Marlowe Kestrel has spent years perfecting the art of disappearing. New names, new towns, a carved wooden fox packed first in every bag ? whatever it takes to keep her twins safe from the one truth that could end everything: their father is the alpha of Falkenwald.

Then a Family Court summons finds her anyway, sealed with a crest she'd know in her sleep.

Rhys Kade has never stopped looking. When an anonymous report flags two unregistered heirs, the Elder Council leaves him one legal option ? a Truthbinding ceremony that will prove, beyond any doubt, that the twins are his. It's also the only thing that can drag every falsified document Marlowe forged to protect them into the light.

She wants her children safe. He wants the truth entered into permanent record. Getting both might not be possible.

As the case pulls them back into the same courtroom, the same supervised proximity, and a bond neither of them asked for, Marlowe has to decide whether the system that once tore her from her own mother can ever be trusted to protect her twins ? or whether trusting Rhys is the far more dangerous risk.

Because when the black moment comes, it won't be a misunderstanding standing between them. It will be one filed document, one impossible choice, and a cost that can't be undone.

The Court is watching. The seal is set. And this time, there's nowhere left to run.