I Found My Mate’s Second Secret Family

At three in the morning, I heard my mate Lucas murmuring to someone in his sleep. "Be good. Daddy's moving you and mommy into the Riverbend cabin soon." My eyes snapped open. When we registered as official mates five years ago, we agreed to hold off on pups. Every month I mixed the suppressant herbs myself, for both of us. So where was this child coming from? I shook him awake. "What did you just say?" Lucas froze for a beat, then smiled and pulled me against his chest. "Just a dream. The supply post took in a pregnant woman today. I probably heard too much about her." I didn't ask again. Once he was asleep, I caught the faint smell of pregnancy herbs on his coat. And fresh-cut timber. Before dawn, I used my authority as heir of Silver Ridge to pull the last three months of territory resource records. Cabin Twelve at Riverbend. It used to belong to the patrol. Renovations began three months ago. Timber, firewood, pregnancy herbs, blankets for a pup. All of it paid out of the trade line Lucas ran. Only one name was listed as a permanent resident. Mia Grant. A young she-wolf, three months pregnant. I stared at those pages for a long time, then handed them to my father. "Don't touch him yet. "I want to know whether he's just keeping a woman on the side. "Or whether he's already built himself a second home." Late that night, Lucas laughed softly in his sleep. "Settle down, little one." He rolled over, his voice thick with sleep. "Daddy's moving you and mommy into the Riverbend cabin soon." I opened my eyes and lay there staring at the dark ceiling for a long time without moving. Daddy. A pup. The Riverbend cabin. Put those three together and it sounded like someone telling a bad joke right against my ear. When Lucas and I registered as official mates five years ago, the border had just come through a round of fighting. My father was getting old, and I had only recently taken over most of Silver Ridge's holdings. We agreed back then to wait. Wait for the border to settle, wait until I had the trade lines running smoothly, and then talk about pups. I mixed the suppressant herbs myself, every month. Not just for me. Two doses. Lucas took his as well. Or at least I thought he had been taking his. I reached over and nudged his shoulder. "Lucas." He opened his eyes, frowning. "What is it?" "What were you saying in your sleep just now?" For a second his face was blank. Then his gaze faltered—just once, so quickly I might have imagined it. "Sleep talking, I guess," he said, rubbing his temple. "The supply post put up a pregnant woman today. I probably heard too much about her." "You dreamed you were a father?" He smiled and reached for me. "If we ever have a pup, it'll be ours." I didn't pull away, and I didn't answer. After a while his breathing evened out and he was asleep again. I was wide awake. The wind outside was strong enough to rattle the window frame. I sat up to get out of bed, and then I caught a faint smell. Pregnancy herbs. A wolf's nose is sharp. But the territory smelled of herbs, leather, timber, and all kinds of people every day. A trace of something proved nothing on its own. But there was more than pregnancy herbs on Lucas's coat tonight. There was fresh-cut timber. New wood, still damp, still carrying the smell of resin. I turned my head toward the dark coat draped over the chair by the bed, and his words came back to me. The Riverbend cabin. I went to the study just before dawn. Every allocation of Silver Ridge's shared resources left a record. Repairs, guards, herbs, hunting quotas, transport routes. Even two extra carts of firewood had to state where they were going. All I meant to do was check whether any cabin near Riverbend had been repaired lately. Instead, on the third page, my finger stopped. Cabin Twelve, Riverbend. Original use: temporary rest station for the patrol. Converted to permanent housing three months ago. Renovation costs charged to northern trade. Authorized by: Lucas Hale. Occupant: Mia Grant. I stared at that name. Mia. I had met her twice. A young she-wolf from the supply post at the foot of the mountain, barely into her twenties, golden-brown hair, a soft voice. The first time, she brought Lucas a stack of sorted shipping lists. The second time was at the winter festival. She stood at the edge of the crowd, and when Lucas walked past she took half a step forward before she caught herself. I thought nothing of it then. Looking back now, a lot of small things I had let slide suddenly had a shape. I kept turning pages. Firewood. Blankets for a pup. Pregnancy herbs. Three visits from healers. And a separate charge for reinforcing the roof. I sat behind the desk without moving for a long time. None of this added up to a temporary arrangement. It added up to a whole life. Someone had prepared a home for a pregnant woman, prepared for winter, prepared for a pup to be born. The one who signed for all of it was Lucas. My mate. Footsteps