Chapter 4

Celeste came into my office while I was cleaning out my desk.

"I'm taking everyone out to dinner tonight. You should come."

"No, thanks."

I wrapped Milo's framed photo in my scarf and laid it in the box.

"Don't be like that. It's a celebration."

"Then go celebrate."

I picked up the box.

Behind me, she said, "Twelve years you put into this place, Tessa. I just had to show up."

My wolf lifted her head inside me, hurt and furious.

I kept walking.

That afternoon, Celeste announced her promotion in the council group chat. Cade was the first one to congratulate her.

A minute later, he texted me privately.

Don't read into it. You know how this stuff works.

I did now.

While they were out celebrating, I packed.

Milo showed up in the bedroom doorway, hugging the stuffed bear he'd had since he was a baby. It was missing one eye.

"Are we leaving tonight?"

I knelt beside the suitcase.

"We can, if you want."

He rubbed the bear's ear between his fingers.

"Can we wait till tomorrow? Dad said there's a surprise." He looked embarrassed for wanting it. "Maybe I'll wish he doesn't do the vow. If it's my birthday wish, maybe he'll listen."

I touched his cheek.

"We can wait."

Cade didn't come home that night.

Milo slept badly. At one point, I woke up and found him standing at the window, staring down at the driveway.

By morning, he'd talked himself into a reason.

"He's probably getting the surprise ready."

We made pancakes. Hung streamers in the kitchen. I pushed nine candles into the cake I'd baked after he went to bed.

Every time a car went by, his head popped up.

By evening, the candles had started to bend in the warm kitchen. Milo hadn't asked to light them.

I called Cade.

"It's your son's birthday. Where are you?"

There was music behind him. Glasses clinking.

"Right. Yeah. His surprise is in the nightstand. The itinerary."

"What itinerary?"

"I added him to your trip. Ten days in Iceland with his mom. He'll love it."

"You said you'd be here."

"Tess, I'm in the middle of something. Don't start. Just take him on the trip."

He hung up.

In the nightstand were two sets of plane tickets and a signed letter letting Milo leave the country with me. Cade had made sure neither of us would be in his way.

My phone lit up again.

A new post from the made-up friend's account.

Tomorrow I keep the promise I owed her twelve years ago.

The photo showed Celeste's hand resting under his. Next to them was a signed transfer giving her shares in Stonebrook's businesses.

I'd spent twelve years building those businesses. Negotiating leases. Saving contracts. Doing the work of a dozen people for a department head's pay.

He'd always told me shares didn't matter between mates. What was his was ours.

I guess that only applied when I was the one asking.

"Mom?"

Milo stood by the table with his phone in his hand.

On the screen, Poppy was holding up a tray of sugar cookies with pink frosting. Cade's hands were in the picture too, steadying the tray for her.

Daddy helped me make these!

Milo looked back at the birthday cake nobody had touched.

"He knows how," he said, so quietly I almost missed it.

I didn't understand.

"Dad. He knows how to make a birthday nice."

I reached for him, but he was already reaching for me.

"I don't want to wait anymore." He wiped his face on his sleeve. "Can we go now?"

"Yes."

"And you're coming too? You're not just dropping me off and leaving?"

I held him so tight that a little puff of air came out of him against my shoulder.

"I'm coming too."

Before we left, I put the separation papers on the dining table. My lawyer had already filed for divorce and registered my departure with the independent pack assembly. Under its charter, either mate could take back a chosen bond in front of a sworn registrar. No Alpha's permission needed.

I'd read every word of it twice.

Then Milo and I got on a plane.

On the tenth day, the day I was supposed to be back at the council table, I sat across from a Frostvale registrar with the bond registry open between us. Milo was drawing by the window.

Cade called right as the Stonebrook council meeting started.

"Babe, the meeting started ten minutes ago. Don't tell me you're still in Iceland."

I put him on speaker.

"Twelve years ago, I chose you as my mate," I said. "Today, I'm taking that choice back."

The registrar signed the book.

Something inside me snapped. The mark under my collar started to fade.

On Cade's end, a chair crashed to the floor.

"Tess, stop." His voice was shaking. "What did you do?"