I push off the door and straighten. She holds her place a few feet off, her hand trailing over the metal, fingers spread, claiming it. Every inch of her is arranged for an audience that doesn’t exist tonight.
“Well?”
“Why do you want Ethan?” My voice drops on the name. “Why now, after five years of silence?”
“He’s my son.”
“You never wanted him.”
She smiles, nothing warm in it. “I wanted him from the second the test went pink, Grayson. I’m the one who labored sixteen hours bringing him into the world while you stood in the hall. You’re the one who turned him against me afterward.”
“You left him alone in a house for three days.”
“Don’t be dramatic. He didn’t die, did he?”
“He was six months old, Vanessa. By the time I got home, he was so dehydrated the healer wouldn’t look me in the eye while she told me how close it had been. He couldn’t lift his head to drink.”
Her gaze slides away. “That was years ago.”
“That was the only thing that ever mattered.”
She lifts her chin. “Yet here I am. His mother. You can call my custody petition whatever name you like, but at the end of the day, a court sides with the woman who gave him life over the playboy father who paraded a different girlfriend through his house every week.”
“Stop talking and listen to me.” I take one step closer. Her eyes flick to my face, the smile slipping by half a degree. “Your husband would never allow another male shifter pup inside his territory. You know that as well as I do. Brent will tolerate Ethan for exactly as long as it takes to use the boy for whatever leverageCrimson Rock wants out of this, and then he’ll find a reason to make him go away.”
She lets out a soft laugh. “Brent loves me.”
“Brent loves what you can give him.”
“And what would that be, in your professional opinion?”
“Access to my bloodline, a foothold inside Silverpeak, a four-year-old pup he can hold hostage every time the Council leans our way in a territorial dispute.” Something climbs into my throat I don’t know. “You’re putting Ethan’s life in danger, and you know it.”
“I gave birth to him.” She smiles, and my blood chills. “His life belongs to me.”
I look at her a long second. “No.” I keep it quiet. “It doesn’t. You’re not doing this for him, Vanessa. You haven’t asked a single question about him since you filed, not what he eats, not what he likes, not what scares him, not whether he sleeps through the night.”
“Why would I?”
“Exactly.” My jaw works. “You’re doing this because of me, because of Miranda.”
For half a second, the expression that crosses her face is so naked I almost feel sorry for her. Then it locks down behind the cold smile. Her chin comes up.
“Miranda? You mean that little human pet of yours?”
“Watch yourself.”
“Is that what you traded me in for?” There’s glass in her voice now. “Did your standards drop that far, Grayson, or are you just slumming because you can’t bear an empty house?”
“She’s not a replacement. There was nothing to replace, Vanessa. If anything, you were a placeholder for her.”
The words are deliberately cruel, and I can see the way her eyes tighten.
“She will never raise my son,” Vanessa whispers harshly. “That filthy human slut will—”
“I’ll rip out your tongue if you disrespect her again,” I say calmly.
She freezes, and I continue, my voice low and even. “I called you here to let you know this. If you ever pull what you pulled tonight again, I’ll tear your throat out with my hands and bury what’s left where no one will find you.”
