MAYA POV
The apartment roof is the only place where Maya can breathe anymore.
She sits cross-legged on the old blanket she dragged up here and watches the stars blur. They're not as bright as they used to be. Too much light pollution from the town below. But they're enough.
Tonight is her last night of peace. Tomorrow, the summit begins. Tomorrow, Connor walks into her world whether she's ready or not.
So she's up here. Where nobody can find her. Where she can think about who she was and who she's become and whether those two people are the same.
Five years ago, she was a girl who believed in mate bonds.
That girl waited at home in a cold mansion while her husband worked late. She made excuses for him. She told herself he was busy. She told herself he cared even when his eyes showed nothing but distance. That girl wore dresses he bought her. She learned pack politics so he'd be proud of her. She became small so he could be big.
That girl believed that love could fix anything if she just tried harder.
Maya pulls her knees to her chest and remembers what that felt like. The desperate hope. The constant disappointment. The slow death of waiting for someone to choose you.
She doesn't miss her.
Two years ago, she was a girl who had to become strong.
She was eight months pregnant in a hospital room, alone, terrified. She didn't know if she could survive raising a baby. She didn't know if she had anything left inside her after Connor took so much. But the moment Riley was born, something shifted.
That girl learned to be brave not because she wanted to be. Because she had to be. Because her daughter needed her to be.
That girl learned that the mate bond doesn't mean forever. It just means pain.
Now, sitting on this roof the night before everything changes, Maya is someone different entirely.
She's the woman who owns a bakery that matters. She's built something with her own hands. Every morning, she makes bread from scratch. Every afternoon, families come and buy it and take it home. They depend on her. They trust her. They don't know she's a wolf or a failed mate or a broken person. They just know her bread is good and her pastries are worth waiting for.
She's the woman who has real friends.
Sophie doesn't know what Maya is. Sophie just knows that she showed up two years ago broken and quiet and slowly became strong. Sophie brings her coffee every morning. Sophie listens when Maya needs to talk. Sophie loves her daughter like Riley is her own niece. That's real. That's not conditional on a mate bond or pack loyalty or anything except actual human connection.
She's the woman who raised her daughter alone and did a good job.
Riley is happy. Riley is safe. Riley has no idea about the darkness in her mother's past. Riley thinks her father was a good man who had to work far away. Riley plays with other kids. She laughs. She's not afraid of the world yet.
Maya built that. She built a childhood where her daughter could be innocent.
The stars blur more and Maya realizes she's crying.
It's not sad crying. It's not happy crying either. It's just release. All the tension she's been holding for two years finally breaking open under the weight of tomorrow.
She thinks about Connor and forces herself to feel nothing. He's a memory. A painful one but still just a memory. A man she used to love before she realized love wasn't enough. Before she realized that a mate bond can't fix someone who doesn't want to be fixed.
He doesn't matter anymore.
She tells herself this and almost believes it.
Actually, she doesn't believe it at all.
Because even as she sits on this roof and convinces herself that Connor is nothing, her wolf is pacing. It's always pacing now. Ever since that news alert about the summit. Her wolf wants to see him. It wants to run toward him instead of away.
Traitor wolf.
Maya lies back on the blanket and stares at the sky. She thinks about what she'll do when he finds her. Because he will find her. Marcus made it clear that Connor is looking. Determined looking.
She could pretend surprise. She could act like she didn't know he was coming. She could maintain the distance between them and act like Riley is just a coincidence.
But Connor isn't stupid. He'll figure it out. The second he sees Riley's eyes, he'll know.
And then what? Does he take her? Does he try to force them back to Blackwood territory? Does he use legal arguments about pack rights and bloodlines?
Maya sits up. The fear is real now. Not the abstract fear of tomorrow but the concrete fear of what happens when he knows.
Her phone buzzes.
It's a message from Marcus: "He's asking about you. Asking where the best bakery in town is. He's trying to find you casually. Like he doesn't already know you're here."
Maya's stomach drops.
He's asking about her. That means he's thinking about her. That means the memory goes both ways.
She types back: "Tell him nothing."
The response is immediate: "Too late. Someone already told him about Crescent Bay Bakery. Said it's run by a quiet woman with a daughter. He's coming tomorrow morning, Maya. Be ready."
Maya sets her phone down and lets the panic wash over her.
