Chapter 2

The banquet was set for ten the next morning.

I got to the hall before sunrise, walking the room twice, checking every place setting, every dish on the menu, making sure nothing was out of order.

Most of the guests would be Vane. Nobody from my side was coming. My own parents never forgave me for taking in Rourke's sons after everyone told them not to. Even now they didn't understand why I'd thrown away a good life to raise another woman's boys.

Rourke's parents arrived first, walking straight past me to the head table and sitting down without a word. His brother and his sister Marguerite came in after with their own families, filling out the rest of the table. Eight seats, all taken before I got close enough to sit.

"Odessa, don't just stand there. Pour your mother-in-law some water."

Marguerite cracked open a handful of seeds from the bowl on the table, barely glancing at me. Her own mate used to hit her, and for years his family blamed her for not giving him a son. She'd finally had one late, at real cost to herself, and ever since she carried herself like the whole pack owed her something for it.

Callum and Cassian tried to get up and help. Their grandparents pulled them right back down.

"Sit, sit. Come talk to your grandmother."

"Look at these two. So handsome. Just like their father."

"Looks more like Wren to me," Rourke's brother said.

His father shot him a look sharp enough to shut him up for the rest of the meal.

I went around the table pouring tea, refilling cups, doing the rounds nobody else at that table would think to do. My sons couldn't watch it anymore. They dragged a chair in between them and sat me down by force.

"Mom, our birthday's supposed to be your day off. Sit."

The table went quiet in a dozen different ways. Marguerite's mouth curled into something close to a smile.

"If my brother knew how well his sons turned out under his own wife's roof, he'd be thrilled."

His father coughed once, hard, and she shut her mouth.

"Odessa. Since we're all here, there's something your mother-in-law wanted to bring up."

His mother's eyes were already sharp with it.

"The Vanguard's kin are given a Kinhouse twice this size, Odessa. A widow living alone in a place like this — people talk."

The pack handed every Vanguard family a grant like that the day the boys' names went up on the roster. Mine had come through weeks ago. I'd already turned the house itself down, had the whole thing converted to coin for their trust instead.

"When the boys ship out to the training halls, your father-in-law and I will take the Kinhouse. You keep working, I'll handle the cooking."

"I already sold it. Every coin's going into their trust."

His father's jaw went tight. His fist hit the table hard enough to rattle the cups.

"You gave away a Kinhouse without asking this family first?"

"Wasn't it always meant for Rourke's sons?"

"Then where's the money? Give it to me. I'll hold it. You've never been careful with coin."

I could have told them the trust was for tuition, or gear, or whatever the boys needed once they were out from under this roof, and most days that would have been enough to end it there. Tonight they weren't looking for reasons. They were looking for what they thought I still owed them.

"It's already sealed in a trust. A thousand silver a month, until they're grown men with pups of their own."

His father's frown eased.

"...Well. At least you had the sense to think of my grandsons."

"You still have the King's mourning-price from when Rourke died. Don't think we've forgotten that gold."

Later, while the staff reset the tables for tomorrow, I caught his mother leaning close to his father, voices low.

"Tomorrow, everyone finally comes home."

"Shh. Not in front of her."