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Chapter 11: The Ex Comes Back

Ava was learning how to make pack pancakes when Jake showed up.

Rosa was teaching her. "Flip, Luna, flip! Like wolf pounce!"

Ava flipped. Pancake landed on floor. Kids cheered anyway.

Then the front door slammed. Hard. So hard the brownstone shook.

Marcus was up instantly. "Scent. Rogue."

Ethan, who had been drinking coffee in doorway watching Ava fail at pancakes, went still. Amber flooded eyes.

"Jake," he growled.

Jake Miller walked into kitchen. Not in suit like at gala. In jeans, hoodie, hair messy, eyes red. Drunk. And furious.

He looked at Ava in pack hoodie, flour on hands, standing next to Rosa, and his face twisted.

"Ava? What are you wearing? You look like - like one of them!"

"She looks like Luna," Rosa said coldly.

Jake ignored her, stepped closer to Ava. Ethan stepped between.

"Don't," Ethan said quietly. "Don't come closer."

"I have right," Jake shouted, voice cracking. "She is my fated mate too! I felt it! Last night! The Goddess mark - it burned me too!"

Room gasped.

Ava froze. "What?"

Jake pulled down his collar. On his neck, faint, almost fake-looking, a small dark smudge. Not gold. Not glowing. Like a bruise.

"See? See? I have mark too! We were together three years! She is mine! Goddess made mistake!"

Ethan looked at mark, then laughed. Short, cruel.

"That is not Goddess mark," he said. "That is hickey from Sophia, Jake. Or self-tanner. Don't insult Goddess."

Jake's face went red. "You think you're better? Because you're King? Because you have money? She was mine first! She - she gave me everything!"

"I gave you my time," Ava said suddenly, voice shaking but loud. She stepped from behind Ethan. "Not everything. And you threw it away at gala, remember? In front of everyone? You said I was not enough."

"I was drunk!" Jake yelled. "I was showing off! Sophia said - "

"Sophia says a lot," Ava cut. "Sophia poisoned me yesterday."

Jake blinked. "What?"

"Wolfsbane," Marcus said. "Your girlfriend tried to kill Luna."

Jake stared at Ava's neck where bandage still covered gold mark. For first time, real guilt.

"Ava... I didn't - "

"You didn't care," Ava said, tears now. "For three years I made you coffee, edited your papers, listened to your dreams. And you laughed when I fell. Ethan - " She grabbed Ethan's hand " - Ethan picked me up. You stepped over me."

Silence in kitchen. Kids hiding behind Rosa.

Jake looked at their joined hands. At Ethan's calm, deadly face.

Then he did something stupid.

He challenged.

"I challenge you," Jake said to Ethan, puffing chest. "Alpha challenge. For Luna. Old law. Winner gets mate."

Every werewolf in room inhaled sharply.

Ethan's eyebrows raised. "You? Challenge me? Human? Do you even know what that means?"

"I've been training! With pack! I can shift! A little! Last week!"

Ethan looked at Marcus. Marcus shrugged. "He did come to training once. Cried when he saw blood."

Ava tugged Ethan's sleeve. "What happens in challenge?"

Ethan didn't look away from Jake. "Two Alphas fight. To submission or death. Winner claims Luna. Loser leaves pack, city, territory. It's old. Very old. Council rarely allows now."

"I want council!" Jake shouted. "I want - "

"No," Ava said.

Everyone looked at her.

"No," she repeated, stronger, stepping forward. "You don't get to challenge for me like I'm a trophy. I'm not a pack trophy. I'm a person. I choose."

Jake scoffed. "Human choosing? That's not law."

"It is Luna law," Rosa said, stepping beside Ava. "Luna chooses. Always. Since first pack. Alpha fights for honor, but Luna chooses who she goes home with."

Ethan looked at Ava, surprised and proud.

"Ava," Jake tried softer, reaching for her hand. "Ava, come home. We can go back to Queens. Normal life. No wolves, no poison, no - "

Ava pulled her hand back.

"Normal life with you was me crying in bathroom so you wouldn't hear," she said quietly. "Normal life with him - " she looked at Ethan " - is me howling badly and burning pancakes and almost dying but never crying alone."

She turned to Ethan, took his face in floury hands.

"I choose you," she said clearly, so whole brownstone heard. "Not because Goddess mark. Not because contract. Because you saw me on floor and didn't laugh. I choose you, Ethan Blackstone."

Ethan closed his eyes like prayer answered.

Then opened, amber blazing, and looked at Jake.

"She chose," he said, voice layered with Alpha. "Challenge denied. Luna has spoken. You are banished from Boston territory. And New York. If I scent you near her again, I will not be as kind as today. Today I let you walk."

Jake stared, realizing he lost. Not fight. Everything.

Security - two big pack guys - picked him up under arms.

"Wait - Ava - " Jake called as dragged out.

Ava didn't look.

When door slammed, she collapsed into chair, shaking.

Ethan knelt, took her floury hands, kissed knuckles.

"You were magnificent," he whispered. "My brave Luna."

"I was so scared," she whispered back.

"Good," he said. "Brave is being scared and choosing anyway. You chose me."

Rosa brought new pancakes, on plate this time, and whole pack cheered, "LUNA CHOSE! LUNA CHOSE!"

Pigtail girl climbed onto Ava's lap. "Does that mean you stay forever?"

Ava looked at Ethan, at pack, at flour on her hands, at gold mark warm under bandage.

"Yes," she said. "I think it means I stay forever."

Ethan's wolf howled inside, so loud only Ava felt it: _MINE. FINALLY MINE._