Chapter 7

LILA

The doors to the Blackwood mansion loomed before me; tall, carved of obsidian wood with the crescent wolf insignia scorched into the center like a brand.

I turned back for a moment, only a moment, and found Jackson still standing by the car. His jaw was tight, but his eyes, gods, his eyes were breaking. Like he was memorizing me, just in case I didn’t come back the same.

“Come here,” I whispered, my voice already trembling.

He stepped forward without hesitation and pulled me into his arms.

For a few seconds, we just stood there, wrapped around each other in silence. His chin rested on top of my head, and my face pressed into his chest. I breathed in his scent, trying to commit it to memory before it faded behind marble walls and memories I never wanted to relive.

“You still have time,” he murmured against my hair. “We can leave right now. We can find another seer. Another way.”

I pulled back just enough to look at him. “We both know there isn’t another way.”

He didn’t argue. He knew it too.

“I love you,” I whispered. “So much.”

His eyes filled again, and before I could stop myself, I leaned up and kissed him.

Deep. Needy. One last taste of the life I’d built from ashes.

His hands cupped my face, like he was afraid to let go, but he did. Because that’s who Jackson was. A man who could love someone enough to let her go.

I stepped back, wiping a tear that had escaped down my cheek.

And that’s when I felt it, the heat of a gaze.

I turned slowly and looked up toward the balcony. There he was. Tyler. No longer smirking.

His jaw was tight, eyes narrowed, arms folded across his broad chest like a statue carved from fury. He had seen the kiss.

Good.

Let him feel what it’s like to watch someone else love what you destroyed.

I held Jackson’s hand one last time, gave it a squeeze, and turned away, toward the doors of the mansion.

They creaked open before I could knock, as if the house itself had been waiting for me.

I stepped inside, and the air shifted.

The warmth of Jackson’s touch vanished behind me.

Now, I was in the lion’s den.

The entrance hall of the mansion looked just as I remembered: high-vaulted ceilings, dark velvet drapes, a grand staircase that curled like a serpent toward the second floor. Every inch of the place screamed power and dominance.

I hated it.

I followed a silent housekeeper who led me through the hall and into a study, Tyler’s study.

The scent of leather, firewood, and his cologne hit me the moment I stepped inside. It was like inhaling memory. One I didn’t want.

He was waiting for me behind his desk, standing instead of sitting, like he expected a battle and was ready for it.

“Lila,” he said, as if tasting the name.

I didn’t respond.

He gestured to the chair opposite him. “Sit.”

“I’m not here for tea and pleasantries, Alpha,” I said, folding my arms across my chest. “Say what you need to say.”

A muscle in his jaw twitched, but he didn’t push back. Instead, he reached for a thick envelope sitting on the desk and slid it toward me.

“What’s this?” I asked, not touching it.

“A contract,” he said plainly. “Our terms. The mating bond. Your role and my expectations.”

I let out a sharp, humourless laugh. “Of course you have a contract. Gods forbid anything in your life be based on trust or respect.”

He didn’t flinch. “Trust was shattered a long time ago, Lila. I’m not pretending it’ll be rebuilt in a day.”

I narrowed my eyes and slowly opened the envelope, skimming the top page.

A formal agreement of bond. Shared territory. Political alignment. Luna duties. Public appearances. Co-leadership. Mating ceremonies. Shared custody of Gavin.

“No,” I said, dropping it back on the desk. “We’re not doing it your way.”

Tyler raised a brow. “Excuse me?”

“You want me in your Pack? Fine. You want this mating bond? Also fine. But you don’t get to dictate the terms like I’m some token you get to claim. You lost that right the moment you rejected me.”

He was silent.

I stepped closer, my voice steady and sharp. “Here are my terms. I retain full custody of Gavin. I run Midas Touch on my own terms. I attend no public event unless I choose to. And there will be no mating mark, no intimacy, no false pretenses of love until I say otherwise.”

His brows furrowed. “You expect us to fake bond without marking each other?”

“You expect me to let the man who betrayed me brand my skin and call it fate?”

He didn’t answer.

I leaned in, lowering my voice to a knife’s edge. “This is not a reunion. It’s a rescue mission. I’m here for my son. That’s all.”

There was a long pause between us.

Then, Tyler exhaled slowly and sat down, folding his hands on the desk.

“You’ve changed.”

“I had to.”

He looked down at the papers, then back at me. “Fine. Redraft the terms. I’ll sign whatever you need me to sign. But you and I both know this bond is more than paper.”

“Maybe,” I said, turning to leave. “But paper burns a lot easier than a heart.”

And with that, I walked out of the room before he could see the tremble in my fingers.

I didn’t go far.

I ended up in one of the quieter wings of the mansion. The corridors here were older and dustier. The walls weren’t polished to perfection. They had cracks and imperfections.

Just like me.

I stood by a tall window, looking out at the woods beyond the estate. The sun was setting behind the trees, setting them on fire with gold and orange light. I closed my eyes, just for a second, and let myself breathe.

Of course, that peace didn’t last long.

“I meant what I said.”

I turned to find Tyler standing behind me, his hands shoved into the pockets of his coat. He looked tired. Not in the way warriors do after battle but in the way people do when they’re losing one they didn’t know they were still fighting.

“I thought we were done talking,” I said.

He took a slow step closer. “We will be. But I need to say something… and I want you to actually hear it this time.”

I crossed my arms, but didn’t walk away.

“You’re right about what I did. About how I treated you,” he said. “I thought I was making the right choice; choosing strength, strategy, politics. Lyric was everything an Alpha Luna should be. On paper.”

