Chapter 70: The Alpha Who Signed Too Much

The interrogation tent smelled of wet wool and crushed pine. Nora sat across from Rowan Vale, hands flat on her knees. The former Alpha of Blackridge had not met her eyes once since they dragged him from the supply cart. He looked smaller. Shoulders curved. Fine coat stained with mud. The chain around his wrists clinked. Darius stood behind her--a wall of heat and silence. He had not spoken in the hour since camp was set. He did not need to. "I want the truth," Nora said. "Not the version you told yourself to sleep." Rowan's throat worked. "I was drunk." "Drunk doesn't make you sign things. It makes you honest or stupid." His laugh was hollow. "Both. The night after you left--after I let you leave--I couldn't stop seeing your face. Iris found me in the study. Bottle of whiskey. Old pack documents. She told me I could fix everything. Make sure no one ever questioned the heir again." "The heir," Nora repeated. "The child you didn't know I carried." "The child I thought I'd never have." His voice cracked. "Five years of elders whispering that my Luna was barren. I was drowning." "So you signed." "A pre-birth claim. One page. Legal across all Winter Council jurisdictions. It established maternal lineage for any child born to the Luna of Blackridge within the next year." Nora's blood went cold. "Maternal lineage established by whom?" Rowan dropped his hands. "Iris." Darius shifted behind her. His hand settled on her shoulder--heavy, warm. "You signed a document," Nora said, "that legally named my sister as the mother of my unborn child." "I didn't know you were pregnant. Iris said it was just insurance. That if you ever came back with a child, we could claim it was hers. That the crown-moon mark was a fraud she could expose." Nora stood. The stool scraped frozen earth. "You signed away your own child's identity because you were drunk and afraid of your elders." Rowan said nothing. "Do you have a copy?" "Iris kept the original. She said she would hold it until the child was born." Nora turned to Darius. The Lycan King's face was unreadable, but she saw the pulse jump in his jaw. "Seraphine doesn't need to hunt us through the snow," Nora said. "She already has a legal claim to Hope. Written in Iris's name. Signed by the father." Rowan surged forward, chains rattling. "I didn't know what Iris was planning. I was broken. I was--" "You were the Alpha," Nora said. "And you chose a bottle and a lie over the woman who bled for your pack for five years." She walked out into the cold. Darius followed. At the tree line, she pressed her palm against a pine trunk. The bark was rough and frozen. "She can file the claim in any council hall within the northern territories," Darius said quietly. "The mark, the boy's signature, and Iris as the named mother. It would trigger an immediate custody hearing." Nora faced him. He pulled a folded paper from his coat. "Seraphine reached the eastern council hall this morning. She filed an emergency maternal claim on behalf of Iris Bell." He held her gaze. "The hearing is in three days." Nora's mind cleared. "Then we don't run. We walk into that hall and burn her claim with the truth." Darius caught her wrist. Gentle. "And if the truth isn't enough?" She looked at him. At the crescent mark half-visible beneath his collar. She stepped closer and kissed him--hard, brief. A seal, not a surrender. When she pulled back, his breath was unsteady. "There is no claim in any hall," she said, "that lists Iris as Hope's mother."