Chapter 3

The hall's coordinator came by before the toasts started.

"Say a few words, since you raised such fine boys."

I didn't think twice about it.

"Thank you all for coming to celebrate Callum and Cassian. Today, of all days, it's a shame their—"

I didn't get to finish.

The doors at the back of the hall opened, and a man and a woman walked in together, hand in hand.

Eighteen years hadn't changed him enough that I didn't know him on sight. Rourke. And beside him, Wren.

The room went up in noise. Half the hall stood from their seats. But at the head table, his parents didn't so much as blink. His mother pulled a chair back and had Wren seated beside her before anyone else moved.

Rourke crossed the floor straight to me.

"Never much of a mate. But I'll hand it to you — you make a good mother."

Callum and Cassian finally came out of whatever daze they'd been standing in.

"What is going on?"

Rourke pointed at Wren. "There's your real mother. Eighteen years wasted, because this one couldn't carry my line and wouldn't let me go find someone who could."

Before I could open my mouth, the table full of Vanes did it for me.

"She had her chance to release him years ago. Wouldn't do it. That's why you spent eighteen years thinking Wren never wanted you."

"Nobody's saying she did wrong by you boys. Just don't mistake it for love."

"None of that matters tonight. You're grown, you've got your place in the Guard. Time this family stood whole again."

Wren pressed forward and took each of my sons by the hand, tears already running.

"I carried you both. I've sent something every year, even if you never knew where it came from. I've stood across the street more nights than you'd believe, just to watch you walk home."

She turned to me, voice syrupy.

"You did well by them, Odessa. I mean that."

Rourke wrapped an arm around her shoulders, something sharp in the look he gave me.

"You're still my mate on paper. That ends tonight."

"Rourke, you're supposed to be dead."

"I was. Turns out I had better reasons to live than this pack ever gave me."

The whole hall expected me to fight. Some of them looked half-ready for it, the way you lean in for a good show.

I smiled instead.

"Okay."

The silence that followed was almost funny.

"You out of your mind?" Rourke said it low, like he didn't quite trust what he'd just heard.

Wren tugged his sleeve before he lost his nerve. He had the papers out of his coat before I'd even answered, like he'd been carrying them the whole time, waiting for me to change my mind.

"Sign it. Once it's done, you don't speak to my sons again."

"Where do I sign?"

I didn't read a word of it. I signed where he pointed and handed it back.

"Mom?" Cassian's voice cracked. "Mom, you're just — you're giving us up?"

I didn't answer him. Not yet.

Wren folded the papers away, already smiling like she'd won.

"Eighteen years, and she doesn't even fight for them," someone at the head table said. "Guess she never really loved them at all."

"Thank you, Odessa," Wren said again, softer this time, like she meant it. "We won't forget what you did for our boys."

His father waved a hand at me, already done with me.

"That's settled, then. You can go."

"Not yet." I looked at Wren, then at Rourke. "Since we're already signing things tonight, it's time you both knew the truth."

I clapped my hands once, toward the doors.

"Come in."

A few seconds later, two figures stepped into the hall.