Six Years After Exile, My Ex-Mate Came Crawling Back

In the sixth year of my exile in the Northern Territory, the Black Pine Pack finally sent someone to bring me back. I pushed open the wooden door just as the lead snow wolf bounded into the yard. He landed and shifted into human form, a dusting of snow still clinging to his shoulders. Six years had passed, but Derek Hawthorne was as tall and handsome as ever. The scar from our broken bond still marked the side of my neck, though it no longer ached for him. The boy behind him now came up to his father's shoulder. Noah Hawthorne faltered when he saw me. His lips parted, but the familiar word—Mom—never came. Instinctively, I reached to straighten his upturned collar. My hand stopped halfway, my fingers clutching at my sleeve. I remembered what he had said six years earlier: "I don't want you as my mother." I let my hand fall. Noah looked away, his features settling into the same aloof mask his father wore. "Eileen Herbert, I've come to take you back to Black Pine territory." Derek eyed my coarse wool cloak with something like pity. "Apologize to Selena, and I'll restore your pack status. You can live in the west wing of the packhouse and resume your duties as Noah's mother and the pack healer." "Black Pine already has healers," I said. "Why do you need me?" Derek did not answer right away, but Noah frowned. "Mom's silver wound is acting up again. She was poisoned by silver while saving the pack. If you know how to heal her, then you should come back with us." The Herbert family had overseen the silver mines for generations, and no one knew more about treating silver wounds. Selena Rhodes's old injury had flared repeatedly for the past six months. After three Black Pine healers failed to cure her, they had finally remembered the woman they had exiled to the north. "So you didn't travel all this way because you wanted to bring me home." I looked at Derek. "You came because you needed a healer you wouldn't have to pay." His expression darkened. "If you cure her, I'll allow you to remain in the packhouse as Noah's birth mother. Selena has already agreed. You should understand what a privilege that is." A privilege. Six years ago, Derek had vowed before the Moon Goddess's altar that I was his fated mate. Now he expected me to return as his nameless mistress, and he called that a privilege. Noah added, as though offering me a great favor, "Mom agreed to something else too. If you behave, I can visit you in the west wing from time to time." He called Selena "Mom" so naturally. Six years ago, she had won him over by letting him skip lessons whenever he pleased. Then, just before dawn, vampires who feared the sunlight ambushed Silver Valley, and Derek's younger brother was killed. Selena returned with a ledger of military silver shipments and accused my father of selling silver to the enemy. But on the date the ledger claimed the silver had changed hands, my father had been giving his report before the full-moon council. He could not possibly have been in Silver Valley. I had knelt in the council chamber and begged Derek to give me three days to investigate. He had looked down at me and said that Selena, who had dragged herself home badly wounded to deliver the evidence, would never lie about fallen warriors. Noah had hidden in Selena's arms and screamed at me, "Grandfather got Uncle killed, and you're still defending that monster! I don't want you as my mother!" That night, my entire family was branded traitors. As Luna, I could have disowned my parents and remained in Black Pine alone. Instead, I spoke my rejection oath before them all. "I, Eileen Herbert, call upon the Moon Goddess as my witness. I reject Derek Hawthorne as my fated mate and sever all ties with the Black Pine Pack." Derek had stared at me without warmth. "I accept your rejection." Our mate bond snapped then and there, turning the mark of his bite into a scar. Afterward, he personally stamped my family's exile order with his Alpha seal and banished my parents and me to the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory was the harshest frontier under the Werewolf Royal Court. Long winters sealed the mountain passes, supplies were scarce, and apart from military outposts and mines, it served as a refuge for criminal families cast out by other packs. Derek probably thought the agony of a broken bond, followed by cold, hunger, and endless winter nights, would soon grind the defiance out of me. All he had to do was wait. Once I had suffered enough, I would write to him in tears and beg forgiveness. Then he would come north, take me back, and expect me to worship him for his mercy. But no plea for rescue ever came. He had watched me follow my parents into the northern blizzard. For six years, I never once looked back. Later, Derek chose Selena as his mate. "I don't need you to restore anything." I faced the father and son before me. "I left the Black Pine Pack six years ago." Derek's voice dropped. His Alpha aura surged through the pack link and crashed over the yard. Every Black Pine wolf around him bowed his head. Our bond had been severed long ago, so I did not move. I stood straight. Six years of northern storms had frozen steel into my bones. Noah flushed. "Father came all this way himself, and you're still rejecting him just to get his attention?" I turned and took my travel bag from beside the door. When Derek saw it, his mouth relaxed. He clearly assumed I had packed because I meant to go with them. "Good." He reached for my bag, his old composure returning. "There's a place for you in our carriage." I sidestepped his hand and walked toward another convoy waiting at the crossroads. Its carriages bore an emblem of a silver moon encircled by 13 wolves—the crest of the Werewolf Royal Court. Derek's smug confidence froze on his face.