"Say that again, Miss Hart."

The clerk at the Pack Registry Office looked up, her fingers hovering over the keyboard as if she’d misheard me.

I pushed the document forward half an inch.

"I am applying for a Pack transfer."

She blinked, her eyes darting to the top of the application form and then back to my face.

"A transfer out of the Blackwood Pack?"

"Yes."

"With your child?"

"Yes."

My voice was steady—unnervingly so for a woman planning to take her six-year-old son and leave the only home they’d known for seven years. It was the voice of a woman who had just decided to sever a fated mate bond.

The clerk’s name was Lily. She was a junior staffer who’d joined the Registry Office only last year. She knew me, but not well. In truth, the entire Blackwood Pack knew me: Evelyn Hart, Alpha Damien Blackwood’s former private Beta. I was the administrative workhorse of the executive department—the wolf-less she-wolf who could never shift, yet always managed to clean up everyone else's messes.

They knew Noah, too. Or rather, they knew him as "Evelyn Hart’s son."

Nobody knew him as "Alpha Blackwood’s son."

Lily frowned as she scanned the form. "The receiving pack is... the Starfall Pack?"

"Correct."

"The reason listed is family reunification." She leaned in closer. "Your partner is with Starfall?"

My fingers curled slightly against my lap. "Yes."

It was a lie I had prepared for a long time. It wasn’t particularly elegant, but it was functional. A single mother trying to leave her Pack with a cub would face endless scrutiny and obstacles. A woman moving to be with a new partner, however, made perfect sense. Pack Law was notoriously protective of its youth, but it respected the formation of new family units. For a woman like me—one without a wolf—finding a partner willing to help raise a child was a narrative the elders would easily swallow.

I hated that I had to lie.

But I hated it more when Noah saw Damien in public and stopped in his tracks, looking at me with wide, pleading eyes to see if today was a day he was allowed to call him "Daddy."

Most days, the answer was no.

Lily’s expression softened. "I understand," she murmured. "Honestly, it’s probably for the best. Raising a cub on your own is so difficult, especially when you’re..."

She trailed off.

I finished the sentence for her.

"Wolf-less."

She looked embarrassed. "I didn't mean anything by it."

"It's alright. You're stating a fact."

She bit her lip and returned to her data entry.

The office wasn't quiet. At the window to the right, someone was applying for a border pass. In the back, two young werewolves were arguing over a communal hunting permit. The printer whirred, and the intermittent clack of keyboards filled the air. This was the most mundane administrative floor of the Pack Hall, the place that handled marriages, cub certifications, and the uncomfortable realities that had to be etched into the system.

Realities like Noah and me.

"Child's name," Lily said.

"Noah Hart."

"Age."

"Six."

"Father’s name."

She asked it naturally, as if it were just another box to tick.

A sudden pressure tightened in my throat. Lily looked up, immediately sensing the shift in the atmosphere.

"If the father isn't on the birth certificate, we can leave it blank," she added quickly, her tone apologetic. "I'm just following the protocol."

"Leave it blank,"

I said.

The words left a faint ache in my chest. It wasn't the agonizing pull of the mate bond; it was more like a needle prick against an old scar. Clean, bloodless, but there.

Damien Blackwood’s name was not on Noah’s birth certificate.

That had been Damien’s requirement.

Six years ago, on the day Noah was born, Damien had stood outside the hospital room in a dark suit, fresh from a The Werewolf Council meeting. He had looked at the infant sleeping in my arms with a complicated, unreadable expression. He stood there in silence for a long time.

I thought he would reach out and hold him.

He didn’t.

He’d said, "Evelyn, this isn't the right time to go public."

I had been exhausted, my body still trembling from labor, yet I had found excuses for him. He was the Alpha. He was under immense pressure. The Blackwood Pack wouldn’t easily accept a wolf-less Luna, nor would they accept an heir born without a formal mating ceremony.

I told myself he just needed time to get ready.

One year. Two years. Three.

Noah went from grasping my thumb to standing on his tiptoes to watch for the headlights of the cars at the Alpha House. He learned to say "Daddy," and then he learned to swallow the word whenever we were outside.

Damien was never ready.

"Miss Hart?"

Lily’s voice pulled me back to the present.

"My apologies," I said.

"It’s fine. I’ll leave the father’s name blank for now." She spoke softly, as if trying to console me. "Everyone always assumed you were a single mother anyway. You’ve done an amazing job raising Noah on your own. It couldn't have been easy."

I looked at her for a few seconds before nodding. "Thank you."

Her sympathy was genuine, and that was exactly why it stung. The entire Pack thought I was a single mother.

They didn't know their Alpha sent monthly payments to a private account for my living expenses. They didn't know the nursery in the far corner of the Alpha House’s third floor belonged to Noah. They didn't know the boy had eyes that were a mirror image of Damien’s own steel-blue.

They didn't know, not because they were blind, but because Damien forbade anyone from knowing.

Lily finished the entry and printed a stack of documents.

