Daphne's POV
The cottage door opens without a knock.
Daphne's hand is on Liam's shoulder when she smells it. That scent. That specific combination of cedar and something sharp and dangerous that she's spent seven years trying to forget.
She knows before she turns around.
Theron Blackwood stands in her doorway like he owns every place he walks into. Like he owns her. Like he has any right to be here.
He looks exactly the same. Older maybe. Harder. But the bones are the same. The cold eyes are the same. The way he moves like power is just something he carries in his chest is exactly the same.
Daphne feels her heart stop and start again, all at once.
"You need to leave," she says. Her voice comes out steady. She's impressed with herself for that. Seven years of practice. Seven years of making sure her voice never shakes when she says hard things.
Theron's eyes find her and lock on like he's been looking for her across a crowded room. Like she's the only thing that matters.
"That's my son," he says.
The words hit Liam like a punch to the stomach. Daphne can see it in the way his entire body goes rigid. The way his breathing stops. The way his eyes snap from his mother to the man in the doorway and suddenly he understands.
All those questions about his father. All those times Liam asked what he looked like. All those nights he asked if his father was coming back. All of it was about this man.
This man standing in their cottage like he has every right to claim them.
"No," Liam says. Just that one word. But it's loaded with everything. With confusion. With hurt. With the realization that his mother had been talking about this person his whole life and never told him.
That's when it hits.
The mate bond.
It crashes into Daphne so hard she actually gasps. It's like every nerve ending in her body catches fire at once. Like lightning has struck her from the inside out. She feels it bloom in her chest, wrapping around her heart, spreading through her entire being.
Seven years.
Seven years of believing she'd killed it. Seven years of telling herself it was dead. Seven years of making peace with the idea that some bonds can be broken if you're strong enough.
She was wrong.
The bond never died. It just went to sleep. And now that Theron is standing in her cottage, now that he's looking at her like she's everything again, it wakes up screaming.
Daphne watches Theron's reaction and sees the exact moment it hits him too. His entire body goes still. His eyes widen. His mouth opens like he can't breathe.
He remembers it. The bond. The pull. The way they fit together like they were designed for each other.
He remembers what it felt like to love her.
For one second, just one second, Daphne lets herself feel it. Lets herself remember what it was like to be wanted by an Alpha like that. To be needed. To be everything to someone.
Then she builds the wall back up.
She's good at building walls now. Seven years of practice has made her excellent at it.
"Don't," she says to him, and her voice is different now. It's colder. It's sharper. It's the voice of a woman who has learned that hoping for things only gets you destroyed. "Don't you dare stand there and look at me like that. Don't you dare act like you have any claim on us."
"Daphne," Theron says. Just her name. But the way he says it breaks something inside her. Like he's been waiting seven years to say it. Like it means everything.
"My name is not for you," she says.
Liam is looking between them like he's trying to understand something his brain won't process. "Is that... is he...?"
"Yes," Daphne says before Liam can finish. She pulls her son closer, a gesture meant to reassure him and keep him away from Theron all at once. "This is your father."
The words taste like poison on her tongue.
Liam's face crumples. "But you said he was... you said he was a good man. You said that if he knew about me, he would have come."
Daphne's heart breaks all over again. Because she did say that. She told her son that his father was a good man who just couldn't claim him. She told him that his father would have loved him if circumstances had been different.
She was trying to be kind. She was trying to give her son hope. She was trying to make abandonment hurt less by making it seem noble.
She was lying.
"Things are complicated, baby," Daphne says to Liam. But her eyes stay on Theron.
"We don't have time for complicated," Theron says. His voice is urgent now. His cold control is cracking. "The rival packs are coming. Multiple packs. They're mobilizing right now. This village won't survive when they arrive."
"We'll run," Daphne says. "We've run before. We can do it again."
"You can't outrun them," Theron says. He moves forward and Daphne tenses. She doesn't move away, but every muscle in her body goes ready to fight. "They have aircraft. They have technology. They have numbers you can't imagine."
He's right and she hates him for it. He's right and she can feel the truth of it settling in her chest like a stone.
They can't fight an army.
They can't win this alone.
"I can protect you," Theron says. "Both of you. Let me take you somewhere safe. Let me handle this."
"Handle it?" Daphne laughs and it's not a nice sound. "The last time you handled something involving me, you destroyed my entire life. You lied about me. You made me look like a woman who tried to seduce an Alpha without consent. You exiled me. You made my family turn their backs on me. And now you want to handle something again?"
Theron flinches like she's hit him.
"I regret that," he says.
"Regret doesn't fix it," Daphne says. "Regret doesn't give me back my family. Regret doesn't undo the years Liam spent not knowing his father."
"Then what do I do?" Theron asks. And he sounds desperate. He sounds broken. He sounds like a man who knows he's failed and has no idea how to fix it. "Tell me what you need. Tell me how to make this right."
Daphne wants to tell him there's no way. That he ruined everything and nothing can fix it. That he doesn't deserve forgiveness.
But Liam is looking at his father with an expression that's breaking her heart. An expression that mixes anger with something else. Something that looks like need.
"You can't make it right," Daphne says quietly. "But you can protect him. You can keep my son safe even if you can't keep me sane. That's what you can do."
Theron nods. He reaches out like he's going to touch her and Daphne steps back.
"Don't," she says.
He drops his hand.
"I'm going to get you both out of here," Theron says. "I have guards outside. We're going to a safe house in the northern mountains. It's reinforced. It's hidden. No rival pack knows about it."
"And then what?" Daphne asks. "You lock us up? You control us? You decide what we do next?"
"No," Theron says. "But we figure it out together. You, me, and Liam. Because whether you like it or not, Daphne, you're my mate. And that boy is my son. And I'm not letting anything happen to either of you."
The mate bond flares hot inside her at the word. Mate. Like she belongs to him. Like she's his to claim.
She hates that some part of her wants to believe him.
"We're not going anywhere with you," Daphne says, but even she can hear the lie in it. Even she knows they don't have another choice.
That's when the front door slams open behind Theron.
His guards pour in like water. Dressed in dark clothes. Moving with military precision. Ready for combat.
"The rival packs are thirty minutes away," one of them says. "We need to move now."
Daphne looks at Liam. Her son's face is pale. He's scared. He's confused. He's looking at his father like he's trying to understand how this man could abandon him and also be the only one who can save him.
"We're leaving," Theron says. It's not a request.
"I would rather die than go with you," Daphne says.
Theron's eyes go cold again. That Alpha cold. That predator cold.
"Then I'll carry you," he says. "And I'll carry my son. But we are leaving this cottage. Now."
He steps toward her and suddenly there's nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Nowhere to protect her son from the man who is both his salvation and his destruction.
Outside the cottage, a wolf howls.
Then another.
Then ten more.
The rival packs have arrived early.
And Daphne realizes with cold clarity that whether she trusts Theron or not, she needs him now. She needs his power. She needs his soldiers. She needs his protection.
She needs the man who destroyed her to save her.
Theron reaches out his hand.
"Come with me," he says. "Please."
Liam grabs Daphne's other hand, squeezing tight, looking at her with eyes that are begging her to make this decision.
The wolves outside are getting louder. Getting closer. Getting ready to attack.
Daphne takes Theron's hand.
And everything changes.