Rejected as Barren, I Had Quadruplets with My Ex's Alpha Rival

Chapter 3

Every head in the office turned to me. Noah moved first—froze a second, then flung both arms around my legs. "Mom. Henry hit me."

My whole body seized up. First time a child had ever grabbed onto me like that. First time anyone had called me Mom in that small, wounded voice. His hands were so little, his palms so soft, and he had a fistful of my skirt wrinkled up tight.

I didn't push him off. I looked at Grant, my voice going cold. "When my son explains, you call it an excuse. What's it called when you hit him without asking anything at all?"

Grant went red to the ears. "What would an ignorant woman like you know about discipline at an Alpha academy?"

Henry jumped right in. "She's no lady. She's the barren reject my grandma threw out of Silvercrown. Slept with my uncle five years and couldn't give him one cub, and now she's off being some rogue's wife. Embarrassing."

Noah stiffened, his grip on my skirt going tighter.

I looked down at him. So this was how the Blackwoods raised them—grown-ups and cubs alike, every one sure they had the right to throw those words in my face, sure they could grind me under a heel. They'd all figured I'd duck my head and take it, same as always.

I ignored Henry, crouched, and took Noah by the shoulders. "Can you take him in a fight?"

Noah stared, then nodded. "Yeah."

"Then hit him back."

He looked at me like he'd misheard. I rolled his sleeve back down straight. "Whatever he did to you, give it back. If you can't take him, Martha'll help."

Noah's eyes lit right up. I patted his back. "Go."

Like a young wolf slipped off the leash, he launched at Henry. I'd watched him run cub combat drills through the window—six years old and already kicking through a thick board. Seeing his face all banged up earlier, I'd thought something didn't add up. Now that the hesitation was gone, it took him two moves to put Henry on the floor. He pinned him and started swinging. The kid who'd been strutting a minute ago was suddenly bawling so hard he could barely breathe. "Sir! He's hitting me! Get him off!"

Grant panicked and rushed in, ruler raised. "You little bastard! You dare put hands on a Blackwood? I'll teach you some manners right now!"

As the ruler came down toward Noah's back, I snapped at Martha. "What are you standing there for? Pull him off and slap him a few good ones!"

Martha's face changed fast. "But, my lady, he's—"

"You had plenty of hesitation standing there watching them hit the boy." A beat. "That ruler comes down one more time, and you can pack up and leave Ironridge tonight."

Martha gritted her teeth, shoved her sleeves up, and charged. Before she ran a house, she'd patrolled the pack's borders. She got Grant by the hair and dragged him to the floor. The ruler clattered down just as the first slap cracked across the room. Once. Twice. Three times. "So you do know what it feels like." She had him pinned by the shoulders, her eyes red with fury. "Our young master is six years old. How do you bring yourself to hit him?"

The office went to bedlam—Henry howling on the padded floor, Grant curled up shouting with his arms over his head. Teachers packed the doorway once they heard the racket, and not one of them dared step in.

I stood there, and for the first time in five years, the knot of resentment in my chest started to give. A barren reject? Today they'd find out whether the woman they'd called a reject for five years could hit back.

"Everybody, stop!" A familiar voice rang out behind me.

My grip clamped down on my phone. But I didn't turn around. "Keep going," I told Martha and Noah. "Whatever happens, it's on me."

Then Gareth clocked who I was. He strode over and grabbed my wrist, staring like he couldn't believe it. "Ivy? What are you doing here?"

His grip hurt. The old familiar weight of his Alpha aura came down over me, and my wolf flinched back on instinct. But I didn't bow my head the way I used to. I brought my free hand up and slapped him clean across the face.

The c***k was sharp and clear. Even the muttering out in the hall cut off.

Gareth stood frozen. He'd clearly never once pictured a day I might hit him. I wrenched my wrist loose and stepped back twice. "The bond's broken. Touch me again and find out what happens."

"Ivy, you—"

"Uncle! Help me!" Henry's shriek cut across him.

Gareth shot me a furious look, then hurried over and hauled Noah up by the collar. Noah was quick—the second his feet hit the floor, he darted back to me. Martha let Grant go and fell in at my side too.

Gareth got Henry on his feet. When he saw the swollen face, his brows slammed together. "You knew Henry was fragile, and you let someone beat him like this. Ivy—when did you turn into this? Is there any dignity of a noblewoman left in you?"

Those words again. Five years of them—every time I told him his sister was baiting me again, or that Victoria had made me kneel in the Hall of Ancestors all night, he'd look at me exactly like this, impatience all over his face. "Ivy, are you ever going to stop? What happened to the quiet, sensible woman you were?" "Quit making the whole house miserable. Look at yourself. Do you look anything like a Luna?" And then he'd toss his phone on the couch and turn for his study.

Back then I'd watched him walk off, swallowed it, and cried where he couldn't see. Today it just struck me as funny.

"What do I care if Henry's fragile? He seemed plenty strong running his mouth and beating on my stepson." I pulled Noah in against me. "I couldn't care less how fragile he is. Listen close: your nephew lays a hand on my stepson again, I'll let my stepson put him in the ground. Don't go thinking Blackwood kids are the only ones with people behind them. And teach him to watch his mouth—I hear those words one more time, I'll send my brother to Silvercrown to find out if running its mouth is the one thing your whole family, top to bottom, knows how to do."

I braced for Gareth to blow up. Back in the day I hadn't dared argue with him, never mind curse his family in public. But he didn't get angry. He looked at me, then at Noah, and the fury in his eyes slid slowly into hurt. "Stepson? You've already bonded with another man?"

I paused, then got it. He had no idea. After I left, he hadn't cared enough to ask a thing about me—of course he didn't know I'd moved into another man's estate months back. He'd been so desperate to be rid of me, and still somewhere in his head I wasn't supposed to remarry. What right did he have?

"You're marrying Sophia next month, and you can't take that I got married too?"

His lips moved. Every bit of color drained out of his face.

I didn't want to hear another word. I looked down at Noah. "Go get your sister. Neither of you is coming to this school anymore." Then I turned to Grant, who had a hand clamped over his mouth. "As for you—enjoy your last day as a teacher."

Pain forgotten, he jerked his head up in alarm. "What gives you the right—"

"You struck a child in public and humiliated him for where he comes from. My brother sits on the Alliance Education Fund. I'll tell him exactly what happened here today, and I'll make sure every Alpha academy on the coast hears how you treat your students."

Grant's mouth hung open, and nothing came out of it.

I looked at him and spaced out every word. "Blackwood cubs may be precious. So are Hale cubs. Anyone who lays a hand on one of my kids again is going to pay for it."

Then I turned to Gareth, still standing there dazed. "Gareth—you see me again, walk the other way. Otherwise I'll slap you every single time. And touch me again, I'll take the hand off."

I walked out with Noah and didn't give him another glance. For once, the hall we'd walked since we were kids didn't make me look back. That was the day the mate I'd loved for five years turned into a stranger for good.