Chapter: 14

As soon as she spotted Sera coming out, she sprang up, rushing toward her daughter. Sera broke our gaze to view her mother, her eyebrows furrowing slightly.

"Oh, darling, look at you." Margaret's voice trembled as she reached for Sera's injuries.

"Excuse me," Sera stepped back, leaving her mother's hands suspended in empty air. "Who are you calling? It can't be me."

"If you're looking for your darling—" Her gaze cut past Margaret to where Ethan and Celeste stood, "—she's right behind you."

"Sera!" Ethan interjected, his Alpha tone sharp with disapproval. "Mother's just concerned. What did the doctors say?"

"Since when does my survival matter to any of you?" The ice in her voice was a blade to the chest. This wasn't the Sera I knew. The woman who'd once clung to our rare kindness like sunlight, who'd shaped herself into whatever might earn a scrap of our affection.

"The doctors said I'll live," she continued, that glacial stare flicking to me. "But then again..." A cold smile. "Who cares about an expendable nobody, so long as the important people are safe?"

"That's not—"

"Where is my son?" She cut off Margaret, turning to me with eyes stripped of all their former tenderness. As if I were just a stranger to her now.

"At home," I answered stiffly. "With my parents." "Ill go get him." She gave a curt nod before walking toward the exit.

"Wait—" My hand shot out, catching her wrist. "Daniel is safe where he is. You're in no condition to care for him right now."

Her gaze dropped to where my fingers circled her arm, brow furrowing. I released her but blocked her path.

"The rogues who attacked today are likely the same ones who targeted your father. This wasn't random, Sera. They're systematically hunting the Frostbane Pack members, trying to—"

"What does that have to do with me?" The ice in her voice made the room collectively inhale.

"For fuck's sake, Sera!" Ethan snapped. "Are you really this dense? You're in danger!"

"I stopped being a Frostbane member years ago." Her voice was a whip -crack. "Which means I'm safe."

"Sera, listen—" I dragged a hand through my hair, frustration spiking.

"And I'm not part of your pack either." She took a step closer, eyes glinting like shards of diamond. "Is this some new ploy to take Daniel from me?"

"What?" I looked at her, unbelieving.

"Then I don't understand why you're all standing here trying to stop me from getting my child."

"Have you lost your mind, Sera?" Margaret exclaimed.

"Ive given you what you wanted.” A shrug, feigning nonchalance. "The divorce is signed. I've moved out. The funeral's over. There's no reason for us to keep talking."

My jaw tightened. "Sera, that's not—"

"Try to take Daniel," she locked my eyes, a promise sharpened to a killing edge, "and you'll learn how sharp my teeth are—with or without a wolf."