Chapter 5
Mira
Patricia set her teacup down. The porcelain kissed the saucer without a sound, but the room flinched anyway.
"Now that the matter of succession is settled," she said, folding her hands in her lap, "we address the boy."
Her gaze landed on Cayden. Not cruel. Worse — clinical. The way you look at a line item on a budget that no longer fits.
"The official record will state that Cayden is an orphan Caleb took in from the border territories several years ago. A charitable act. The kind of thing that reflects well on an Alpha's character." She paused, letting the words settle across the table like dust. "Mira will be listed as the child's hired caretaker. Nothing more."
My fingers dug into Cayden's sides. He flinched, and I loosened my grip, but I couldn't feel my hands anymore.
An elder near the center of the table — grey-bearded, thick-necked, the kind of man who'd spent fifty years nodding at the right moments — cleared his throat.
"It's the sensible path, Madam Patricia. An unrecognized child from a questionable union would be a liability at the Four-Pack Summit. The other Alphas would use it as leverage."
"Questionable union," I repeated.
He didn't look at me. None of them did.
Another elder, younger, sharper-jawed, tapped his knuckle against the table. "The bloodline must be clean. Alpha Caleb's heir needs to be beyond dispute. If word gets out there's a prior child —"
"There won't be word," Patricia said. "That's the point."
A laugh cut through the murmurs. Sharp and bright, like glass breaking on tile.
I turned. A woman stood behind Selene's left shoulder — same cheekbones, same upward tilt of the chin. A cousin, maybe. She had her arms crossed and her mouth twisted into something that wanted to be a smile but couldn't commit.
"Let's call it what it is," the woman said. "A low-blooded woman dragged her mongrel into this family and tried to claim a seat at the table. Now she's upset the table's being cleared."
The word hit the room and stayed there. *Mongrel.* It hung in the air like smoke.
Cayden's head snapped up from my shoulder.
"I'm not an orphan."
His voice cracked on the second word, but he pushed through it. His eyes were red-rimmed, glassy, and fixed on Patricia with a ferocity that didn't belong on a face that young.
"I have a mama." His hand found my collar and gripped it. "And I have a daddy. He's right there."
He pointed at Caleb. His arm was steady. His chin was not.
The room went silent. The kind of silence that has weight — that presses down on your chest and makes your ears ring.
Caleb's jaw worked. I watched the muscle jump beneath his skin, watched his foot shift forward on the hardwood. One step. He took one step toward his son.
Selene's hand closed around his wrist.
Not hard. Not dramatic. Just a quiet, firm pull — the way you'd tug a dog's leash when it wandered too close to the road. Her fingers wrapped his wrist and drew him back, and he let her. His foot retreated. His weight settled.
Three seconds passed. I counted them by the clock on the mantel.
Caleb's eyes dropped to the floor.
"Mom," he said. His voice was low, scraped thin. "I agree."
The word landed in my chest like a stone thrown into still water. *Agree.* Not *I'm sorry.* Not *give me a minute.* Agree.
I looked at him. He wouldn't look back.
I knelt.
The floor was cold through my skirt. I brought myself down to Cayden's height, my hands on his arms, my face level with his. His lower lip was trembling now, but his eyes were dry. Still dry. This boy who had his grandfather's stubbornness and his mother's pride, refusing to cry in a room full of people who'd just erased him.
I leaned in until my mouth was beside his ear. Close enough that my lips brushed his hair. Close enough that no one else in that room could hear what I said next.
"Baby, from today on, don't call him Daddy anymore."
Cayden didn't answer. His body sagged forward, and his face pressed into my shoulder. I felt his breath — hot, ragged, the stuttering exhale of a child holding back a scream. His fingers twisted into my cardigan and locked there.
I held him. The room watched. I didn't care.
Footsteps crossed the floor behind me. The click of heels on hardwood — measured, unhurried. They stopped close enough that I could smell the perfume. White musk and cedar. The scent that had been on my husband's collar twelve hours ago.
"Mira."
Selene's voice was warm. Friendly, even. The tone of a woman offering directions to a stranger.
I stood, lifting Cayden with me. He clung to my neck, his face still buried.
Selene's eyes dropped to my left hand. Specifically, to my ring finger. Specifically, to the band of hammered silver that sat there — the Ironclaw family crest etched into its face, the metal worn smooth on the inside from seven years of never being taken off.
"Since I'm the Luna now," Selene said, "that ring should be where it belongs."
She held out her hand. Palm up. Waiting.
I looked past her. Caleb stood by the fireplace, his arms at his sides, his face the color of old paper.
"Is this what you want too?"
He shifted his weight. His mouth opened, closed, opened again.
"Mira, it's just a ring."
*Just a ring.* The ring he'd slid onto my finger under a full moon while his hands shook so badly he'd nearly dropped it. The ring he'd pressed his lips to afterward, whispering words I'd carried in my chest like embers for seven years. Just a ring.
I looked down at my hand. The silver caught the light from the tall windows, throwing a thin bright line across Cayden's hair.
I twisted it off. The skin beneath was pale — a white band where the sun hadn't touched in seven years, the ghost of a promise still printed on my flesh.
The metal was warm when I placed it in Selene's palm.
"You're right," I said. "It suits you better."
Selene's fingers closed around it. She lifted it to the light, turned it once, then slid it onto her ring finger.
It hung loose. The band spun freely around her knuckle, too wide by a full size, wobbling with every small movement of her hand. She stared at it. Her smile thinned.
The ring that had fit me perfectly for seven years sat on Selene Thorne's finger like something borrowed. Something that knew it didn't belong there.
She curled her fingers into a fist to keep it from sliding off.
I shifted Cayden higher on my hip. His arms tightened around my neck, and I felt his heartbeat hammering against my collarbone — fast, frightened, alive.
I turned toward the door.
Behind me, the ring clicked against Selene's knuckle as her fist tightened, and Patricia's teacup scraped the saucer one more time.
Neither sound followed me out.
You may also like