came from outside the door. I closed the records and had just set them down when my father, Grayson, pushed the door open. His first look at me came with a frown. "You haven't slept." I handed him the pages I had copied out. His face darkened at the first one. By the third, he swore outright. "That bastard." I said nothing. "I'm sending for him right now." My father turned to go. "Not yet." He looked back at me. "Elena." "I haven't confirmed it." "This isn't enough?" "It's enough to prove he broke the rules moving resources to a pregnant woman." I looked at my father. "It isn't enough to prove she and her pup are the ones from his dream." My father held his temper down. "You're still looking for an excuse for him?" I shook my head. "I just don't want to turn into someone who makes decisions on a guess while the evidence is still incomplete." My father studied me for a few seconds, then set the records back on the desk. "Fine. I won't touch him. But if you find out it's true, don't come to me talking about five years of feelings." I couldn't manage a smile. I only murmured my agreement. At breakfast Lucas poured me a cup of hot tea the way he always did. His manner was easy, and he even asked whether I had slept badly. "There's a problem with that shipment of hides in the north," he said. "I need to go up tonight. I may not be back." I looked at the silver clasp on his chest. I had fastened it there myself five years ago. He had said he would never take it off. I picked up my cup. "Be careful on the road." Lucas looked almost relieved. He bent down and kissed my temple. After he left, I sent for Leah, the guard I trusted most. "Go to Riverbend." She looked at me. "Looking for what?" "Don't go inside, don't alert anyone." I wrote the cabin number down for her. "Confirm one thing only. Who lives there."Leah came back at dusk. She brought no pictures and never set foot in the cabin. She brought back three sentences. Mia lived there permanently. Newborn pup clothes were hung out to dry outside the cabin. Lucas's black horse was tied up in the back yard. My first reaction, when she finished, wasn't anger. It was quiet. Like a weight that had been hanging over my heart had finally dropped away. It hurt. But at least I didn't have to guess anymore. "Is he still there?" "No," Leah said. "The horse is, so he probably left it yesterday." I nodded. "Tomorrow I'm inspecting the water source along the riverbank." Leah understood, and she didn't try to talk me out of it. The next morning I rode out to Riverbend with a small party. The river ran bitterly cold in winter, and a thin skin of ice had formed along the bank. Cabin Twelve sat behind a stand of birch, close enough to the main road, but hidden just well enough. I didn't go near it. I stood downwind. When the wind came, I could smell Lucas. Not the trace someone leaves passing through. He had slept there, eaten there, changed his clothes there. Leather, soap, and the pine balm he always used. All of it had mingled and sunk into the dirt and the seams of the wood around that cabin. He had been living there a long time. Someone was talking inside. An older woman's voice. "The due date is still a long way off. Stop thinking about moving from one place to another." Mia said, "Lucas promised. He'll make it official before the male pup is born." The older woman muttered something I couldn't catch. Mia laughed. "He wouldn't lie to me." I turned and left. From Riverbend to the supply post at the foot of the mountain was only half an hour on foot. When I arrived, Mia was checking stores. She was showing now. The loose fall of her skirt couldn't hide the small curve of her belly. She saw me, went still for a moment, then quickly rose. "Miss Elena." She said it very politely. But the moonstone pendant at her throat was a good deal more honest than her tone. I knew that stone. I had seen one just like it at the market last month. Lucas was standing beside me then, and he said, "That's too expensive. There's no need." I told him I was only looking. He even teased me about it. "You already have so much jewelry." The one around Mia's neck now was a better piece than the one I had looked at. I moved my eyes from the pendant to her face. "How have you been feeling?" Her hand went to her belly without thinking. "Fine." "I hear you're pregnant." "Yes." Her fingers brushed lightly over the pendant. "The father takes good care of me." I nodded. "Good." She seemed not to have expected that to be all I said. I didn't ask anything else. When I got back to the main house at midday, Lucas was already waiting for me. "How was the riverbank?" "No problems." I sat down to eat, then looked up as if something had just occurred to me. "By the way, that empty room on the east side. Shouldn't we clear it out?" He raised his eyes. "For what?" "A nursery, eventually." Lucas's fork paused in his hand. "Now?" "We'll need it sooner or later." "Elena, didn't we agree there was no rush?" "I'm