She stopped pacing, her shoulders hunching inward. She looked smaller than she had in Yorkshire. Diminished. Like the city had already started eating away at her.
"I have to leave the caravan park soon, Pres. I've probably got another couple of weeks to work out where I can go. I wanted to let you know in case–"
My stomach dropped. "Why?"
"My mother called." Her hand went to her throat, fingers disappearing beneath the high collar of her dress. "He's looking for me. He knows I'm in England."
The air in the room felt suddenly cold, despite the radiators pumping heat into the space. My skin prickled with goosebumps.
"Who? Your alpha?"
Maeve's fingers pressed harder against her neck, like she was trying to hold something in. Or keep something out.
"He's called Callaghan and he's an Irish 'prince.'" The word came out bitter, dripping with sarcasm. "My father traded me to him. It was an arrangement, Presley. A way to settle a debt between families. Gambling debts, business deals gone wrong, I don't even know the full story. Iwasn't supposed to be his. I was in love with someone else. A boy from the village who smelled like—"
Her voice broke, and the first tear tracked through the dust on her cheek, leaving a clean line in its wake.
"Who claimed you, Maeve?" I whispered, my heart doing that frantic, ugly somersault. "Was it the man you loved?"
Maeve let out a sob that sounded like it had been ripped from her lungs. Raw and ragged and full of years of pain.
"I thought I could run. I thought if I hid in a tin box in the middle of nowhere, the bond wouldn't find me. That I could just disappear and he'd forget about me." Her hand reached for her collar, yanking it down to reveal the scar on her neck. It was an old bite, but jagged and deep. Not the clean, purposeful bite of a loving claim, but something violent. Angry. A mark made to hurt, not to bond.
"It was my husband." The word dripped with venom. "He took the claim to make sure no one else could. He didn't want my heart, Presley. He wanted the property. The omega his family had paid for. The dowry my father owed."
I reached for her, my hand outstretched, but she stepped back like I'd burned her.
Her eyes went sharp, cutting through the tears. "We're the same, you and I. Traded like livestock. You think your pack is different because they have nice manners and silk sheets? You think Hastings wants you?"
"They do," I said, but my voice trembled, betraying me. I thought of the way Hastings kissed my forehead this morning. The way Fritz tucked my hair back when I was eating. The way Etienne called me Princesse. "They care about me, Maeve. They're taking care of everything."
"Are they?" Maeve's voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. She moved closer, her footsteps silent on the rug. "Are they still paying you, Pres?"
The question hung in the air like a noose.
"I... I haven't checked." My throat felt tight, my tongue too thick. "Hastings said everything was taken care of. He said I'd never have to worry about money again."
"Check." It wasn't a suggestion. It was a demand. "Look at the numbers, not the alpha. If they're still paying you, you're not a mate. You're a transaction. And now that there's a baby..." Her eyes dropped to my stomach, then to the pregnancy test I'd left on the side table. "You aren't the priority anymore. The baby inside you is the asset."
My fingers felt like ice as I pulled out my phone. The screen was too bright, the colors too vivid. I toggled over to my banking app, my thumb slipping on the glass.
I had to wait for the FaceID to click, my own reflection staring back at me with wide, haunted eyes. I looked pale. Scared. Like a woman who already knew what she was going to find.
The screen loaded.
My breath hitched.
Five thousand pounds. Depositedyesterday.
Five thousand pounds. Deposited the week before.
Five thousand pounds. Deposited the week before that.
"There's... there's nearly fifteen thousand pounds in there," I whispered, the words tasting like ash in my mouth. "They just kept depositing it. Five thousand a week. Even this morning."
Even after Hastings had claimed me. Even after I spent my heat in their arms. Even after the bond had snapped into place and I felt him in my chest like a second heartbeat.
They were still paying me.