My throat tightened, but I didn’t interrupt.

“I thought you were soft and weak. A distraction. But that was never true. You were just… quiet. And I didn’t know how to value that kind of strength.” His eyes met mine then. “I was a coward, Lila. I let the bond scare me. I let power matter more than love. And the worst part is… I knew what I was doing. I knew it would break you. And I did it anyway.”

Something in my chest flinched. A memory of the boy I once loved flickered through the storm.

I swallowed. “Why are you telling me this now?”

“Because I don’t want this to be about contracts or survival.” He stepped closer, slower now, careful. “I want to make it right.”

“You don’t get to make it right,” I snapped, though my voice wavered. “You think one apology is going to fix what you did? You think you can just rewrite history with a few well-placed regrets?”

He didn’t argue.

“You ruined me,” I whispered, the old pain bubbling to the surface. “You made me feel like I was nothing. You stood there and let the people I loved tear me apart. And now you want to make peace?”

“No,” he said. “I want to earn it. Day by day. If you’ll let me.”

I laughed bitterly, blinking back the heat in my eyes. “Don’t confuse desperation with mercy. I didn’t come back for you, Tyler. I came back for Gavin.”

“I know,” he said softly. “But I can’t help hoping... that in saving him, we might find something worth saving too.”

I looked away, back out the window.

His words stayed behind.

Later that evening, a servant escorted me to a guest room. Not the Luna’s quarters, not yet.

It was spacious and cold. Polished and perfect, like everything else in this godforsaken house.

But I couldn’t sleep.

My stomach twisted as I sat on the edge of the bed, still dressed in black, staring at the flickering candlelight. The quiet was suffocating. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Gavin’s pale face. Heard the machines beeping. Heard the seers' voices echo in my head like prophecy-shaped daggers.

I stood, pacing the room, clenching and unclenching my fists.

The mating bond is a sacred ritual between true mates, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself. A bite at the base of the neck, it is permanent, painful and binding.

I wasn’t ready to be his again, to let him mark me like I belonged to him.

There was a knock at the door.

I stiffened.

“Come in,” I said flatly, already knowing who it would be.

Tyler stepped inside. He had changed into a simple black shirt and pants.

“I figured you wouldn’t sleep,” he said, voice low.

I didn’t respond.

He held something out, a small wooden box, its edges carved with ancient runes. “The marking ritual. Aethera sent the consecrated ash. Everything’s ready.”

I didn’t move.

He waited a beat. Two.

“You don’t have to decide tonight,” he said. “But the sooner the bond is sealed, the stronger its healing effect will be. You felt it too, didn’t you?”

“I felt a lot of things, Tyler,” I said, turning to face him. “None of them made me want to be bitten.”

His jaw tensed, but he said nothing.

I stepped forward, slowly and deliberate, until I was standing right in front of him. “Let’s get something straight. I’m here for my son. Not to play house. Not to be your Luna. And definitely not to be your pet.”

“That’s not what this is—”

“Isn’t it?” I snapped. “You want to mark me like it erases everything you did. Like it proves you’ve changed. But a scar is still a scar, no matter who puts it there.”

His expression softened. “You think I don’t know that? You think this isn’t killing me too?”

I didn’t care if it was.

I turned away, walking to the window. The moon hung full and white above the trees, watching. Listening.

“I’ll do the ceremony,” I said finally, my voice steady but low. “But not until Gavin opens his eyes and says ‘Mommy.’ Not until I know he’s safe.”

Tyler stayed quiet behind me. For once, he didn’t argue.

“Then we wait,” he said.

I heard the door open. Then close.

And I exhaled.

Because for the first time all day, I hadn’t felt cornered.

I had drawn the line and he’d listened.

The morning came with a soft mist curling over the estate grounds, dew clinging to the black iron gate like cold sweat.

I hadn’t slept much. My thoughts were barbed wire, wrapped tightly around every inch of my brain. I kept thinking of Gavin’s face. Jackson’s hands. Tyler’s eyes.

And the words of the seers.

I stood at the window of the guest room, sipping a bitter cup of tea one of the staff had brought. The warmth did nothing for the chill in my bones.

That’s when I saw them.

Two figures outside, in the courtyard. One was Tyler. The other… I narrowed my eyes.

Thomas.

His stance was tense, lips pulled into a tight line as he spoke quickly, animatedly. Tyler stood firm, arms crossed, chin tilted in that signature Alpha stillness but I knew that body language. He wasn’t pleased.

I cracked the window open slightly, just enough to catch a few words.

“…you brought her back into this Pack without consulting me,” Thomas was saying. His voice was sharper than I remembered. Less loyal, more entitled.

“She’s not a threat,” Tyler replied. “She’s Gavin’s mother. She’s—”

“She’s not the Luna,” Thomas growled. “You haven’t even marked her.”

I felt my stomach coil.

“She will be,” Tyler said calmly, though there was an edge to his voice now. “And I don’t need your permission, Thomas.”

“You’re putting us all at risk,” Thomas snapped. “The Red Hand’s movement is growing again. Janet’s been spotted in the outer regions. You think this is the time to welcome the weak link back?”

My fists clenched at the term. Weak link. Of course that’s how they still saw me.

There was a pause, then Thomas’s voice dropped to a low and conspiratorial tone. “Dominic’s old followers are restless. You keep playing heartbroken Alpha instead of leading, and someone’s going to make a move.”

“Let them try,” Tyler replied coldly. “They’ll find out very quickly who still rules this Pack.”

A gust of wind blew through the window, slamming it shut before I could hear more.

I stepped back, heart pounding.