Sophia's POV
Then Ella's voice slipped into my mind. The mind-link is soft and trembling.
'Sophia. Baby. I don't know what's happening. I don't know who to believe. But your father—her voice cracked through the link—if you leave Derek, if this marriage falls apart, Ava will destroy us. You know she will. We will be rogues. Your father won't survive as a rogue. Please. Please just go home with him. Fix this.'
The breath went out of me.
I did know that. I'd always known that.
That was why I'd never cut the mate bond. Not because I loved Derek, but because severing the bond meant severing my parents' last thread of protection inside Shadow Pack. They'd be cast out. And a sick, aging wolf with no pack was a dead wolf.
I'd swallowed every humiliation. Every night alone. Every time Blair's
