WARN JACINDA I'M COMING

YVONNE POV

I had barely settled inside the vehicle when raised voices came from the lake.

Calder's healer was cleaning the silver burns around my wrists, but I pulled my hand away and looked through the open door. The pack leader stood between the Everstead attendants and the path leading back to the settlement. Several wolves had gathered behind him, their expressions tense.

"What is happening?" I asked.

Calder, who had been speaking to one of his guards, glanced towards the argument. "Everstead wants Flora's death handled privately."

Of course.

I stepped out of the vehicle before the healer could stop me. Calder moved as if he intended to carry me back inside, but one look from me made him stop.

"I can walk." I said coldly.

"You can barely stand." He replied, his Lycan authority radiates the atmosphere.

"Those are not the same thing."

His mouth tightened, but he moved beside me without touching me. I noticed the decision even if I refused to thank him for it.

The wolves from the settlement made room when I approached. Old Mina, who had cleaned my wounds earlier, pushed a pair of boots into my hands. Her daughter carried a bundle containing bread, dried meat and the blue wool cloak I had given them two winters ago when their youngest child became ill.

"You'll need these on the journey," Mina said. "Everstead people look like the kind who would let someone starve."

A few nervous laughs passed through the crowd.

"Keep the cloak," I told her. "Your son still needs it at night."

"He has another one now. Take it before I become offended."

I accepted the bundle. Other wolves moved closer, each carrying something small. A jar of healing salve. A comb carved from bone. A knife sharpened that morning. None of them owned much, yet they had brought what they could.

I had grown up returning every kindness because favours were often the only protection a rogue child possessed. If someone shared dinner with me, I repaired their fence. If a hunter gave me part of his catch, I gathered herbs for his mate. I had never expected those small exchanges to matter after I left.

Calder watched the wolves surround me. His expression revealed nothing, but the sharpness in his eyes had softened.

The pack leader approached. "Yvonne, I will take the statements to the Council station myself. Flora attempted to kill a recognised heir under my protection. It cannot be hidden simply because Everstead finds the truth embarrassing."

"Thank you."

"You have no reason to thank me. You have helped almost every family in this settlement at one time or another. It is our turn to stand for you."

His words left an unfamiliar pressure in my chest. I had spent years believing I would leave this place without anyone caring whether I returned.

I had been wrong.

Behind him, the Everstead attendants had become visibly uneasy. Flora's maid stood beneath the guard of Calder's men, her face pale. Another young woman wearing far too much jewellery moved close to an older attendant and whispered urgently.

"Matron Graves, we cannot allow the Council to become involved. Think about what this will do to Jacinda."

The older woman gave her a warning look before stepping forward. Her grey uniform carried Everstead's silver crest, and unlike Flora, she held herself with the calm confidence of someone who did not need to insult others to establish her importance.

"Miss Yvonne," she began, "I am Matron Graves, the senior matron of Alpha Aldric's household. What happened here is deeply regrettable, but Everstead is capable of disciplining its own servants. A public investigation will turn your return into a scandal before your family has welcomed you."

"Flora is dead," I said. "How does Everstead intend to discipline her?"

Matron Graves paused. "Any living person who assisted her will be questioned."

"By the same household that sent Jacinda's personal attendant to collect me?" I raised a brow.

"Matron Flora exceeded her instructions."

"You already know what her instructions were?"

The question caught her. Only for a moment, but I saw it.

Matron Graves recovered quickly. "I know Alpha Aldric would never order anyone to harm his own blood. Everyone at Everstead has waited a long time for your return. There is no reason to delay it while outsiders examine a servant's mistake. Withdraw the complaint and come home. Your family can resolve this privately."

The offer sounded reasonable, that was what made it dangerous.

If I entered Everstead quietly, Flora's death would become an unfortunate accident. The maid would change her account, the warriors would forget what they had seen, and Jacinda would have time to decide what story the pack should believe about me.

I looked towards the vehicles. "Which member of my family came to collect me?"

Matron Graves's expression tightened. "Alpha Aldric has many responsibilities."

"Then Luna Weston?"

"The Luna remained with Jacinda. The discovery has been difficult for her."

The answer settled something inside me.

They had learned their stolen daughter was alive, yet none of them had come. They had sent servants loyal to Jacinda and expected me to enter their territory grateful for whatever place remained.

I sat on a fallen tree beside the road and folded Calder's coat more tightly around myself.

"Return to Everstead," I said. "Bring someone with the authority to acknowledge me as Alpha Aldric's daughter and protect my rights under pack law. Until then, the Council investigation continues."

Matron Graves stared at me. "The journey to Everstead takes hours. If I return first, you may remain here until nightfall."

"Then I will wait." I said coldly.

"Your family is expecting you."

"My family sent Flora."

Silence spread through the attendants. Calder remained near the vehicle, allowing me to control the conversation. With one command, he could have forced every Everstead wolf present to obey me, but that victory would belong to his crown instead of me.

His restraint mattered more than I wanted it to.

The jewelled maid stepped forward. "What exactly do you want? Everyone has been rearranging their lives because some healer discovered you in a rogue settlement, and you are behaving as though Everstead should kneel at your feet."