only getting ready early." He frowned, and a note of exasperation crept into his voice. "Border trade has only just steadied, and the pack still has to rebuild the southern fence this year. Giving up a whole room for a pup that doesn't exist is a waste." I looked down and cut into my meat, the tip of the knife scraping the plate. "You think it's a waste?" "Of course." "And Cabin Twelve at Riverbend?" The knife made a small sound against the porcelain. Lucas looked up. "What?" "Someone's put a lot of work into that cabin lately." He stared at me. I looked back at him. A few seconds later he gave a short laugh. "You went to Riverbend today?" "Water inspection. I passed by." "That's special housing the supply post arranged for a pregnant woman." "An ordinary supply post worker, in a patrol rest cabin, with a new roof, double the firewood, and a full set of pup blankets." "Her situation is unusual." "Unusual how?" Lucas's tone turned openly irritated. "Elena, since when do you go through petty accounts like this yourself?" I set down my knife and fork. "Starting today." He was quiet for a moment, then softened his voice. "You've been working too hard. Let someone below you handle the annual audit." "I've already decided." "Decided what?" "Every future repair and every extra supply for the Riverbend cabin will require a fresh sign-off." Lucas's face finally changed. "Why?" "Annual audit." I handed him back the same excuse he had just used to brush me off. He looked at me for a long moment and in the end said nothing more. That evening the steward knocked at my door. "Miss, a box of honey cakes came up from the mountain." "From whom?" "Mia Grant." I had it opened. A card lay on top of the box, written in a delicate hand. I hear you've never liked the noise of pups. On behalf of every woman who is finally expecting the child she longed for, thank you for your understanding. I stared at that line. This time I was certain. Mia didn't merely know I existed. She was testing me.The next day I had the honey cakes sent back exactly as they came. No scolding, no warning. I only added one sentence. "Silver Ridge has never decided anyone's place on the strength of a pup whose bloodline hasn't been confirmed." Word got out, and Lucas came to me before nightfall. "Why are you treating Mia like this?" It was the first time he had brought up her name on his own. I looked up. "I thought you barely knew her." He paused. "I only heard she'd sent something over." "A young woman from an outlying supply post. What could she send that's worth you coming to me about it?" Lucas's expression stiffened for a heartbeat. "Elena, I don't want to play word games with you." "Then let's keep it simple." I pushed the Riverbend cabin expense records across to him. "Why is her housing being paid out of your trade line?" He glanced at them. "Special arrangement." "Approved by whom?" "Me." "Why?" "She's pregnant and she isn't well." "Plenty of she-wolves in Silver Ridge get pregnant every year. Do the rest of them live in patrol cabins?" Lucas's patience visibly ebbed away. "What is it you actually want to ask?" I looked at him. "I want to hear you say it yourself." He said nothing. I waited. A few seconds later he pushed the records back to me. "You've been too sensitive lately." I laughed a little. Not because it was funny. Because I had finally heard the line I knew best. When someone can't explain the facts, they start explaining your feelings. "Fine." I nodded. "Then I won't ask." At the council meeting the next day I proposed a small adjustment. All special housing, medical care, and guard assignments would go through an open approval process. No one objected. Lucas couldn't object either. He sat at the far end of the long table, his face calm. Only I knew what that one rule would cut off. Three days later, Mia's life changed. She had been getting fresh meat and pregnancy herbs delivered straight to the cabin every day. Now she could only draw what any ordinary member drew. The two guards who had always escorted her to the healer went back to border patrol. When Leah brought me the news, my face gave away nothing. "She went to Lucas." "What did she say?" "Asking why even her herbs had been cut off." I looked up. "And what did he tell her?" "That the audit is just strict at the moment, and everything will be different once the pup is born." I closed my eyes for a moment. Even now he was still painting her a future. Making me believe he barely knew her, and making her believe all of this was temporary. A few days later there was a winter supper at the supply post. I didn't go. Leah did. She came back that night looking grim. "Mia had some fruit wine." "A pregnant woman can drink?" "There's almost no alcohol in it." "And?" Leah hesitated. "She said some she-wolves hold a position and still won't give the pack a pup." I laughed once. "What else?" "Someone told her to watch her mouth. She said she only felt sorry for a man who truly wants