Chapter 4 The Empty Hand

(Peyton)

The door clicks shut behind Cormac, and orange peel and cardamom fill the office.

He stops when he sees me in his chair. A muscle jumps in his jaw, but he doesn't tell me to move.

He stands at the edge of the desk and looks down at me instead.

"After the pup is born, we'll divorce."

He uses the same tone on warriors who fail training.

An hour ago that would've gutted me. Now I just shrug.

"Why wait? I'm ready today."

He pauses. It only lasts a second, but I catch it. He expected tears, maybe begging. He didn't expect me to be in a hurry.

"No." The Alpha comes into his voice. "After the birth."

A pregnant wife at his side until the heir arrives must look better to the Elders. Let him have his few weeks. They won't fix anything.

"Fine. Have it your way. I really don't care."

His eyes narrow. Then he takes out his phone.

"Bring the car around. My wife is going home."

"I drove here."

"You're not driving in your condition." His eyes drop to my belly. "I won't have the heir put at risk."

Right. The heir.

I don't argue, because my knee agrees with him.

"Wait for me," I tell the driver outside the Alpha's house. "I won't be long."

I left my bags upstairs earlier because I didn't want to drag them past Meredith on one leg. Now I just want to grab them and find a hotel with room service and a very big bathtub.

My bedroom is spotless. The bed is made, and the bags are gone.

Tess is waiting in the hallway with a smug little smile on her thin lips.

"Madam said to put everything back."

So, Meredith thinks I'd run off with clothes bought on Blackpine money. 

She's never worked a day in her life. She has no idea what I earned before I came here.

Tess stands there, waiting for me to cry or crawl around hauling suitcases out of closets.

A laugh comes out of me instead, and her smile dies.

"Oh." I tilt my head and give her my sweetest smile. "Maybe she thinks Cormac would like to wear it."

I turn on my good heel and walk out.

Let them keep the clothes. I'll buy new ones.

"Change of plan," I tell the driver. "Take me to town. The best hotel they've got."

His eyes find mine in the mirror. "Town's off Blackpine land, ma'am."

"That's the point. It's neutral ground. No pack owns a brick of it, so no Alpha gets a say in where I sleep."

He opens his mouth. My sweetest smile shuts it for him, and he starts the car.

Every pack for miles does its business in town.

They trade there and sign treaties there, and they all have their pups at the same healing center, because no Alpha would ever let a rival own the best healers.

I leave that house with my purse, my pup and my freedom, and I don't look back once.

The next few days are a blur of work, and I love every minute.

The meeting room at Greyfell's pack hall becomes my second home. Maps, draft terms and cold herbal tea cover the long table.

Ian stands at the window with his phone at his ear and his sleeves rolled up over his tattoos.

Looking at that broad back, I feel a rush of gratitude.

When my mother vanished with my brother, I shut down. Years later the wolf sickness nearly finished me, and I turned even colder.

Ian dragged me out of that dark place, one terrible joke at a time.

He loves me. He's never said it and never needed to. It's in every late night and every cup of tea and a snack he brings me without being asked.

I wish I could love him back the same way, because he'd make a wonderful mate. But Ian has always felt like home. Like family.

Back then I only had eyes for Cormac, a male who saw me as a useful tool.

"He's confirmed," Ian says, hanging up. His eyes gleam. "Theodore Watson will be at the Alphas' Ball tonight."

My pulse jumps. Alpha Watson is the wolf everybody's chasing. Whichever pack he allies with will be too powerful to ever be vulnerable again.

"Cormac will be there too," I point out. "Hunting the same Alpha."

"I know. But I've got a secret weapon." He grins. "You."

He drops into the chair next to mine.

"There's more. Cormac has a new partner for this. Emerson Roth."

I whistle.

"The Roths? Traders from the far coast. No pack, no Alpha, and more money than Blackpine and Greyfell put together."

"It gets better. Emerson has a little sister. Pretty thing, smells like honeysuckle, lately she can usually be seen hanging off your husband's arm."

"Leilani is a Roth?"

"That's the one."

Apparently the mistress comes with a rich big brother, and the whole picture suddenly gets a lot clearer.

"Two males that ambitious won't share nicely for long," I muse. "But while it lasts, they'll be nearly impossible to beat."

Ian shrugs. "I believe in us."

My phone buzzes against the table. It's Cormac.

"Yes?"

"Since we've agreed on the divorce, I won't question your absence from the house. For now."

How generous, from a male with no say over where I sleep.

"However. Until it's final, you're still my wife, and some events need you there. There's a ball tonight. I expect you at it."

He wants his obedient pregnant wife on his arm, so he looks like a family man in front of Alpha Watson.

The same Alpha whose allegiance Ian and I are about to steal from under his nose.

"Sure," I say easily. "I'll be there at seven."

There's a short pause on the line. He sounds almost surprised.

"Good."

He hangs up without a goodbye.

Ian raises an eyebrow. "You're going with him?"

"I told him I'd be there." I toss the phone onto the maps. "I never said on whose arm."