Chapter 8

Seeing nothing move in my face, Garrett cleared his throat to cover the awkwardness.

He slid another card toward me.

"We didn't know things had been this cruel for you. Money is the only way we know how to make it up to you."

"Also, we're going to send Ivy abroad. She won't be living at Sterling anymore."

"Wren. Whatever happened, we are the ones with your blood. Come home."

I let out a short laugh. Dry. No hiding the contempt.

"Send her overseas? And Sterling keeps paying to raise her? So she'll just be your daughter from another Territory? That's what 'she won't be living at Sterling' means?"

Caught clean, Garrett looked stricken.

I kept going. My face stayed flat.

"You say we are blood. So tell me. Did you ever actually treat me as Pack?"

"You knew Ivy's mother stole my childhood. But because Ivy was the pup you raised, you couldn't let her go. And you didn't care what that did to me."

"Caleb blamed me for showing up and ruining your perfect family of four. You and Marianne never said a word in my defense. Because deep down, that's what you thought too."

"You were the ones who brought me back. Why did I end up being the one who ruined the Pack?"

Garrett's head came up. Something complicated moved in his eyes.

Like he couldn't believe it. Like he regretted it.

But I wasn't interested in guessing.

I pushed the card back.

"I'll take the money. You owe me that."

"And I'm buying out every drop of the blood between us. Don't come back into my life again."

After that, the Sterlings stopped coming.

Ivy wasn't sent abroad. She was simply removed from Sterling Manor.

She didn't take it. She tore the Manor apart. She sent Marianne into a collapse that put her in bed.

I heard all this around the time I was accepted into advanced studies at the Council Law Academy. I was focused on Pack Enforcement Law.

The next time I saw the Sterlings.

I was lead prosecutor on my first case. A Rogue trafficking ring that had taken pups from nine different Packs.

At the hearing, I spotted Garrett, Marianne, and Caleb in the public gallery.

A few years had done things to them. Garrett and Marianne had gone grey at the temples. They looked worn down.

Caleb's youth was gone. He looked steadier, older.

But when he looked at me, it was the look of a boy who'd done something wrong. His eyes were thick with guilt.

My gaze passed over them for a single second. Then I locked into the tribunal.

After several sessions, the ruling came down.

I listened to the verdict. My eyes went wet.

I had fought to study. I had fought to make it to this Academy. For this.

I wanted Pack Enforcement Law to give stolen families back what was taken from them.

To try to balance some piece of what those years of broken Packs had done.

And to make some peace with the broken pup I had been.

I had been quietly wiring money to Packs with missing pups for years. I had donated to several shelters.

Maybe there were pups in those shelters who were like me — taken from somewhere. And somewhere, their blood might still be waiting for them to come home.

Outside the Tribunal Hall, I saw a few of the families crying in front of the press.

They talked about the years of agony. The searching. The pain of a missing pup.

Garrett and Marianne and Caleb were close enough to hear. Their eyes went red too.

But what showed on their faces most was shame.

Especially when they looked at me.

Marianne tried to step toward me. Then pulled back. She turned into Garrett's shoulder and broke down.

Garrett and Caleb both dropped their heads. They couldn't meet my eyes.

I gave them one cold look.

What I saw was not family. Just strangers who didn't matter.

I turned. Reporters closed in.

"Prosecutor Hayes! A few words!"

I opened my mouth. Closed it again.

In the end, everything I had came down to a single line.

"May no pup ever be stolen again."