Chapter 2

Ethan was thrown out. The little food shop we had was seized as compensation. And so Ethan and I began to live on the road.

Dogs bit us. Rogues pushed us around. Ethan nearly died from pneumonia, burning with fever, and I knelt in front of the Pack Healer and begged, then gave blood for money to bring him back.

By the time Ethan was sixteen, his uncle from overseas came back. He used his reputation as a top Pack attorney to win back most of Ethan's inheritance, then spent six months finding us in a shelter.

From that point on, Ethan became the heir of the Calloway Pack.

He enrolled in a private academy, followed his uncle's path into law, and became one of the best Pack attorneys in the territory.

I wasn't as talented. I scraped through a law program and became a junior assistant.

Back then, he held my hand and looked at me steadily. "Nora, you don't need to be brilliant. I have everything covered."

Then when we were twenty-two and just out of school, Ethan stood in front of all his peers and proposed to me in public. "Nora, be my mate. I'll love you for the rest of my life. If I ever betray you, may I swallow ten thousand needles and die in agony."

One month later, we bonded.

Then the Pack Healer's assessment revealed that Ethan was infertile. Ethan was too proud for that. His relatives were already circling, waiting for a reason to attack.

That day, I hid his report and had a false one made, telling him I was the one who couldn't have pups.

He held me tight and told me it didn't matter, as long as he had me.

After the bonding, Ethan didn't resent me. He worked hard to train me and help me build a name of my own in Pack law.

I felt ashamed that I was holding him back. He looked at me seriously and said, "Nora, a person has to have a conscience. The moment your father walked into that enforcement office, I swore I would take care of you for the rest of my life."

"Nora, without you and your father, there would be no Ethan Calloway today. Everything I have is yours."

But a conscience has no legal force.

In the third year after our bonding, he started an affair with the She-Wolf we had both sponsored, Serena Voss.

We had meant to give back to the Pack, and also to recruit good talent into our legal office.

Serena was genuinely talented. She walked in and took down a major case her first month, sharp with arguments and with a unique grasp of Pack law. She quickly became the rising star of the office.

The two of them had endless things to discuss, cases they couldn't stop debating.

They'd argue until their faces were flushed, then look at each other and laugh.

And eventually, they ended up in the same bed.

Mrs. Ward brought in the herbal broth and interrupted the mess of my memories.

I touched my face and realized it was cold. I'd been crying without knowing it. It had been a very long time since that happened.

I raised my hand, fed the fake fertility document into the shredder, straightened my clothes, and sat down at the low table.

My tears should have run dry three years ago. Back then they really had been like a faucet, pouring out in floods but worth nothing.

Serena came into the legal office and called me "Nora" at every turn, like we were family. She made herself at home. The day she closed a major case that got coverage across the territory, I went out and bought a cake to celebrate.

On the way back I noticed Ethan's car. I thought I'd surprise them. I was almost at the door when I saw the car keep going, moving further from home, until it stopped in front of a run-down roadside inn.

I watched them go inside. I watched them take off their clothes and hold each other.

I lost my mind. I grabbed Serena by the hair and slapped her across the face.

That day, Ethan grabbed me and threw me against the wall. Like the time I was ten, blood running down my forehead.

Back then his eyes had been full of rage as he swung a blade to protect me. Now his eyes were full of the same rage, but his arms were around someone else.

"Are you insane? Serena's carrying my pup. Do you want to hurt my child?"

I stood there, stunned. They'd already conceived? I didn't even know how long this had been going on.

I threw myself at Serena again, screaming that she was a scheming bitch, asking her what she had in her belly and how she could show her face.