Tomorrow morning. Not next week. Not after she's prepared. Tomorrow.
In the darkness, she hears Riley crying from inside the apartment. Nightmares again. Her daughter has been having bad dreams all week like her body knows something is wrong.
Maya goes back inside and climbs into bed with her daughter. Riley is hot and sweaty from the nightmare. She's whimpering about monsters.
"It's okay," Maya whispers. She holds her daughter close and tries to make her body feel safe. "There are no monsters. Just me. Just us."
But there are monsters. There's a man with green eyes like Riley's eyes who's going to walk into her bakery and change everything.
Maya lies there and holds her sleeping daughter and realizes that all her preparation means nothing. All her planning. All her hard work. All her running and building and hiding.
None of it matters because she can't hide a child who looks exactly like her father.
She can't hide the truth when the truth has eyes.
At midnight, she gets up and goes to her kitchen. She pulls out her emergency bag. The one she keeps hidden under the floorboards. Cash. Fake IDs. A phone that isn't connected to anything. Everything you need to disappear overnight.
She stares at it and realizes she's not going to use it.
She's not going to run again.
She's going to stay and face Connor and whatever comes next because Riley deserves to know her father if Connor decides he wants to know her.
Even though it terrifies her. Even though it might destroy everything.
She puts the bag back under the floorboards and goes to bed.
She lies awake until sunrise thinking about what she's going to say. How she's going to explain a daughter he doesn't know about. What she's going to do if he demands custody. What she's going to do if he doesn't want anything to do with either of them.
At six AM, she gets up and starts baking.
The bread comes out perfect. Golden and warm and smelling like home. The croissants are buttery and flaky. The pastries are beautiful. Everything is ready.
The bakery opens at nine AM.
At nine fifteen, the bell above the door chimes.
A man walks in that Maya hasn't seen in two years. He looks like someone who hasn't slept in months. There's grey at his temples. There are lines around his eyes like he's been carrying something heavy for a long time.
He looks at her and she sees the exact moment he recognizes her.
His face changes. Relief floods through his expression so strong it's almost violent.
"Maya," he says. Just her name. Like it costs him everything to say it.
She doesn't answer. She's frozen behind the counter, unable to move, unable to speak.
Then Riley runs out from the back room.
"Mama, can I have a cookie?" Riley calls out.
Riley stops when she sees Connor. The little girl stares at the tall man with curious eyes.
Connor stares back.
He goes completely still. His eyes move from Maya to Riley and then back to Maya.
Maya watches him do the math. She watches him realize.
"Is she..." he starts.
"Not here," Maya says coldly. She steps between them. "We're not doing this here."
Connor's eyes never leave Riley.
"Is she mine?" His voice breaks on the words.
Riley tugs on Maya's sleeve.
"Who's this man, Mama?" Riley asks.
Maya looks at her daughter and then at Connor and realizes she has no idea how to answer that question.
Because the truth is devastating. The truth is that this man is Riley's father. That he walked away without knowing she existed. That he's now looking at her like she's the only thing that matters.
And Maya has no idea if that's going to save them or destroy them.
Before she can say anything, a woman appears in the bakery doorway behind Connor.
She's beautiful and angry and her eyes are ice cold.
"So this is where you've been hiding," the woman says. She looks at Maya with pure hatred. "I've been looking for you for two years. The pack has been looking for you. And here you are playing house with the Alpha's bastard daughter."
Maya's blood turns to ice.
She doesn't recognize the woman but she recognizes the voice from the bakery intercom system the night she rejected Connor. That's the voice that spoke to him all those nights while Maya waited alone.
That's Vanessa Stone. The beta female. The woman who took Maya's place in every way that mattered.
Riley hides behind Maya's leg.
Vanessa smiles and it's pure venom.
"Connor," Vanessa says. Her voice is almost sweet. "Did you want to tell her? Or should I?"
"Tell me what?" Maya asks.
Vanessa's smile gets wider.
"That your mate just signed over his entire pack fortune to track you down," Vanessa says. "That he's been obsessed with finding you for two years. That he came to this summit specifically because we finally figured out where you were. And that the second the council finds out about this child, they're going to demand she be brought home to Blackwood territory. They're going to demand that you come home too. And this time, Connor won't have a choice. He's going to have to drag you back himself."