"But we're settling this tonight. A Bond Dissolution Oath, witnessed and recorded. Territory rights and resource caches split equally between us."
"Ronan, you agree to that, and I'll walk out through those den doors into the storm."
Love couldn't be held onto by force. But our shared territory? The resources we'd built together? That I would fight for.
We'd built those hunting grounds from nothing. I wasn't walking away empty-handed.
I could fall apart later—when no one was watching. When I was alone in the cold.
Ronan said nothing, his expression unreadable.
Rowena cut in, her voice sharp with authority. "Let's not talk about territory division. After all, our son built this pack's wealth himself."
Something short-circuited in my brain.
"Excuse me?" My voice climbed before I could rein it in.
What a joke. Since when had Ronan built anything on his own?
I pulled out the old pack records I'd kept, scrolling back through five cycles of seasons.
"Five years ago, when we started expanding our territory—the first resources came from me. Fifty thousand in trade goods and hunting rights. I borrowed them from my birth pack, putting my own family in debt."