Chapter 3

A little after two in the afternoon, the doorbell rang.

Before I could even walk to the door, Lucas sprang off the carpet and ran to the door, like he’d heard some kind of call.

“Emma!” His voice lifted, bright with excitement, like he couldn’t wait to throw himself at her.

My stomach dropped.

The moment the door opened, a gust of cold air swept inside, carrying the scent of pine and damp earth.

An omega stood outside.

Golden-brown curls fell loosely to her shoulders. Her makeup was clean and appropriate. She carried several bags of toys and snacks, like she already knew the house would need them.

She didn’t even wait for me to speak before she bent down and opened her arms.

“Lucas, sweetheart.”

Lucas rushed into her like a little wolf pup. She lifted him up and rubbed her cheek against his forehead with practiced ease, intimate and natural, as if this was simply what she was meant to do.

I stood by the door, my fingers cold.

Only then did she look up at me and offer a polite, flawless smile.

“Hi,” she said. “I’m Emma.”

Her tone was so natural that it didn’t feel like a first meeting at all.

“Thank you for taking care of Lucas these days,” she added. “I’ve been thinking him, so I came to check on him.”

Lucas clung to her neck and whined like he was pouting. “I miss you.”

Emma’s gaze softened too much. She patted his back lightly. “I miss you too.”

I stepped aside. She walked in as if she already knew the place, every move familiar.

She set the bags down by the entrance, pulled out a box of strawberries, opened it, and selected one to hold up to Lucas’s mouth.

He bit down immediately. Red juice smeared at the corner of his lips.

Emma smiled and dabbed his mouth with a tissue, her hands moving like she’d done it at this same table countless times.

Watching them, my wolf slowly pricked its ears.

It wasn’t attacking.

It was confirming something—there had always been a thread connecting this woman and this child, and I was only seeing it now.

The door of the study opened.

Samuel walked out. When he saw Emma, there wasn’t the slightest surprise on his face. He didn’t even ask, “why are you here?”

“You came,” he said.

Emma looked up at him, and for an instant, her whole expression loosened, relief.

Samuel’s gaze skimmed over me, then landed back on Emma and the child.

“They need some mother-son time,” he said to me in a flat voice. “You can rest.”

My whole body stiffened.

“Mother-son?” I repeated.

Like he realized what he’d just said, Samuel’s brows tightened and he immediately came up with something more “reasonable.”

“I misspoke,” he said. “Emma is Lucas’s aunt. They’re close. Like mother and son.”

Emma lowered her head and smiled faintly.

She didn’t correct him.

Lucas wriggled around on the couch, reaching for snacks on the table. Emma handed them to him while Samuel casually nudged the bags farther in so the kid wouldn’t knock them over.

The motion was so natural it made my skin go cold, like they’d done this countless times.

Lucas ate too fast. Crumbs gathered at the corner of his mouth again.

Samuel reached over to wipe them away, his fingertip brushing the boy’s cheek in a tenderness that looked like pure instinct.

Emma looked up.

Their eyes met for one brief second like a spark striking dry grass.

I stood there with my throat clogged shut.

Then Lucas lifted his head. His voice wasn’t loud, but it cut cleanly through the room.

“Dad.”

It felt like the air got sucked away.

Emma’s hands paused, then kept opening packages as if nothing had happened.

Samuel only froze for a heartbeat. The next second, he lifted his hand and ruffled Lucas’s hair.

“Don’t call me that,” Samuel said, yet he didn’t correct him, didn’t deny him. He only tugged the boy closer to his side.

He didn’t even look at me.

Inside me, my wolf snapped its head up. Its claws scraped against my chest with a low, restrained hiss.

I forced it down until all that remained was a cold tremor.

I turned to leave.

Samuel caught my wrist from behind, dragged me into the bedroom, and shut the door with a hard click.

The light dimmed. His scent pressed closer, like a wolf herding prey into a corner.

Samuel’s voice dropped, firm, leaving no room to argue. “Don’t make this more complicated.”

I stared at him. “Is this my fault?”

“I know you’re uncomfortable,” he said. “But Emma is pitiful, and so is Lucas. If we can help, we help.”

“You’re the only mate I’ve ever acknowledged,” he said, biting hard on the word “only”. “Think bigger. Don’t nitpick details with them.”

I looked at him and suddenly felt ridiculous.

“So loving me means making me watch you play house with another omega and another pup?” I asked.

Samuel’s brows knotted, like my words had pricked him.

“When did you become so selfish?” His tone turned cold. “Our mate bond is for life. It’s just a pup. It won’t affect what we have.”

“Stop holding on this,” he warned, his eyes sharp. “Or I’ll get angry, really.”

That “I’ll get angry” echoed in my head. It was a reminder: he still held the control in this relationship.

I opened my mouth, then said nothing.

Samuel’s tone softened again, like he already knew I wouldn’t leave.

“Trust me,” he said. “I love you. I only ever love you.”

The door opened.

I walked out. The sounds of the living room poured in again. Emma and Lucas leaned together like a warm painting. Samuel followed me out, and his voice toward Emma was noticeably gentler like a wolf relaxing in its own den.

I went around the couch toward the kitchen to pour myself a glass of water.

And that’s when I heard Emma’s voice from the living room—she thought I was far enough away.

“Baby,” she told Lucas, “just wait a little longer. Once Daddy handles things here, we’ll all live together as a family.”

My steps stopped.

Then Samuel’s voice came, soft—soft like he was soothing her, or soothing himself.

“Just wait,” he said. “Don’t let Julia get hurt.”

I stood at the kitchen doorway with my fingers locked around the glass, my nails nearly biting into my palm.

My wolf let out a muffled, suppressed whine.

And I realized something all at once.

He wasn’t ignorant.

He just believed I was the one who should endure the most.

The one least likely to leave him.