Chapter 4

I didn't wait.

At the core council meeting the next day I moved directly to redistribute authority over the trade lines.

"From today, all housing, medical, and guard expenditures require two signatures."

An Elder frowned. "That isn't how it's been done."

"It's never been done before because no one has ever diverted patrol guards for a private relationship over the long term."

At the far end of the table, Lucas raised his eyes.

The room went quiet.

Some people looked at him. Some looked at me.

I didn't say Mia's name, and I didn't say the word cheating. I only laid the record of those twelve guard reassignments on the table.

"The northern line is short-handed as it is this year. The southern patrol has already covered two extra rotations.

"I won't accept any private reason for tying up pack guards long-term."

Lucas finally spoke. "That was medical care for a pregnant woman."

"Every pregnant woman in Silver Ridge gets basic medical care." I looked at him. "But not all of them get to have the head of trade pull guards on his own authority."

His face went cold. "So you're going after me."

"I'm managing resources."

"You're bringing a problem between mates into the council."

"I haven't started on the problem between mates yet."

That silenced him.

The measure passed quickly.

I hadn't asked for his removal, only to take back the authority he should never have held alone.

After the meeting he blocked my way in the corridor.

"Elena."

I stopped.

"What exactly have you heard?"

"About what?"

"You've been investigating me."

"If it's only rumor, what are you afraid of?"

Lucas's jaw tightened.

"I've run the northern line for Silver Ridge all these years. I've negotiated the deals. I've held off three border clashes. You can't humiliate me like this over a few invoices."

"Asking you to explain the accounts is humiliation?"

"You know what I mean."

"Then say it plainly."

He didn't. He stepped closer instead.

"Five years as mates, and this is how little you trust me?"

I looked at him. This was probably the last chance I would ever give him.

"Lucas. Explain one thing. Why did every arrangement for Mia—the cabin she lives in, the herbs she takes, and the guards who escort her—go through you?"

He was silent for a few seconds.

Then he said, "Because she needed them."

"What is she to you?"

"A subordinate."

"And the child?"

His breath stopped for a beat.

"What child?"

I only looked at him. At his eyes. At the way his breathing didn't so much as change while he said all this, and suddenly I had no desire left to ask anything. He had made his choice. Not to explain, not to admit it, but to go on treating me like a fool.

I turned to go.

"Elena." He caught my wrist. "Don't make this uglier than it has to be."

I looked down at that hand.

"Let go."

He didn't move.

I lifted my eyes. "The only reason you still have the right to touch me is that I haven't dissolved the mate registration yet."

Lucas's fingers went stiff, and then he let go.

That afternoon I signed a second order.

It froze his personal draw on the pack's shared assets and left him only what his work required. The cabin, the herbs, the guards, the private transport, all of it stopped.

Lucas didn't come home to the main house that night.

I knew where he had gone, and I knew what Mia would ask him.

The formal notice downgrading his core authority was delivered first thing the next morning.

Within half an hour the front doors of the main house slammed open.

Lucas came striding in.

"Elena!"

I was sorting papers in the study. He stopped short when he saw the desk. Every seal belonging to the pack had been taken away, and the register of authorities that used to sit locked in our shared cabinet was gone.

"Where did you put them?"

"Where they belong."

"On what grounds?"

I looked up. "On the grounds that none of it ever belonged to you personally."

Lucas laughed in fury. "So now you're treating me like an outsider."

I closed the last ledger.

"From today, you use only what actually belongs to you."