Chapter 4

“You want to take her?” Derek’s voice settled back into calm. “Fine. But show me what you’ve got. Otherwise how do I know you won’t disappear again and leave all of us behind again?”

I thought I heard a tremor in that last line.

But his face was so composed it made me doubt my own ears.

I clenched my fists, icy on the outside, and asked,

“And how exactly do you want to see it?”

Ruby cut in instantly, terrified of missing her spotlight. “Show us all your trump cards! Let us ‘open our eyes’!”

She dragged the words out on purpose, making a few Gammas nearby chuckle.

As if she’d seized control of the scene again.

The way she scrambled to cling to power was nauseating.

Anna tugged my sleeve quietly and slipped me a card.

“Mom… the money I’ve secretly saved all these years… it’s in this card…”

My throat tightened.

“No.” My voice broke as I said it. “You keep it. Mom has a way.”

I drew in a deep breath and dialed that number directly.

“Elena? Look at you, calling me at a time like this?”

A soft chuckle came from the other end.

“Elder, there’s something I need to tell you.”

I inhaled again, my tone turning grave.

“My mate, Derek, has taken a new mate and had a child. I want my daughter’s custody back. They’re demanding I… prove my strength.”

The line went quiet for two seconds.

Then Ruby yanked the phone right out of my hand—I didn’t stop her.

Some performances needed to be finished by the actress herself.

“You old bastard!” she screamed into the phone. “You’re the backing behind that slut Elena? I dare you to try anything in Dragon Blood Pack, go on, I double dare you!”

Dead silence.

It was probably the first time anyone had the nerve to call him an old bastard to his face.

Then I heard the Elder’s voice through the receiver, so calm it was terrifying.

“Heh. Well. Well. Please wait for me. Ten minutes.”

The call cut off.

Ruby froze for half a beat, then burst into exaggerated laughter. “Ten minutes? What, he thinks he’s ordering pizza delivery?!”

A few suppressed laughs rippled through the crowd.

Derek looked at me with disappointment, exhaustion, and a thin thread of… relief?

Like he’d finally convinced himself I was just a bluffing lunatic.

“Elena,” his voice dropped low, “sign the agreement and go. For old times’ sake, I’ll let you leave with dignity.”

“For old times’ sake?” I laughed. “You still have the nerve to say that?”

His jaw tightened.

Ruby fanned the flames. “Derek, why waste breath on her? Anna, come here!”

She reached for Anna. Anna flinched and instinctively hid behind me.

“Anna.” Derek’s voice turned heavy. “Come to my side.”

It wasn’t a request. It was an order, an Alpha’s command to a Pack member.

I saw Anna’s shoulders tremble.

Six years, the tone of this command had been engraved into her instinct.

She let go of my sleeve.

One step. Two.

Her hands shook, but her feet didn’t stop.

Like a puppet running on a program someone else wrote.

Ruby’s smugness nearly overflowed.

She looked at me, lips moving without sound: You lost.

“My baby.” I spoke quietly, but everyone heard me.

Anna stopped mid-step.

I walked over and took her hand.

Her hand was icy, drenched in sweat.

“From today on,” I held her gaze, “no one gets to order you to do anything unless you choose to.”

“Damn you—” Ruby lunged at me.

I didn’t even turn around. I just lifted a hand and caught her swinging wrist.

Then I twisted hard.

She screamed and dropped to her knees.

“I said it already.” I released her. “No one commands her.”

Derek’s face sank completely. For a split second, something like panic flashed across him out of place, ugly.

“Elena! You vanished for six years. Did I blame you for that? And now you—”

The roar of engines in the sky cut him off.

Not one aircraft.

Six.

Derek stared up. When he saw the Shadow Wolf emblem, the color drained from his face inch by inch.

He recognized it.

Six years ago, it was the same emblem stamped on the first contract that changed his destiny, the one that landed on his desk out of nowhere.

Slowly, painfully slowly, he turned his head to look at me.

His lips moved, but no sound came out.

But I knew exactly what he wanted to ask.

I’d known all along.