Chapter Sixteen
I read the filing three times.
Each time the words mean the same thing. Conduct unbecoming. Fraudulent claimant. False mate bond. Three charges stacked like a wall between Caden and everything he has built. Everything he dismantled his father's control to protect.
I hand Rook's phone back.
I look at Caden.
He is dressed and his jaw is set and he is already in the part of himself that does not panic and I watch him be there for exactly two seconds before I say: "Look at me."
He looks at me.
"Not the Alpha part of you," I say. "The part that was in this room ten minutes ago. Look at me from there."
Something shifts in his face. Just slightly. Just enough.
"This is not over," I say. "He pivoted because the bond challenge was failing and he knows it. This new filing is
