DANTE'S POV
The pen clattered against the mahogany table.
My hand—the same hand that had signed billion-dollar deals without trembling—shook like a leaf in a storm.
*No.*
It couldn't be her.
Aria was gone. Broken. Buried somewhere in the past where I'd left her three years ago with her tears and her desperate love and her pathetic hope.
Aria wore cardigans and glasses. Aria made herself small. Aria whispered when she spoke and apologized when she breathed.
This woman was fire and blood and fury in a red suit that cost more than I'd ever spent on my *wife*.
But that scent.
Pine and vanilla. The mate bond I'd spent seven years suppressing, three years forgetting, suddenly roared to life like someone had poured gasoline on dying embers.
My wolf clawed at my chest, howling. *MATE. MATE. MATE.*
"Hello, *husband.*" Her voice was ice wrapped in silk. "Miss me?"
I couldn't speak. Couldn't breathe. Couldn't do anything but stare at the woman who'd haunted my dreams wearing a stranger's confidence.
"Mr. Blackwood?" Her assistant—a sharp-eyed woman with a tablet—stepped forward. "Shall we begin the meeting? Ms. Stone has another appointment in an hour."
*Ms. Stone.*
Ria Stone. The anonymous owner of NovaTech. The venture capitalist who'd been systematically destroying my company for three months.
Was my wife.
My *dead* wife.
Except she wasn't dead. She was standing in my boardroom like an avenging angel, and every instinct I had screamed *danger.*
"Aria—"
"That's *Ms. Stone* to you." She sat down without being invited, crossing her legs with the casual power of someone who owned the room. Maybe she did. "Let's not waste time on nostalgia, Mr. Blackwood. We're here to discuss business."
"Business?" My voice came out rough. Wrong. "You destroyed six of my contracts. Stole my clients. Turned my own board members against me. That's not business—that's war."
She smiled. The expression didn't reach her eyes.
"War requires two equal opponents. This is just cleanup."
The words hit like a slap. Behind me, I felt Sienna shift. She'd been standing by the window, silent. Now her presence felt suffocating.
"Dante." Sienna's hand touched my shoulder. "Who is this woman?"
Aria's eyes flicked to that hand. Something dark crossed her face. Then it was gone, replaced by cold amusement.
"Oh, you must be Sienna Frost." Aria's tone could have frozen hell. "The pack *advisor.* How's playing house in my home working out for you?"
Sienna's fingers dug into my shoulder. "I don't know what you're talking about—"
"Don't you?" Aria leaned forward. "Let me refresh your memory. Three years ago, I came home early from a pack meeting. Found my *husband* with his childhood friend. Found my son calling another woman 'Mommy.' Ring any bells? Or should I describe the bedroom in more detail?"
My stomach dropped.
I hadn't touched Sienna. Not like Aria was implying. But we'd been close. Too close. Sienna crying on my shoulder about pack politics while Aria waited at home. Sienna's hand in mine during meetings while my wife ate dinner alone.
I'd been faithful in body.
But Aria was right—I'd been cheating in every way that mattered.
"That was a misunderstanding," I managed.
"Really?" Aria pulled out a folder. Slid it across the table. "Because I have photos. Time stamps. Witness statements. Your 'misunderstanding' looks a lot like emotional affair in family court."
*Family court?*
"You're suing me?"
"For custody. Back child support. And damages." Her smile was a knife. "Did you really think I'd disappear forever, Dante? That I'd just let you replace me and move on?"
"You left!" The words exploded out of me. "You abandoned your son. Your pack. Your responsibilities—"
"I LEFT TO SURVIVE!"
The room went silent.
Aria stood, her hands flat on the table. The mate bond pulsed between us, angry and alive and *wrong* because I'd ignored it so long I'd forgotten how it felt.
"I left because staying would have killed me." Her voice shook. "Every day watching you choose her. Every night sleeping alone. Every moment being invisible in my own home. I left because my son already had a new mother, and I was just the broken thing in the way."
"Aria—"
"Ms. Stone." She straightened. Smoothed her jacket. When she looked at me again, the emotion was gone. Locked behind walls I'd helped build. "Now. NovaTech is prepared to buy out your cybersecurity division for four hundred million. That's generous considering it's worth half that since I acquired your major clients."
"I'm not selling."
