed through the crowd, Sera immediately throwing herself into his arms.

"Damien, it was horrible," she sobbed into his chest. "I was just talking to Kai when Amara appeared. She got so angry, saying terrible things about us, about how I stole you from her. Then she hit me."

Damien's eyes met mine. I saw the calculation there. The opportunity.

"Amara." He shook his head slowly, his expression dripping with false disappointment. "I know seeing us together must be difficult for you. But violence? Really?"

"I didn't touch her," I said through clenched teeth.

"There are witnesses," Damien said smoothly. "Everyone saw you grab her hand. Heard her scream."

"She's lying."

"Or you're jealous." Damien stepped forward, leaving Sera with Kai. He moved close enough that only I could hear his next words clearly. "You look good, I'll give you that. Got some money, some fancy clothes. But you're still the same pathetic woman who couldn't keep me satisfied. If you want to come back, just beg. Get on your knees and apologize to Sera. Maybe I'll be generous enough to take you back as a pack member. Though obviously not as Luna. That position is filled."

Rage exploded through me like a physical force. My wolf surged forward and I let her. My eyes flashed, my nails sharpening slightly.

I looked past Damien to where Sera stood, still playing the wounded victim, Kai's arms wrapped around her protectively.

"You want to accuse me of hitting you?" I said, my voice carrying across the now-silent hallway. "Fine."

I moved faster than anyone expected. My hand connected with Sera's face in a sharp, definitive slap that echoed off the marble walls.

She gasped, stumbling backward. The fake tears dried up instantly, replaced with shock and genuine anger.

The cameras went insane. Flashes everywhere. Gasps from the crowd.

"There," I said coldly. "I slapped you now. So stop your fake tears and own the real thing."

Sera's hand went to her reddening cheek, her carefully constructed victim act shattered.

"You bitch—" she started.

"No." I stepped closer to her, and something in my expression made her back up. "You want to play games? You want to lie and manipulate and steal? That's fine. You won. You got my husband, my son, my life. Congratulations."

I turned to Damien. Three years of humiliation, of being called weak and inadequate and worthless, came pouring out.

"And you." I looked him up and down with pure contempt. "You're pathetic. A weak excuse for an Alpha who needed a trophy to make himself feel powerful. You couldn't handle a real woman, so you settled for a manipulative child who spreads her legs and tells you you're special."

Damien's face went purple with rage. "How dare you speak to me—"

"What are you going to do? Hit me? Go ahead." I stepped closer. "I took a silver bullet for you. I survived a pregnancy that should have killed me. I rebuilt myself from nothing into something you could never touch. You think I'm afraid of you?"

His hand rose. I saw it coming, the backhand that would have sent the old Amara to the floor.

I didn't move.

"UNLESS YOU WANT TO LOSE BOTH YOUR LEGS AND HANDS, I SUGGEST YOU DON'T."

Lucian's voice cracked through the hallway like thunder.

Every wolf in the vicinity dropped their gaze or stepped back. The sheer dominance in his tone made even the human reporters go quiet.

He appeared through the crowd like an avenging angel in a suit, his amber eyes blazing with fury. The temperature in the hallway seemed to drop ten degrees.

Damien's hand froze mid-swing.

Lucian stopped beside me, not touching me but close enough that his presence was overwhelming.

"I believe," he said, his voice soft and infinitely more dangerous than when he'd shouted, "that Ms. Cross was just leaving. Anyone who has a problem with that can take it up with me."

His eyes swept the crowd, landing on each person who'd been enjoying the spectacle. Pack members. Reporters. Sera and Kai. Finally, Damien.

"That includes you, Alpha Cross. Touch her again, speak to her again, or allow your mistress to spread any more lies, and I will personally end everything you've built. Your pack. Your businesses. Your reputation. All of it will burn. Do we have an understanding?"

Damien couldn't speak. Could barely nod.

Lucian's hand touched the small of my back, gentle despite the violence radiating from him.

"Let's go."

I wanted to argue. To tell him I didn't need rescuing. But Kai was staring at me with such hatred and confusion, Sera was clutching Damien like a victim, and the cameras were still flashing.

I let Lucian guide me through the crowd and out of the building.

The night air hit me like a slap. My hands were still shaking. My wolf was howling. Everything hurt.

"My car—" I started.

"I'll have it delivered." Lucian steered me toward a black SUV with tinted windows. "Get in."

I did. The door closed, cutting off the sounds of the gala, the shouts of reporters, everything.

Lucian slid in beside me and the driver pulled away immediately.

We sat in silence as the pack house disappeared behind us. My carefully constructed control was fracturing. I could feel it cracking like ice.

"Where do you live?" Lucian asked quietly.

I gave him the address. He relayed it to the driver.

More silence.

Then, so quietly I almost didn't hear it: "He called her mom."

Lucian didn't respond. Didn't tell me it was okay or that it didn't matter. He just sat there as the first tear rolled down my cheek.

Then another. And another.

And I couldn't stop.