"According to the regulations, there is a forty-eight-hour cooling-off period for Pack transfers," she said, organizing the papers. "You're submitting this today, which means you have until this time the day after tomorrow to withdraw the application. Once that period ends and the Starfall Pack confirms receipt, yours and Noah’s files will be permanently removed from the Blackwood system."

"I understand."

She handed me a pen.

"Sign here. And here, confirming you are voluntarily waiving your adult member resettlement fee from the Blackwood Pack."

I took the pen.

My hand didn't shake as the nib touched the paper.

Evelyn Hart.

I signed my name.

It wasn't the first time I’d signed a Pack document. Over the last seven years, I had reviewed countless contracts, memorandums, The Werewolf Council responses, and border agreements for Damien. I knew exactly how to make a document legally binding, and I knew the consequences once it took effect.

So I left myself no grey areas.

I waived the resettlement fee.

I waived my benefits as an adult member of the Blackwood Pack.

I waived everything I could have claimed by virtue of Damien’s status.

All I wanted was Noah.

Lily took the signed papers back and pressed the blue stamp of the Registry Office onto them.

Click-clack.

The sound was muffled, but it felt like a door slamming shut behind me.

She handed me a receipt.

"This is your proof of filing. If you change your mind within forty-eight hours, you must be here in person to retract it."

I took the receipt, folded it, and tucked it into the innermost pocket of my bag.

"I won't be changing my mind."

Lily looked like she wanted to ask something more, but she simply nodded.

"Good luck, Miss Hart."

I stood up.

My legs felt slightly numb, but I could still walk.

As I reached the door, the automatic glass panels of the Pack Hall slid open from the outside.

The ambient noise of the lobby died instantly.

I didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

The mate bond recognized him long before my logic did.

A familiar tightness gripped my chest, as if an invisible hand were squeezing my heart. My body was more honest than my mind. Even after seven years of waiting, denials, and silence, my blood still heated the moment Damien Blackwood drew near.

I hated that instinct.

I slowly looked up.

Damien Blackwood stepped into the Pack Hall.

He wore a tailored black overcoat, his shoulders broad and sharp, with a silver-grey pin on his lapel engraved with the Blackwood wolf crest. The crowd in the lobby instinctively parted for him. An Alpha’s aura didn't need to be forced to make every werewolf bow their head.

Vanessa Vale was by his side.

She was wearing a pale blue dress under a white coat today, clutching a file to her chest. She was shorter than me and walked half a step behind him, making it look as though Damien were graciously accommodating her pace.

And he was. He had slowed down for her.

Vanessa reached out and grasped the sleeve of his coat, a light, seemingly casual gesture. Damien didn't pull away.

People in the lobby were stealing glances at them.

I knew what they were thinking.

Alpha Blackwood and his new favorite Beta.

They looked the part—appropriate, dignified. At least on the surface.

Vanessa had a wolf. She was young, beautiful, and displayed just the right amount of dependence on Damien. She wouldn't be like me; she wouldn't serve as a reminder to the entire world that their Alpha had a fated mate who couldn't even shift.

Damien’s gaze swept across the room, landing on me almost instantly.

It lasted only a second.

It was so brief it felt like he had accidentally glanced at a total stranger.

Yet the mate bond still flickered in my chest.

I stood my ground, refusing to be the first to speak.

Vanessa noticed me then. Her eyes lit up, and a soft smile touched her lips, as if she were genuinely delighted to run into me.

"Evelyn?" her voice was sweet and airy. "Are you here as well?"

As she said "as well," her hand remained firmly on Damien’s sleeve.

I looked at Damien.

In the past, I would have waited for him to give me an explanation. Even a glance, or a slight pause to discourage Vanessa from being so bold.

He did nothing.

Damien’s eyes drifted to the bag in my hand before returning to my face.

His expression was a mask of cold, distant perfection—the same face he wore at the head of the The Werewolf Council table.

I nudged the receipt deeper into my bag.

Just then, Lily leaned out from behind the counter.

"Miss Hart, don't forget to keep that transfer receipt safe!"

Several people in the lobby turned to look at me.

Vanessa’s smile faltered.

Damien’s expression finally changed.

It was subtle, but I saw it.

His gaze dropped to my bag, his steel-blue eyes darkening with a sudden intensity.

I gripped the strap of my bag, ready to make my exit.

Then Damien spoke.

"Evelyn."

Not "mate."

Not "Luna."

Not the mother of his child.

Just Evelyn.

I looked up at him.

He took a step toward me, Vanessa still clinging to his sleeve.

"What kind of paperwork are you doing here?"

His tone was flat, the way a superior might question a subordinate for being in a department where they didn't belong.

I looked at him and realized just how long seven years really was.

Long enough for me to once believe that if I just held on for one more day, he would eventually turn back to me.

Now I finally understood that you can’t wait for someone to turn around.

Before I could answer, my phone vibrated in my bag.

A notification popped up from Noah’s smartwatch.

Mommy, will Daddy come to my Wolf-spark Birthday tonight?

I stared at the words for a beat, then pressed the button to dim the screen.

"It’s nothing, Alpha Blackwood,"

I said.

"Just some private paperwork."

The Alpha’s Forsaken Secret — Chapter 9 The Third Party's Blackout

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