Chapter 5
Elena.
“This is exactly the kind of tenant you don’t want in your building.”
I froze halfway across the lobby, Margot’s voice loud across the marble floor of the building I’d been trying to move into for a week.
“Margot. What are you doing here?”
She turned, unbothered, standing beside a very confused-looking property manager who was still holding my signed application in one hand. “I’m making sure this man understands exactly who he’d be renting to. A woman currently being investigated by an entire pack council for misconduct unbecoming a Luna.”
“That’s not true, and you know it.”
“Isn’t it?” Margot smiled. “Funny how quickly people believe the truth when there’s a paper trail behind it.”
The property manager cleared his throat, sliding my application back across the counter toward me without meeting my eyes. “Ms. Hart, I think we’re going to have to hold off on finalizing your lease. I have other tenants to think about, and this seems, well, complicated. I am sure you received the email last night.”
“Yes, I did, you already approved me. I signed everything last week.”
“I’m sorry. Truly.” He didn’t sound sorry, only relieved to be done with the conversation. “Good luck finding something else.”
“Wait…” I started, but he walked away without looking back.
“Aw.” Margot’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Funny how quickly doors close when people hear the word ‘investigation.’”
“You crossed into human territory just to do this.” I said, my voice low and angry. “You drove all the way to Duskridge to ruin one lease.”
“I’d cross into worse places to keep my son’s name clean. You, on the other hand, seem determined to drag it through the dirt.”
She laughed, short and humorless, and walked past me toward the exit without another word, leaving me standing alone in a lobby that had just cost me another month of hotel bills and whatever peace I’d managed to scrape together that morning.
I stood there with the rejected application still in my hand, the paper already creasing under my grip. The lobby suddenly felt too bright and crowded. Every person who had overheard now knew something was wrong with me.
My wolf snarled, trying to claw its way out and bite Margot’s stupid neck, but I knew that would only get me in more trouble.
I forced myself to walk out without looking at anyone. My face burned the entire way to the car.
I called Nora the second I made it back to my car.
“Hey…” She started, before I cut her off.
“Margot freaking showed up at my new place, Nora. In person, she told the property manager I was under some pack investigation and got my lease pulled.”
“That absolute snake.” Nora’s voice went cold. “Okay, I found someone. A lawyer named Audrey Tatum, she handles cases that cross both human and pack law, divorces where a bond severance is also on the table. She’s the best in the state for exactly this mess.”
“Set it up. Today if you can.”
Audrey’s office smelled like old paper and stronger coffee than I could stomach that afternoon, and she got straight to business the moment Nora and I sat down across from her desk.
“I’ve read through what you sent me.” Audrey said, flipping through a folder thick with printouts. “The divorce filing is straightforward enough on the human side. The problem is Margot’s already filed a countersuit, alleging you misappropriated pack property when you left the den.”
“That’s absurd. I left everything behind except my own clothes.”
“Absurd doesn’t matter in a pack court, Ms. Hart, only precedent does, and precedent tends to favor whoever is an Alpha.” Audrey closed the folder and folded her hands on top of it. “There’s something else you should understand. Ronan can keep the bond active indefinitely just by refusing to appear before the council. No hearing, no ruling, nothing anyone can force him into. As long as he stays away, that bond stays open, and so does his claim on you under pack law.”
“So he gets to control how long this drags out.”
“Right now, yes.” Audrey’s eyes stayed on mine. “Which is exactly why you need evidence strong enough that the council can’t afford to let him hide behind silence forever.”
“What kind of evidence?”
“Anything that shows Ronan’s own conduct clearly enough that neither court can pretend this is simply a marriage that soured.” Audrey tapped the folder once. “Financial records, communications, anything that proves this wasn’t a mutual falling out.”
I thought, for one second, of the anatomy textbook, and the small object hidden inside it that I hadn’t told a single soul about, not even Nora.
“I might have something.” I said. “I’m not ready to talk about it yet.”
Audrey raised an eyebrow but didn’t push. Nora, sitting beside me, turned her head slowly, studying my face.
“Elena.” Nora’s voice dropped low once we were back outside, alone on the sidewalk. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“There’s a reason I took that old textbook with me instead of leaving it behind.” I glanced back toward the lawyer’s office window, lowering my own voice out of habit. “It’s worth more to me right now than anything else I own. More than gold, honestly.”
“What’s that?” She asked, whispering.
Before I could decide how much to tell her, a man stepped past us on the sidewalk, close enough that I caught the shift in his stride, the small way he angled his shoulder away from me as he passed.
I knew that walk. It was the same one I’d started noticing all over Duskridge lately, wolves crossing to the far side of a hallway, like they were avoiding me.
“Did you see that?” I asked quietly.
“See what?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head. “I think people can smell that something’s wrong with me now. Wolves, I mean. They keep giving me room, like I’m contagious. I can’t believe I’m the first wolf to divorce her mate though or reject him.”
Nora’s face softened, and for a moment she looked like she wanted to hug me right there on the sidewalk. “Maybe the first Luna, but hey, it makes you unique.”
Before I could answer her, a man in a gray suit stepped up beside us, a thin envelope held out toward me like he’d been waiting there the whole time.
“Elena Hart?” he asked, already extending it into my hands whether I wanted it or not.
“That’s me.”
“You’ve been served.” He turned and walked off before I could ask a single question, leaving me standing there with an envelope stamped in bold letters across the front, Ashford Pack Council, Formal Countersuit Filing.
“What the hell? What is wrong with him? So unprofessional.” Nora’s hand closed around my arm. “Elena. Open it.”
I tore the seal slowly, my heart was already bracing for whatever Margot had decided to accuse me of next.
I scanned the first line. “What the hell?”