Chapter 2

The claw mark beside my name had been filed as voluntary consent.

Elias Ward laid the blood-moon book flat on the infirmary table while I sat wrapped in a blanket that did nothing against the cold inside me.

"The mark was entered before the ritual began," he said. "Three healers witnessed the transfer. They were told you'd approved it through your mate."

"My mate doesn't own my claws."

Caelan stood at the window, still wearing ceremonial black. "Rhea, the child wouldn't have survived another hour."

I looked past him at the nursery room. Talia was asleep in a chair with the baby against her shoulder. She had not yet seen me awake.

"Is he yours?"

Caelan did not answer.

That was answer enough.

Elias turned the book page. The transfer would leave me unable to shift for months. I could not take night routes alone, enter the forest during patrol hours, or work unsupervised trauma field calls until my wolf answered again.

Caelan said, "I'll keep you safe."

The words landed worse than the cold.

He had already decided what I could lose. Now he was offering to manage what remained.

I photographed every page of the book.

"Seal the record," I told Elias. "No one touches the stone until I know who gave them the right to use me."

Elias nodded and asked a guard to lock the archive door. Caelan's hand closed once at his side, the old Alpha gesture that usually made a room rearrange itself around him.

This time, the healer did not move.

"Rhea," Caelan said, softer now, "I thought you'd understand."

I looked at the nursery glass. Talia had tucked the blanket beneath Milo's chin. A baby lived because of what I had lost. That truth was not small. It was exactly why he had no right to make it for me.

"Understanding isn't consent," I said.

Outside, dawn began whitening the ridge. I had always loved that hour because my wolf would lift her head before the sun reached the trees.

She did not answer.