Page 58 of Abandoned By My Alpha Husband

"Liam again?"

"Yes." Marcus placed a report on my desk. "Third District. Got into it with two other wolves. By the time the guards arrived, he'd already bloodied one of their noses."

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

Here we go again.

This was the fourth time this month. Five times last month. Six the month before. Liam was getting more rebellious, more out of control. Street fights, backtalk to teachers, and once he'd even scaled the school wall to skip class—guards found him outside a bar.

A ten-year-old kid outside a bar? Thank God the bouncer had some integrity and couldn't be bribed to let him in.

I rubbed my temples. They were throbbing.

"What about the other two wolves?"

"Both from noble families." Marcus's tone carried a hint of helplessness. "Their parents have already filed complaints. Said Liam was too rough, and that—"

He paused.

"Said what?"

"That you're indulging your bastard son and making the Hale family a laughingstock." Marcus looked at me carefully. "The Elder Council's been talking too."

My fingers drummed twice on the desk.

Bastard son.

That label had followed Liam for five years. After I banished Elena, I'd announced Liam's identity—that he was my biological son, not adopted. A rash decision made in the heat of the moment. I thought it would be better for him.

I was wrong.

Announcing his identity only made the whispers louder.

"Mixed-blood bastard."

"Spawn with no known mother."

"The Hale family's shame."

These words reached Liam's ears, spread through his school, and echoed across all of Silver pine.

And I could do nothing. Liam didn't care about any of it. He hated me for one reason only—because I'd banished his mother.

"Bring him back." I ground out. "Now."

Marcus bowed and left.

I leaned back in my chair, staring at the ceiling. The chandelier's crystals caught the afternoon light, flashing, piercing.

Liam turning out like this—that was on me.

Five years ago, I threw Elena out with my own hands. I denied she was my mate in front of everyone. I let the bond shatter. I watched her kneel in the rain, begging me to believe her, and I walked away.

Then Liam found out. He learned Elena was his birth mother. He learned I was the one who drove her away. He learned I didn't believe her.

From that day on, he changed. He stopped calling me "Dad," switched to "Your Majesty." He stopped talking to me unless I spoke first. He started cutting class, started fighting, started finding every way possible to tell me—he hated me.

I hated myself too.