I studied her. "Who are you?"

Her chin lifted. "Lark. I am Jacinda's personal maid."

"A maid," I said. "For a moment, I thought Jacinda had come to speak for herself."

Red colour climbed into her cheeks. "Lady Jacinda does not need to travel here to argue with someone who has not even entered the pack. She was raised as Alpha Aldric's daughter. She is educated, respected and prepared to lead. You cannot expect the household to place a rogue above her because of a blood test."

The settlement wolves began growling, but I raised one hand before any of them could move.

"Let me understand," I said. "Holloway's daughter can be treated as an Alpha's heir because she grew up with my family, but Alpha Aldric's biological daughter should remain beneath her because I grew up with hers."

Lark's mouth opened, but no answer came.

"Jacinda received my name, my parents and the training meant for me. I received hunger, silver cuffs and a man ordered to mark me against my will. Yet you are telling me I should be grateful that Everstead has finally decided to collect me."

"That is not what I meant." She said.

"It is exactly what you meant."

I stood, ignoring the weakness that travelled through my knees. "I have not crossed Everstead's border, and one of its senior servants has already tried to kill me. Another wants me restrained, while Jacinda's maid is explaining why the woman who stole my life deserves it more than I do. If this is the home waiting for me, I will not enter it."

Shock moved through the attendants.

Matron Graves's face lost colour. She understood the damage my refusal would cause. The Council already knew Everstead's missing White Wolf had been found. If I publicly refused to return because the pack had tried to kill me, every Alpha in North America would question Aldric's right to control his own household, much less raise another heir.

Lark did not understand quickly enough.

"You cannot compare yourself to Jacinda," she snapped. "At least she knows how an Alpha's daughter should behave. You should be worrying about whether the family will accept you after everything that happened here."

Matron Graves slapped her.

The sound silenced the entire road. Lark stumbled sideways and pressed one hand against her cheek. "Matron Graves!"

"You have caused enough damage," the older woman said. "Go back to the vehicle and do not speak again unless I give you permission."

Lark looked towards the other attendants for support, but none of them met her eyes. She walked away stiffly, humiliation pouring from her scent.

Matron Graves faced me again. The false warmth had disappeared, leaving careful respect behind.

"What must I tell Alpha Aldric?"

"Tell him I will enter Everstead through its main gate as his biological daughter and a recognised candidate for the Alpha succession. A Council representative will accompany me, and Flora's attack will be investigated. I will not be hidden, brought through a side entrance or ordered to serve Jacinda while the family decides whether I deserve my own name."

"And if he refuses?"

"Then he can explain to the Council why Everstead rejected its White Wolf heir after trying to murder her."

Matron Graves held my gaze before giving a small nod. "I will carry your terms to him myself."

She turned to the remaining attendants. "You will stay here until I return. If anyone approaches Yvonne without her permission, the Council will receive your name with Flora's. Am I understood?"

They answered quickly.

As Matron Graves walked towards the lead vehicle, dizziness struck me. My legs weakened, but before I could fall, Calder's hand closed around my elbow.

He did not lift me or pull me against him. He simply steadied me and waited.

"May I?" he asked quietly.

I looked at the arm he offered. Then I placed my hand on it.

The bond warmed instantly, easing some of the cold in my body. His Lycan moved beneath his skin, pleased by the contact, but Calder did not use it to draw me closer.

The contact felt different from the moment he had carried me from the lake. He was not holding me because he had decided I needed rescuing. I was leaning on him because I had chosen to, and the difference mattered. Nyx settled against the bond with a satisfied sound while I tried not to notice how naturally my hand rested on his arm.

"You could have allowed me to settle this," he said as we walked back towards the vehicles.

"Then they would obey because they feared you, not because they recognised me."

"You threatened to reject one of the strongest packs on the continent."

"It is not my home if I must enter it as an unwanted guest."

Calder glanced towards the settlement wolves still watching me. "They would have followed you if you had chosen to remain here."

"They looked after me when Lillian and Holloway would not. I only returned what they gave me."

"No," he said. "You returned more. That is why they came."

I looked at him, caught off guard by the certainty in his voice.

Calder had first seen me as a mate to protect. At the lake, he had seen the part of me capable of killing. Now he had seen wolves stand for me without his command or the promise of a reward.

"You remember every kindness," he said. "Do you remember every cruelty too?"

"Yes."

"What do you do with those?"

I watched Lark climb into the Everstead vehicle and felt Nyx bare her teeth inside me.

"I repay those too."

Calder's smile was slow and dark. "Perhaps becoming your mate will be more dangerous than I expected."

"You can still reject me."

"Not a chance."

The certainty in his answer sent unwanted warmth through my chest. I blamed the bond, although Nyx's quiet amusement told me she did not believe me.

Before I could answer, Lark's eyes clouded with the unmistakable sign of a private mind-link. Her gaze moved towards me, filled with satisfaction, before she hurried into the vehicle.

She had probably just warned Jacinda.

Good, I tightened my hand around Calder's arm and watched the Everstead convoy prepare to leave.