REJECTED BY THE ALPHA, CLAIMED BY HIS FATHER

Note for sale

Zariah didn’t sleep again that night.

She sat at the small kitchen table with the note flattened under one palm, reading it over until the words stopped making sense as words and became just shapes. Leave before it’s too late. This was never meant for you.

Meant for her. As though something had been decided about her life before she’d ever had a say in it.

By the time the sun came up, she’d made a decision, small but firm: she was not going to hide in the cottage waiting for the pack to sort out its own confusion. If Cassian Blackthorn wanted to make claims about mate bonds and Moon Goddess intentions, he could do it to her face, in daylight, where she could watch his eyes.

She found him at the pack house training yard, alone, running through forms with a longsword like a man working something out of his system. He stopped the moment he sensed her.

“You’re up early,” he said.

“I didn’t sleep.” She held up the note. “Someone left this at my window last night.”

Cassian crossed the yard in four strides and took it from her, his expression sharpening as he read. “Do you know the handwriting?”

“No.”

“Has anything like this happened before?”

“No,” she said again, and then, because she needed to say it before her nerve failed her, “I’m not doing this because I’m scared of a note, Cassian. I want that clear. I’m here because I want to say something to your face instead of letting the whole pack decide what I meant to say for me.”

He set the note down carefully on the low stone wall beside them, giving her his full attention in a way that made her want to look anywhere but at him.

“Say it, then.”

“I won’t be your replacement for whatever you lost when your wife died,” Zariah said. “I won’t be a way to save face after your son humiliated me in front of everyone. If this bond is real, it has to be real because you want me, not because you feel responsible for cleaning up his mistake.”

Something moved behind Cassian’s eyes, quick and sharp, gone before she could name it.

“You think I claimed you out of pity.”

“I think it would be an easy story for both of us to believe,” she said. “Easier than the alternative.”

“I haven’t felt a pull like that in twelve years,” Cassian said. “Not once, not for anyone, not even when half the pack tried to matchmake me into a second marriage for the sake of appearances. I know exactly what pity feels like, Zariah Vale. This isn’t it.”

The way he said her full name settled somewhere low in her chest, unwelcome and warm at once.

“Then what is it,” she asked.

“I don’t know yet,” he admitted. “But I intend to find out honestly, which means I won’t force anything on you. No claiming ceremony you haven’t agreed to. No pressure from the council that I won’t stand between you and. You take whatever time you need to decide if this is something you want.”

“And if I decide it isn’t?”

“Then I’ll respect that,” Cassian said, “and it will be the hardest thing I’ve done in twelve years, but I’ll do it.”

Zariah studied his face for the practiced diplomacy she expected from a man who’d led this pack for two decades, and found instead something that looked almost like fear, quickly controlled. He meant it. That frightened her more than the note had.

She was still working out what to say to that when Thalia came jogging across the yard, breathless, her Omega rank not stopping her from barreling straight into pack house business that wasn’t technically hers.

“There you are,” Thalia said, then caught sight of Cassian and dropped instantly into a more careful posture, though her eyes were still wide with everything she clearly wanted to say. “Alpha.”

“Thalia,” Cassian said, with the faint warmth of a man who’d known her since she was a pup underfoot.

“Can I steal her,” Thalia asked. “Only for a minute. Pack business. Omega business. Whatever gets me out of here fastest.”

Cassian glanced at Zariah, a silent question, and she nodded. He inclined his head and stepped back, retrieving his sword, though she felt his attention linger even as she walked away with Thalia toward the tree line.

The moment they were out of earshot, Thalia grabbed her arm. “You cannot possibly be standing there having a calm conversation with him after last night. Do you understand what happened? The council is in an uproar. Edrick Thorne called an emergency meeting for tonight.”

“About what?”

“About you,” Thalia said. “About whether a rejected bond can even legally transfer like that. Some of the elders are saying it’s unnatural. Others are saying it’s a Moon Goddess sign nobody should question. It’s chaos, Zariah, and you’re standing in the middle of it looking annoyingly composed.”

“I’m not composed. I’m just out of tears for tonight.”

Thalia’s expression softened. “Are you okay? Really?”

Zariah looked back toward the training yard, where Cassian had resumed his forms, sword moving in careful, deliberate arcs, his gaze flicking toward her every few seconds like he couldn’t quite stop himself.

“I don’t know yet,” she admitted. “But I know I’m not running from it. Not because of some note under my window, and not because a council of elders is scared of what I might mean for their politics.”

Thalia squeezed her hand. “Then get ready. Because that emergency meeting tonight isn’t going to be quiet, and half the pack is going to be there watching you walk in.”