“They’ll know within a day,” I tell him. “They know what she is. We don’t marry humans, Coach. The pack will smell the lie on it before the announcement finishes circulating.”
“They won’t smell a lie if there isn’t one.”
I turn from the railing.
Coach has shifted forward in his chair, elbows on his knees. He drags a hand down his jaw and looks at the lawn for a beat before he looks back at me.
“I don’t like the idea of you getting so close to a human, but we don’t have much of an option, Grayson. But now that Vanessa has dragged this into a human courtroom, our options are limited.”
I don’t answer. My hands tighten on the railing behind me.
“We don’t marry humans,” he says quietly. “But relationships happen. They’ve happened in this pack before. As alpha, I can approve a human relationship under specific conditions. The human has to be cleared. No ties to anything that puts us at risk. A history that holds up.” He watches my face. “Miranda fits the profile. She’s been around the team for a while now. Ethan is attached to her. She has no family, no link that could become a problem.”
“Coach.”
“I’m not telling you to marry her, Grayson. I’m telling you that if you do this, I can handle the pack. The Council won’t be pleased about a public relationship with a human, but they don’t have grounds to intervene. Vanessa took us into human territory the second she filed in human court. We adapt or we lose.”
I stare at him.
He’s offering me cover, everything I would need to make this work and keep my son with me. If Coach knew who Miranda was to me, would he be singing the same tune?
My wolf turns slow circles inside me. It hasn’t settled since yesterday at the lake. Now Sterling wants my ring on her finger. The fated mate bond is going to grow stronger the longer we are together. Walking away right now will be hard enough, but months later, with her scent in every room of my house, on my child? It will be next to impossible.
I press my palms harder into the railing until the wood creaks.
“There has to be someone else,” I mutter.
“There isn’t.”
“Sterling.”
“If you want to keep Ethan, you need Miranda’s help,” Sterling says grimly. “There is no other way. If you don’t ask her to do this for you, you will lose your son. And nobody knows what he will go through once he is away from your protection. Do you want to lose custody of him?”
“Custody?”
Miranda’s voice sounds from the doorway, and my head whips up.
She’s on the other side of the screen.
How long has she been there?
The wind is blowing the wrong way for me to have caught her scent. She must have come down the stairs barefoot. My wolf isturned so far inward on Sterling’s words that she got within ten feet of me unnoticed.
Miranda is standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the porch, one hand braced against the frame, the other curled at her side. She’s still in my shirt from last night, hem falling past her thighs, legs bare beneath it. Her hair is loose around her shoulders, tangled on one side from sleep. The bruise that came up overnight on her collarbone is a dark smear above the open collar.
Her eyes find mine through the screen.
I cross the porch before I register moving. The screen door pushes open under my hand. My fingers close around her elbow because her legs won’t hold her much longer. I can see her weight has dropped onto the doorframe.
“What are you doing out of bed?”
“I heard voices.”
“I’m sorry we disturbed you. Go back to sleep.”
She ignores my request, her hand tightening on the frame. “Is it true?” Her eyes focus on me. “You’re about to lose custody of Ethan?”
I freeze. “What did you hear?”
