The simple movement drew another explosion of camera shutters.

Thirty seconds later, Grant appeared live on the news screen again. Someone in the studio must have told him she refused the call.

His grief vanished for half a heartbeat.

The man beneath it looked directly into the camera.

"Silas Blackwood," Grant said, "take your hands off my wife."

Silas's claws pressed beneath his nails.

Evelyn stepped forward before he could answer.

"His hands aren't on me."

She lifted both arms so the cameras could see.

"Yours still are. You froze my money. You filed for my child. You forged my medical history. Stop calling control love."

Grant's jaw tightened.

"Evie, you're not well."

The nickname struck the bond like a slap. Silas felt the old fear move through her, followed by something stronger.

Anger.

"My name is Evelyn."

She turned away from the screen.

This time, the reporters called Grant's name instead of hers.

Ronan opened the courthouse vehicle door with an exaggerated bow. "Your getaway carriage. It has bullet-resistant panels and a mysterious smell from the back seat."

"Coffee," Briar said behind him.

"Allegedly."

Evelyn almost smiled as she climbed in.

Silas waited until she chose the seat, then took the one across from her rather than beside her. Miriam sat between them with her laptop. Briar rode in front. Ronan drove badly enough to constitute a separate legal issue.

For two blocks, no one spoke.

Then Evelyn held out her hand across the space.

Silas stared at it.

"You said no," she said.

"To an affair. Not to wanting you."

"For half a second, I thought you were ashamed."

The confession went through him like a blade.

He placed his hand beneath hers.

"I am ashamed of wanting another man's wife," he said quietly. "I am not ashamed of you."

"Do you still think of me that way?"

"As his wife? Only when the law forces the words into the room."

"And the rest of the time?"

Silas's thumb moved once across her knuckles.

"As the woman who can stop twenty wolves with one raised hand."

Her thumb rested over the pulse in his wrist.

"What did you want to say out there? Before you said no."

Silas looked toward the darkened window. Storefronts passed behind his reflection, cutting his face into pieces of light and shadow.

"The truth wouldn't have helped you."

"That wasn't my question."

He should have offered the safer portion. That he cared. That he would wait. All true, all carefully incomplete.

But she had spent years living inside another man's edited answers.

"I wanted to tell him you were mine," Silas said.

The vehicle seemed quieter.

"I wanted every camera to record it. I wanted Grant to hear that his wife was my mate and understand there was nothing he could do about it."

Evelyn's fingers remained on his wrist, but their warmth changed.

"That sounds like claiming me."

"It was."

"Then why didn't you?"

"Because the satisfaction would have belonged to me. The consequences would have belonged to you."

Her gaze dropped to their hands.

"And because telling a controlling man that another man owns his wife doesn't prove she is free."

The admission scraped through him. His wolf disliked the distinction between possession and protection because instinct had no language for a door left unlocked. Silas did.

He had learned it from watching Evelyn test every room for exits.

"The wolf still thinks I'm yours?" she asked.

"Constantly."

"And the man?"

He turned his palm beneath hers until their fingers aligned without closing.

"The man thinks wanting you is his problem until you decide to make it yours."

Color rose slowly beneath her skin.

The bond carried a brief pulse of desire. It struck him hard enough that his grip tightened on the edge of the seat instead of around her hand.

Evelyn noticed.

"Exceptionally respectful," she murmured.

"Don't encourage Ronan."

Ronan looked at them in the mirror. "For accuracy, it was nineteen wolves and one exceptionally respectful vice president."

Briar adjusted the mirror away from him.

Evelyn laughed. The bond warmed.

Her phone chimed with a banking alert.

Then another.

Then six more.

Miriam took one look at the screen.

Every joint card had been canceled.

The mortgage payment had been reversed.

The health-insurance portal no longer recognized Evelyn or Sophie as covered dependents.

Grant had failed to make her look owned in public.

So he was going to make freedom unaffordable.