Chapter 11: Rejected Twice

Rowan cornered Nora outside the archive corridor during the Council recess. He should not have been able to. Frost guards stood at both ends of the hall. Darius had been called into a closed objection review with Councilor Venn. Wren had gone to secure the evidence case. Still, Rowan found the ten breaths when Nora was alone beside a wall of old legal portraits, pretending her knees did not shake. "You always did know how to make a scene," he said. Nora turned. Her wolf went very quiet. Rowan stood three paces away in formal black, handsome in the way expensive knives were handsome. For five years, that face had been home, weather, approval, punishment. Some foolish part of her body still remembered where his hand used to rest at her waist. She hated that part. "Move," she said. His mouth tightened. "We need to speak." "No." "Nora." "You used my name. Progress." Pain flashed across his face. It was either real or well performed. Once, she would have spent hours trying to tell the difference. "I did not know Iris would send you out in the storm." Nora stared at him. That was his opening? "She burned my healer's test." His eyes flicked. There. He had known about the possibility. Maybe not the paper. Maybe not the flame. But he had known enough to fear it. "Are you pregnant?" he asked. The corridor seemed to shrink. Nora kept both hands at her sides. "You rejected me." "Answer me." "You rejected me, Rowan." "If you carry my child, this changes everything." Anger rose so fast it nearly stole her balance. "No," she said. "It explains everything." He stepped closer. "You should have told me." She laughed once. It hurt. "When? Before you called me barren in front of the pack, or after you put my sister in my mother's mantle?" His face hardened. "Iris was a mistake." That stopped her. Not because she believed him. Because Iris would burn the world if she heard it. Nora looked at the man who had ruined her life and saw, with sudden clarity, that Rowan had not chosen Iris out of love. He had chosen Iris because she was useful, fertile by rumor, eager by nature, and easier to control. Nora had not been replaced by a beloved woman. She had been replaced by a simpler tool. Somehow, that was even uglier. "You will not use me to correct your mistake," she said. Rowan's voice lowered. "Blackridge needs an heir." "Blackridge had a Luna." "Blackridge had a failing marriage." "Blackridge had an Alpha who could not bear being seen beside a woman he owed." His eyes flashed gold. The old Nora would have stepped back. This Nora did not. Rowan noticed. "What has he promised you?" he asked. "Safety." "Darius Frost does nothing for free." "Neither did you. I just confused the price with love." His hand shot out and closed around her wrist. The rejected mate mark screamed. Nora gasped before she could stop herself. Rowan's grip loosened at once, but not enough. His thumb brushed the burned mark with something like regret. "The bond is not gone," he whispered. For one terrible second, she felt it too. A thread. Thin, damaged, but still there. Five years did not vanish because a man became cruel in public. Then she remembered the snow. She remembered Iris's flame. She remembered the third document asking her to swear her child did not exist. Nora pulled free. "You rejected me once under winter moon," she said. "Do not make me reject you in daylight." Rowan's expression changed. "If there is a child, I will claim it." "You already did." "Nora." Her voice shook. She let it. "You rejected both of us." Footsteps sounded at the end of the corridor. Darius appeared. He did not run. He did not raise his voice. He simply entered the corridor, and every old portrait on the wall seemed to hold its breath. "Alpha Vale," he said. Rowan turned. The two men looked at each other, and Nora understood why lesser wolves lowered their eyes around kings. Darius's gaze dropped to Nora's wrist, where Rowan's fingers had reddened the skin. His face did not change. That was the frightening part. "The protected witness asked you to move," Darius said. Rowan's jaw flexed. "This is between mates." Nora's voice came before Darius's. "No," she said. Both men looked at her. Nora lifted her wrist, pain and all. "This is between a woman and the man who rejected her. The mate part is under review." Darius stepped aside, leaving the path open. Not rescuing. Making room. Nora walked past Rowan without lowering her eyes. Behind her, Darius said softly, "Touch her again, and the review will be the least painful part of your day." For the first time since Nora had known him, Rowan Vale did not answer.