to be a father." That one didn't need any translating. I leaned back in my chair. Until then I had still been willing to see Mia as a woman Lucas had deceived. Not anymore. She knew. She knew he had a mate, she knew who I was, she knew that cabin and those herbs and those guards were never hers. She simply believed that if the pup in her belly mattered enough, she could turn what wasn't hers into something she was owed. That night I pulled the full resource records for the past six months again and went through them page by page. Toward dawn I found a pattern of transfers that had been broken up across different accounts. Two border patrol guards. Temporarily reassigned twelve times over the past two months. Destination: Riverbend to the healer's residence. Requested for: Mia Grant. I stared at that line for a long time. An affair. Cheating. Betrayal. Until then, all of that had been between Lucas and me. But he had moved the pack's guards. That made it something more than a marriage.I didn't wait. At the core council meeting the next day I moved directly to redistribute authority over the trade lines. "From today, all housing, medical, and guard expenditures require two signatures." An Elder frowned. "That isn't how it's been done." "It's never been done before because no one has ever diverted patrol guards for a private relationship over the long term." At the far end of the table, Lucas raised his eyes. The room went quiet. Some people looked at him. Some looked at me. I didn't say Mia's name, and I didn't say the word cheating. I only laid the record of those twelve guard reassignments on the table. "The northern line is short-handed as it is this year. The southern patrol has already covered two extra rotations. "I won't accept any private reason for tying up pack guards long-term." Lucas finally spoke. "That was medical care for a pregnant woman." "Every pregnant woman in Silver Ridge gets basic medical care." I looked at him. "But not all of them get to have the head of trade pull guards on his own authority." His face went cold. "So you're going after me." "I'm managing resources." "You're bringing a problem between mates into the council." "I haven't started on the problem between mates yet." That silenced him. The measure passed quickly. I hadn't asked for his removal, only to take back the authority he should never have held alone. After the meeting he blocked my way in the corridor. "Elena." I stopped. "What exactly have you heard?" "About what?" "You've been investigating me." "If it's only rumor, what are you afraid of?" Lucas's jaw tightened. "I've run the northern line for Silver Ridge all these years. I've negotiated the deals. I've held off three border clashes. You can't humiliate me like this over a few invoices." "Asking you to explain the accounts is humiliation?" "You know what I mean." "Then say it plainly." He didn't. He stepped closer instead. "Five years as mates, and this is how little you trust me?" I looked at him. This was probably the last chance I would ever give him. "Lucas. Explain one thing. Why did every arrangement for Mia—the cabin she lives in, the herbs she takes, and the guards who escort her—go through you?" He was silent for a few seconds. Then he said, "Because she needed them." "What is she to you?" "A subordinate." "And the child?" His breath stopped for a beat. "What child?" I only looked at him. At his eyes. At the way his breathing didn't so much as change while he said all this, and suddenly I had no desire left to ask anything. He had made his choice. Not to explain, not to admit it, but to go on treating me like a fool. I turned to go. "Elena." He caught my wrist. "Don't make this uglier than it has to be." I looked down at that hand. "Let go." He didn't move. I lifted my eyes. "The only reason you still have the right to touch me is that I haven't dissolved the mate registration yet." Lucas's fingers went stiff, and then he let go. That afternoon I signed a second order. It froze his personal draw on the pack's shared assets and left him only what his work required. The cabin, the herbs, the guards, the private transport, all of it stopped. Lucas didn't come home to the main house that night. I knew where he had gone, and I knew what Mia would ask him. The formal notice downgrading his core authority was delivered first thing the next morning. Within half an hour the front doors of the main house slammed open. Lucas came striding in. "Elena!" I was sorting papers in the study. He stopped short when he saw the desk. Every seal belonging to the pack had been taken away, and the register of authorities that used to sit locked in our shared cabinet was gone. "Where did you put them?" "Where they belong." "On what grounds?" I looked up. "On the grounds that none of it ever belonged to you personally." Lucas laughed in fury. "So now you're treating me like an outsider." I closed the last ledger. "From today, you use only what actually belongs to you."