Chapter 3 Seven Days

Aria did not sleep that night, she lay on the narrow hotel bed with the city light cutting across the ceiling and Damon’s scent still rising from her skin every time she moved, the message sat on her phone like a live wire.

Neutral estate, Friday night, both of us will be there when you sign, wear something I can tear off, I’m going to fuck you while he watches, then I’m going to make him clean my cum out of you with his tongue.

She read it again, and again, each time the words landed lower in her belly, a hot shameful pulse that made her press her thighs together, her wolf liked it, the human part of her wanted to throw the phone across the room.

Seven days.

She had seven days to decide whether to hand her body over to both of them or lose her son forever.

Morning came hard and gray, Aria dressed carefully, plain black trousers, a soft gray sweater that covered the bite mark on her shoulder, hair pulled back, she looked like someone who belonged in an office, she did not look like a woman who had been bent over a CEO’s desk the day before with her skirt around her waist and a rival Alpha’s cum dripping down her thighs.

The lie held until she stepped into the elevator at Shadowfang Holdings and the doors closed.

Damon was already inside.

He did not speak, he simply looked at her, black eyes moving from her mouth to the high neck of her sweater to the place between her legs like he could still scent exactly how wet she had been for him, the elevator was glass, anyone on the floors they passed could see them if they cared to look, Damon did not seem to mind.

“You ignored my message,” he said.

“I read it.”

“And?”

Aria kept her eyes on the climbing numbers, “and I have six days left to decide whether I am going to sign my body over to two men who both think they own it.”

Damon’s mouth curved, slow and dark, “you already did, little wolf, the second you let me come inside you while your mate bond was still bleeding, the contract is just paperwork.”

The elevator stopped on the executive floor, the doors opened, Damon did not move.

“My office,” he said, “now.”

“I have a meeting at nine.”

“Cancel it.”

Aria turned her head and looked at him fully for the first time that morning, “no.”

Something dangerous flickered in his eyes, but he only stepped back and let her walk past him into the corridor, she felt the weight of his gaze the entire way to her office, when she closed the door she leaned against it and breathed until her hands stopped shaking.

She spent the morning doing actual work, policy drafts, onboarding schedules, a long call with the legal team about a harassment complaint that had nothing to do with Alphas or mate bonds or the way her body still ached, at eleven-thirty her phone lit up with a number she had not deleted.

Kael.

She let it ring three times before she answered.

“I’m not signing anything until I see my son,” she said without greeting.

Silence on the other end, then Kael’s voice, quieter than she expected, “he’s with Lila.”

“I know who he’s with, I want to see him, today.”

“Aria—”

“Today, Kael, or I walk into the Council office and contest the summons on grounds of emotional distress and parental alienation, I still have that right for another six days.”

Another silence, longer this time, she could hear him breathing.

“The park near the old mill,” he said finally, “three o’clock, one hour, Lila will not be there, if you try to take him I will have every enforcer in Moonridge on you before you reach the road.”

“I just want to see my child.”

The line went dead.

Aria set the phone down carefully, her hands were steady now, the cold practical part of her that had survived three years of being overlooked had taken the wheel, she could fall apart later, right now she had a son to see and a decision to make.

The park was almost empty under a washed-out sky, Aria arrived ten minutes early and sat on the wooden bench near the swings, at three o’clock exactly a black SUV pulled up, the back door opened and a small boy climbed out, dark-haired, golden-eyed, wearing a blue coat she did not recognize.

Eli.

He saw her and stopped.

For one terrible second Aria thought he would turn back to the car, then he ran.

She dropped to her knees in the damp grass and caught him hard against her chest, he smelled like Lila’s perfume and Kael’s pack and underneath it the faint sweet scent that was still purely his, Aria buried her face in his hair and breathed him in until her throat closed.

“Mama,” he said, small hands fisting in her sweater, “you went away.”

“I know, baby, I’m here now.”