"Then I'll wait for your company to collapse and buy it for pennies." She checked her watch. "Either way, I win. The question is how much you lose."
Sienna stepped forward. "Dante would never—"
"Sienna." My voice came out harder than intended. "Leave. Now."
"But—"
"*Now.*"
She left, but not before shooting Aria a look that promised murder.
The door clicked shut.
We were alone.
The mate bond pulled tight as a wire between us. My wolf paced, desperate, confused. This was our mate. Our Aria. But different. Dangerous.
*Better,* something whispered in my mind. *She's better now.*
"Why did you really come back?" I asked quietly.
"I told you. Business."
"Liar." I stood, moving around the table. She didn't back away. "You could have destroyed me from anywhere in the world. You came back to Silverpine. To *my* territory. Why?"
She met my eyes. For just a second, I saw her. The real her. The woman I'd married and neglected and lost.
Then it was gone.
"Because I wanted to watch your face when you realized what you threw away."
"Aria, I—"
"Don't." She held up a hand. "Don't apologize. Don't explain. Don't insult me with regret now that I'm successful. You had seven years to love me. You chose ice. Live with it."
She picked up her briefcase. Headed for the door.
"I never signed the divorce papers," I said.
She paused. "I don't need your signature. Seven years of abandonment is legal grounds. We're divorced, Dante. Whether you accepted it or not."
"The mate bond—"
"Can go to hell."
She opened the door.
And that's when I saw him.
A boy. Eight years old. Standing in the hallway with a tablet under his arm. Dark hair. Amber eyes. My jaw. Her nose.
*My son.*
A son I'd never known existed.
The world tilted.
"You were pregnant," I whispered.
Aria's face went white.
The boy looked up. "Mom? Is the meeting done? Marcus said we could get ice cream."
*Mom.*
"Ash, wait in the car." Her voice was steady, but I saw her hands shake.
"But—"
"*Now*, baby."
He left, confused.
Aria turned to me. The mask was cracking. Behind it, I saw three years of pain. Of secrets. Of survival.
"Stay away from him," she said softly. Dangerously. "Stay away from me. And stay the hell out of my life."
"He's my son."
"He's MY son. You have Kai. You got to keep one. That's more than you deserved."
*One.*
The word hit like a freight train.
"Twins," I breathed. "You were pregnant with twins."
Her hand went to her ribs. To a spot I suddenly remembered—the scar from the silver bullet. The injury she'd gotten saving my life while I'd stood frozen.
"I went into early labor two months after I left." Her voice was hollow. "Stress-induced, the doctors said. Trauma. I delivered both babies at twenty-eight weeks."
My heart stopped.
"Aria, what happened—"
"One lived." A single tear slid down her cheek. The first emotion she'd shown besides anger. "One didn't. So you want to talk about what I took from you? Let's talk about what you took from me."
The door slammed.
She was gone.
I stood there, alone in my boardroom, the mate bond screaming in my chest.
*Twins.*
She'd been carrying twins when she left.
And one died.
Because of me. Because of my coldness. My neglect. My betrayal.
I'd killed my own child.
The realization dropped me to my knees.
My phone buzzed. A message from an unknown number.
*Check your email. -A*
With shaking hands, I opened my laptop.
One new email. Attachment: a video file.
I clicked play.
The footage was from three years ago. Hospital security camera. Aria, pale and tiny in a hospital gown, holding one baby. A nurse stood beside her holding... nothing. A blanket. Empty.
I watched my wife—my broken, abandoned wife—weep over the son she'd lost.
The son I'd killed by driving her away.
The video ended.
Another message appeared on my phone.
*His name was River. He lived for twenty minutes. Long enough for me to hold him. To tell him I loved him. To say goodbye.*
Then:
*You want to fight for Ash? Fine. But know this—when the custody hearing comes, I'm bringing River's death certificate. And I'm going to make sure everyone knows whose fault it is.*
*See you in court, husband.*
The phone fell from my hand.
Somewhere in this building, Kai was playing. My living son. The one I'd kept.
Somewhere outside, Aria was driving away with Ash. My other son. The one I'd never known.
And somewhere in the past, buried in a grave I didn't even know existed, was River.
The son I'd killed without ever meeting.
I'd thought I'd lost Aria three years ago.
I'd been wrong.
I'd lost everything.
And she was going to make me pay for every single piece.