Chapter 13: Rowan's Custody Claim

The Winter Council did not sleep after the relic woke. Neither did Nora. They moved her from the witness chamber to a sealed suite on the third floor, a room with frost wards carved into every window frame and two Lycan guards outside the door. Council clerks came and went with ledgers, blood forms, witness lists, and expressions that changed when they looked at her stomach. Yesterday she had been a rejected Luna. Tonight she was evidence. Darius stood by the hearth, reading the custody petition Rowan had filed less than an hour after the crown-moon response. His face gave nothing away, which made Nora more afraid than if he had cursed. "Read it aloud," she said. His eyes lifted. "You should rest." "I have rested enough for men to make decisions around me." Darius folded the petition once, then opened it again. "Rowan claims the unborn child is a blood asset of Blackridge Pack. He argues that because the pregnancy began before the rejection was ratified, the child belongs under Blackridge jurisdiction." Nora laughed once. It was a broken sound. "He rejected me before a thousand witnesses." "He is claiming he rejected the wife, not the heir." Her hand went cold against her stomach. There it was. Rowan had not wanted her tears, her loyalty, her body, or her work. But the second the old relic shone, he wanted the child she had carried alone through snow. "Can he win?" Nora asked. Darius did not soften the answer. "With enough corrupt elders, yes." Nora crossed the room before her knees could fail and took the petition from his hand. Rowan's signature cut across the last page in a bold black line. Alpha Rowan Vale, natural father and pack claimant. Natural father. The words made her want to be sick. "He called me barren," she said. "In front of my pack. In front of Iris. He said my womb was an empty room." "I remember." "Now he wants to own what he mocked." Darius came closer. Not too close. He had learned the exact distance that let her breathe. "There is a way to stop the petition before the first hearing." Nora looked up. "Second Mate Law." The room seemed to narrow. Darius continued, calm and precise. "If a rejected Luna comes under the protection of a higher mate bond before custody review, the former Alpha cannot remove her from sanctuary. He can challenge. He cannot seize." Nora heard the hidden shape of it. Higher mate bond. Former Alpha. Protection. "You want to claim me." "No." The answer came fast enough to matter. "I want to ask whether you will let me fight under a law Rowan cannot buy." The difference should not have shaken her, but it did. Rowan had announced. Darius asked. Nora looked at the fire. In its light, the child moved under her palm like a soft secret refusing to stay hidden. "If I agree, what does the Council think I am?" "A woman under Lycan claim." "And what do you think I am?" Darius's voice lowered. "The only person in this room who gets to decide." That was worse than tenderness. It was respect, and respect was harder to defend against. A knock cut through the silence. One of the guards opened the door and accepted a sealed envelope from a Council page. The wax was black, stamped with the ridge-and-claw mark of Blackridge. Nora did not wait for Darius. She broke the seal herself. Inside was a single sentence written in Rowan's hand. "Return the child by dawn, and I will let the mother live." Darius's eyes went silver. Nora folded the note with steady hands. "Tell the Council," she said, "I am ready to discuss Second Mate Law." Outside the window, the moon vanished behind storm clouds, and somewhere below them, Blackridge wolves began to howl.