They stayed like that until Eli started telling her about a new toy car and a cartoon he had watched and the way Lila let him have ice cream before dinner, Aria listened and nodded and wiped the grass off his knees when he climbed into her lap, she did not cry, she could not afford to cry in front of him.

At the edge of the park Kael leaned against the SUV with his arms crossed, watching, he looked tired, the perfect Alpha polish was still there, but underneath it something raw sat close to the surface, when the hour was almost up he walked over.

Eli went to him without hesitation, that hurt worse than the bond breaking.

Kael rested a hand on the boy’s shoulder and looked at Aria, “you’ve seen him, now sign the papers, Friday, neutral estate, both of us will be there.”

“Both of you,” she repeated.

“Blackwood petitioned the Council this morning, the secondary clause is active, he has equal access rights for the duration of the contract, I don’t like it, I don’t have to like it, pack law is pack law.”

Aria stood, grass stains marked the knees of her trousers, “you never marked me, you never claimed me in front of the pack, you let everyone believe I was temporary, and now you want a year of my body because the Council says so.”

Kael’s jaw tightened, “I want my son to have his mother, and I want the chance to fix what I broke.”

“You don’t get to fix it with a contract and a shared bed.”

“Then take the custody loss,” his voice stayed quiet, but the Alpha weight behind it pressed against her skin, “sign, or lose him, those are the only options left.”

Eli looked between them, confused, Aria forced a smile for him, smoothed his hair, and promised she would see him again soon, she watched the SUV drive away until it disappeared around the bend.

Only then did she let her face change.

She drove back to the city with her hands locked on the wheel and Damon’s message burning in the back of her mind, by the time she reached the hotel her decision was already half-made, not because she wanted either of them, because the alternative was a life without her son, and she had already lost too much.

Her phone rang as she unlocked the door, Damon.

She answered on the second ring.

“You saw the boy,” he said, not a question.

“How do you know that?”

“I know everything that happens on the border of my territory, how did it feel, little wolf, holding him knowing the only way you get to keep him is to spread your legs for the male who threw you away and the one who ruined you for anyone else?”

Aria closed the door behind her and leaned against it, “you’re enjoying this.”

“I’m enjoying the part where you stop pretending you hate how hard I make you come,” his voice dropped, “Friday night, neutral estate, you will sign in front of both of us, then I’m going to take you on the same table while your ex watches, he’s going to see exactly how wet you get when I fuck you, he’s going to hear the sounds you make, and when I’m finished I’m going to hold you open and let him look at the mess I left inside you, if he’s very good, I might let him clean it up.”

Heat flooded her face and between her legs at the same time, she hated the way her body answered him, she hated that her wolf was already pushing toward the sound of his voice.

“And if I refuse?” she asked.

“Then Kael takes the child and I take you anyway, the only difference is whether you get to see your son while I do it.”

The line went quiet for a moment, when Damon spoke again the edge had softened into something almost gentle, which was somehow worse.

“Wear the red dress,” he said, “the one from the bar, nothing underneath, I want him to scent how ready you are before I even touch you.”

He hung up.

Aria stood in the middle of the small hotel room with the phone still pressed to her ear and the ghost of his voice moving through her blood, outside the window the city lights were coming on one by one, five days left, five days until she walked into a house with two Alphas and signed her body over for a year.

She set the phone down, walked into the bathroom, and turned the shower on as hot as it would go, she did not cry, she stripped, stepped under the water, and pressed her forehead to the cool tile while the spray beat against her shoulders.

Her hand slid between her legs without permission, she was already wet, she worked two fingers inside herself and found the place Damon had used so roughly the day before, still tender, still greedy, she came with a broken sound that echoed off the tiles, hips jerking, free hand braced against the wall.

When it was over she slid down to sit on the floor of the shower with the water pouring over her bowed head.

Five days.

She would sign.

Not for Kael, not for Damon.

For the little boy who had run to her in the grass and called her Mama like the word still belonged to her.

Everything else she would survive the same way she had survived the last three years.

One breath at a time.