Chapter 4

Marjorie Holloway was already on the sofa when I walked in, and this time Ethan and Brooke were with her.

A dark vial sat on the table beside a stack of papers.

As soon as she saw me, Marjorie pushed them toward the edge of the table. “Drink the mate-severing potion and sign the bond-release contract. The Holloway bloodline has relied on a single direct heir for generations. We have no use for a barren Luna.”

For a moment, I did not move.

I couldn’t bring myself to reach for them. I’d given up my job and spent years in this house, protecting Ethan’s secret every time his mother called me barren. He was sitting beside another she-wolf now,so close that her arm brushed against his. He watched his mother push the papers at me and did nothing to stop her.

I tried to steady my breathing. I wanted him to look at me, but his eyes stayed fixed on the table.

I picked up the contract and saw Ethan’s signature already on it.

His signature was a quick, careless scrawl. He had signed before I even walked in.Whatever doubts he claimed to have, he had done this before I walked in.

I laughed. Marjorie was startled. “What are you laughing at?”

I lifted my eyes and looked straight at Ethan. “When you claimed me, you swore you would protect me for life. You said I would always have a place beside you. Was all of that a lie?”

Marjorie leaned forward. “Watch your tone.”

I ignored her and kept staring at Ethan. “Answer me. Is this what you want too?”

At first he wouldn't meet my eyes. His hand tightened on the sofa arm, and for a moment he actually looked uncomfortable.

Then he said in a low voice, “Brooke is carrying a pup. The pack needs an heir. Once the child is born, I can make arrangements. We can still be together afterward.”

He wanted me to step aside, let another woman give him the heir he claimed to need, and then wait until he decided to return to me.

Brooke lowered her eyes and laid a hand over her stomach. Sitting beside my mate, she somehow managed to look as though I was the one hurting her.

Marjorie said sharply, “You should be grateful he is still willing to keep you. Drink it. Sign the contract. Don’t force this pack to lose all respect for you.”

My heart went cold.

I picked up the vial and drank the mate-severing potion in one swallow.

After that, I signed the bond-release contract.

Then I looked at Ethan. “Fine. Let’s go to Covenant Hall and register our bond termination. Right now.”

Covenant Hall kept the pack’s bond records. Once we filed the release there, he couldn’t keep calling me his mate while giving my place to someone else.

None of them had expected me to agree so quickly.

Marjorie was the first to react. Her tone softened for the first time in months. “Good. At least you know when to step aside.”

That was all it took for her to speak kindly to me: agreeing to leave.

I went upstairs for my bag. A short while later, Ethan called up to say the car was ready.

I took the signed contract and went out. The moment I opened the car door, I saw Brooke already seated in the front passenger seat.

I stopped beside the open door. “You’re bringing her with us to register the bond termination?”

He kept his eyes on the wheel. “Brooke is carrying a pup. She can’t sit in the back. You can ride behind us.”

That almost made me laugh.

He still had no idea that the child couldn’t be his. He’d betrayed me for this pregnancy, and now he was telling me where I could sit in his car.

Brooke turned toward me and said softly, “Please don’t be upset. Ethan and I never meant for things to become like this.”

I leaned back and let my gaze drop to her stomach. “How many months along are you?”

Brooke paused for the briefest second. “A few months.”

I gave a small smile. “And you’re completely certain the pup is Ethan’s?”

Her expression stiffened.

Then she forced out, “Of course it is. Just because you couldn’t conceive doesn’t give you the right to question my pup.”

Ethan frowned and looked at me through the mirror. “Enough, Leah. Leave Brooke out of it.”

I stared at him.

“So now this is somehow my fault too?” I asked. “Did I drag you into another woman’s bed?”

Brooke interrupted, her voice trembling. “Please don’t blame Ethan. I’m the one who couldn’t stay away from him. If anyone is wrong here, it’s me.”

I looked at her with open contempt. “So you admit you were shameless enough to take another Luna’s mate.”

“Brooke, ignore her,” Ethan said sharply. “She just wants to make this uglier.”

She turned back toward Ethan, and he kept his eyes on the road.I sat behind them with the signed contract on my lap while they acted as though my questions were the only unpleasant part of their plan.

The car finally stopped outside Covenant Hall.

We went inside, submitted the papers, and completed the bond termination. By the time we walked back out, we were no longer mates under pack law or before the Goddess.

Outside, Ethan took out some cash and held it toward me.

“Take this for the ride home,” he said. “I won’t be driving you back. Let’s end this without making it worse.”

I knocked his hand away.

“Make it worse?” I laughed, my voice shaking. “When we were together, you were the one who told me children weren’t everything. You said you didn’t care about fertility. You said we could always adopt. But what did you do in the end? You chose betrayal.”

I looked straight at him,blinking back the sting in my eyes.

“If you had stopped loving me, you could have told me the truth. I would have left. I would never have begged to stay. But instead, you lied to me and betrayed me behind my back.”

His face darkened immediately.

“If you weren’t the problem, then why didn’t you ever give this pack an heir?” he shot back. “Or are you just afraid of what everyone will say? Look at your background, Leah. What did you ever bring into the Holloway pack? Every day you looked worse than the day before. Just looking at you exhausted me.”

For a moment I couldn’t answer. He’d watched me become miserable in that house. Now he was using that misery as another reason to discard me.

Brooke gave a small laugh. “Ethan, enough. She isn’t worth it.”

He let her lead him back to the car.

I stood there alone, shaking with anger, but I refused to cry in front of them.

I called my mother and told her I was safe. She asked where I was, and I gave her the name of the hall. Then I got a ride to my parents’ house. I wasn’t going back to the Holloway estate.

The next day, I told my parents everything.

Before I’d finished, my father put his hand flat on the table. When I told him about the potion and the contract, he struck the wood hard enough to rattle the cups.

“Prepare the car,” he said. “I want to see how much courage Ethan Holloway still has when he stands in front of me.”

I caught his arm before he could get up. “Father, let me deal with this myself.”

I had barely finished when my phone rang.

It was an unfamiliar number.

I stepped outside and answered.

Brooke’s voice came through sharp and smug. “Leah, it’s me. I’ve already moved into the Holloway estate. Since I don’t want anyone saying I was cruel, I thought I’d let you come collect whatever is still yours. Starting over must be difficult. Maybe you can sell a few things and rent some miserable little place outside pack territory.”

I gripped the phone.She was offering me leftovers from a house I had spent years maintaining for them.

“No need. Ethan made it very clear that he paid for everything. Let him keep it.”

She gave a little laugh. “Since you understand that, let me be clear. Ethan and I will hold our bond ceremony soon. I hope you won’t contact him anymore. Surely you don’t want the pack thinking you’re the kind of she-wolf who clings to another woman’s mate.”

Then she hung up.

Before I could put my phone down, new messages appeared in the Holloway family chat.

Marjorie had posted first.

“Next month, my son Ethan and Brooke will hold their bond ceremony. My future daughter-in-law is carrying the Holloway heir. I’m finally going to have a grandson.”

Congratulations filled the screen beneath her announcement. The same family that had spent years asking why I hadn’t given them a child was now celebrating the pup she claimed would replace me.

Then I opened the chat, selected the fertility report, and pressed send.