FIVE

AVERY

The first sign was heat.

It bloomed low in my stomach, sudden and sharp, curling inward like something had been touched without permission. I froze mid-movement, fingers tightening around the vial I’d been cataloging.

‘That’s not Rowan,’ Lila said instantly, hackles rising. ‘That’s wrong.’

I swallowed and forced my breathing to steady. The pack clinic was busy around me, wolves moving quietly through their routines, the rhythm of work familiar and grounding. I focused on the shelf in front of me, on the neat rows of labeled vials, on the scent of antiseptic and herbs.

Then the voice slid into my mind.

‘Is it true?’

Cade.

The sound of him there made my skin crawl.

‘Get out,’ Lila snarled, surging forward.

‘Not yet,’ I replied grimly. ‘I need to end it cleanly.’

I turned slightly, putting my back to the wall as if that would help. It didn’t.

‘You’re pregnant,’ Cade said, the mental connection sharp and invasive. ‘Answer me.’

I closed my eyes for half a second.

‘Yes,’ I replied.

The pause that followed stretched long and deliberate. I could feel him processing, could almost picture the way his mouth would curl as he decided which version of himself to be.

Then he laughed.

‘Good.’

The word echoed unpleasantly in my skull.

‘Good?’ I repeated.

‘Means I don’t have to deal with it,’ he said easily. ‘I was worried you’d try to use it to drag me back. But if you’re already gone, that’s convenient.’

Lila’s fury burned hot.

‘He rejects the pup.’

‘I hear him.’

‘You hear everything,’ Cade continued, casual and cruel. ‘I don’t want it. I never wanted that future. So don’t bring it to my pack. Don’t bring it to me.’

Something inside me settled cold and steady. Not heartbreak. Resolve.

‘You don’t get a say,’ I told him. ‘You lost that when you rejected me.’

He scoffed. ‘I rejected you, Avery. Not the bond. Don’t rewrite history.’

‘You rejected both,’ I said flatly. ‘And we’re done.’

The silence that followed was sharp with anger.

‘You think you’re safe because you ran?’ he demanded. ‘You think some other alpha will protect you?’

The air around me shifted.

Lila went utterly still.

‘He’s near,’ she warned. ‘The other one.’

I opened my eyes.

Rowan stood near the entrance to the clinic, speaking quietly with Ilyra. His posture was relaxed, but his attention had shifted, sharpening with unmistakable focus. I could feel him now, a steady awareness brushing the edges of my senses, unfamiliar but grounding.

‘You’re dismissed,’ I told Cade. ‘Do not contact me again.’

‘You don’t get to—’

I severed the link.

The backlash snapped through me like static, sharp but brief. Clean. I sagged slightly against the wall, breathing through the lingering echo.

‘He’s gone,’ Lila said, fierce satisfaction in her tone. ‘If he reaches again, I will bite.’

A shadow fell across me.

“You should sit,” Rowan said calmly.

It wasn’t a question.

“I’m fine,” I said automatically.

His gaze held mine, sharp and intent. Alpha-focused. Not angry. Alert.

“You just experienced an external link,” he said. “Didn’t you.”

Heat crept up my neck as I nodded once.

“Who,” he asked, voice even.

“My former mate,” I said. “Cade.”

Something dark flickered behind his eyes. Ash stirred, a low, dangerous presence pressing against my awareness.

“And he confirmed,” Rowan continued carefully, “that the child is his.”

“Yes.”

Silence stretched between us, heavy and electric.

Rowan inhaled slowly, his control a palpable thing. “If he attempts contact again, you tell me immediately.”

It wasn’t a threat.

It was a promise.

“I can handle him,” I said, even as my pulse raced.

“I know,” Rowan replied. “That doesn’t mean you should have to.”

The words settled deep, loosening something tight in my chest.

He stepped back, giving me space without withdrawing completely. “Take the rest of the afternoon.”

“I don’t need—”

“That’s not a request,” he said gently.

Lila exhaled, something like relief curling through her.

‘He would tear Cade apart.’

‘And he’s choosing not to,’ I answered. ‘For now.’

As Rowan turned away, the strange pull in my chest tightened again, sharper than before.

Cade was gone.

Whatever link had once bound us was severed for good.

And in the quiet that followed, something new and dangerous began to wake.