"Narelle, is it really you? What are you doing here?"
He strode over and lowered his voice to a hiss.
"If you wanted to see me, you could have sent word through the servants. Why make a scene in front of everyone?"
"Besides, I told you in my letters not to come back on your own. When the time was right, I would have sent someone to bring you."
I held my daughter tight and stared at him in cold silence.
Five years apart, and Finn looked even more handsome than before. Younger, somehow. His wolf had clearly benefited from the life he'd stolen. His coat was cut from the finest cloth in the Territories, the cuffs stitched with silver-thread sigils marking the Thornwood Alpha line. A line he'd inherited only because I had stabilized his wolf with my Omega blood and given him the strength to shift at all.
My daughter and I, by contrast, were dressed in rags. Our rough-spun clothes had more holes than I could count. We carried no pack scent. We smelled like the wild, like dirt and hunger and the open road.
"Husband, didn't you promise me yourself? You said within three years, you would send someone to bring me back to the territory. It's been five."
Finn's expression darkened, though a flicker of panic crossed his eyes. I caught the subtle shift in his scent, that iron-rust sharpening beneath the damp bark, the way it always did when he was cornered.
"Narelle, I will bring you back. But not now. The den is hosting a feast for the Grand Pack Council delegates and visiting Alphas. Take the pup and leave. We'll talk later."
He slipped a heavy pouch of gold moons into my hands, expecting me to take the money, walk away, and pretend we had nothing to do with each other.
I smiled coldly, opened the pouch, and turned it upside down. Gold moons clattered across the stone ground.
"The Pack Alpha has done well for himself. And this is how you dismiss the mate who stood by you when you had nothing? A few coins?"
My voice carried just far enough for every pack member and guard within earshot to hear every word. Finn's face went darker still.
He clenched his jaw and leaned in close. "What do you want from me? I said I'd bring you back. Can't you just take the pup and wait a little longer? Just until tonight—"
I turned away with a cold smile, shifting my daughter in my arms as I walked toward the den gates.
"Our daughter hasn't eaten in three days. I'm afraid she can't wait."
"Tell me, my lord, why are you so desperate to keep your own mate from stepping through the door? Is there something in there you'd rather I not see?"
I knew exactly why Finn didn't want me inside. The feast hall was filled with the most powerful Alphas in the Territories, and among them sat Luna Consort Rosalind Nighthollow, the High Alpha's most beloved mate.
Every guest seated comfortably at those tables believed that Edith Ashvale, his brother's former mate, was the rightful Luna of the Thornwood Pack.
A mate appearing out of nowhere was a problem Finn had no idea how to explain.
And that was precisely why I was here. To make sure he couldn't.
Finn stared at me, his face drained of color, scrambling for a way out.
Edith's eyes darted, and then she stepped forward with a warm smile, reaching for my arm. Her scent hit me before her fingers did, overripe peaches and crushed oleander, sweet enough to choke on.
"Pack-sister, what are you saying? You're Finn's mate, which makes you family. You and the pup arrived so suddenly that Finn was simply overwhelmed with joy and didn't know what to say. He would never hide anything from you!"
She tried to steer me toward a side chamber.
I pulled my arm free. "You must be my mate's brother's former mate."
Edith's smile froze for a heartbeat before she forced it back into place with a nod.
In my previous life, I had pitied Edith for losing her mate so young. I never thought to guard myself against her. So when she led me to that side chamber and offered me pastries, I never once suspected her intentions.
I had no idea that the wolfsbane in those pastries was what killed my daughter and me. And the hand that placed it there was Edith's.
"I think I'll skip the side chamber. Didn't my husband just mention there's a feast going on? My daughter and I are starving. We'll eat there. And while we're at it, my mate can introduce us to everyone."
"Narelle!"
Finn's voice dropped to a sharp growl, low enough that his wolf bled through it. "You want to walk into that feast dressed like that? You'd humiliate the entire pack on purpose?"
"At least change your clothes first. Edith, would you take her to—"
