Katerina’s POV

I couldn’t sleep.

Two in the morning. Three. Four.

The ceiling stared back at me. Gray and blank.

Dmitri’s arm was draped over my waist, heavy and warm. His breathing was even. Deep. Untroubled.

He could sleep through anything.

I envied him that.

I lay there and stared at the ceiling and thought about Irina’s face.

The way she’d looked. Standing in that bathroom. Blood everywhere. Her hand wrapped in the doctor’s grip. Her eyes—

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Her eyes had been empty. That specific kind of empty that I recognized. That I’d seen building for months before I left.

The kind of empty that came from being worn down so far there was nothing left.

*You left her there.*

I pressed my palm flat against my stomach. Against the small, barely-there curve.

*You left her.*

I shoved the thought away. I’d gotten good at that. A year of practice. You got good at things if you did them often enough.

I’d had to leave. There was no other option. Maxim had been—

I knew what Maxim was. What he was capable of. I’d seen it with my own eyes, in small, careful doses. The way he’d looked at her. The way he talked about her when he thought I wasn’t listening.

I’d told myself leaving was the only thing I could do. That staying wouldn’t have helped either of us.

I still believed that.

Mostly.

The baby shifted. Just the smallest flutter, so faint I might have imagined it.

But I hadn’t.

I pressed my hand harder against my stomach.

*I’m keeping you safe,* I thought. *That’s why I did it. That’s why I do everything.*

---

Dmitri was still asleep when I slipped out from under his arm at five-thirty.

He stirred slightly. "Katerina?"

"Go back to sleep." I kept my voice steady. Soft. "I’m just getting water."

He believed me. Relaxed back into the pillow.

I stood in the kitchen in the dark for a long time.

The refrigerator hummed. Somewhere outside a bird had started making noise, too early, convinced it was already dawn.

I thought about what I knew.

Irina was here. In this palace. That was a fact.

She was with Nicolas—the alpha king—in some capacity that was clearly more than servant. The way he’d crouched beside her. The way his whole body had gone rigid when he’d looked at her hand.

That wasn’t how you looked at a servant.

I’d changed my name when I came here. Katerina was gone. I was Katya now. Dmitri’s mate. Just a warrior’s pregnant wife living quietly in the east wing.

A year of building that identity. A year of being careful. Never talking about my father’s pack. Never mentioning Iron Thorn. Never letting anything slip.

Irina shouldn’t be able to find me.

*But she saw you.*

I pressed the cold glass against my forehead.

She’d looked directly at me. For a full second. Maybe two.

Recognition had been written all over her face.

If she asked about me—if she started looking, asking questions—

Sofia. That girl couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. I’d seen the way she gossiped with the other maids. Sweet, harmless, completely incapable of discretion.

It would only take one conversation.

One person who remembered seeing me.

And then Irina would know exactly where I was.

And if Irina knew, eventually Maxim would know.

I put the glass down. My hands weren’t quite steady.

*But would she tell him?*

I tried to think about Irina clearly. Tried to separate the sister I’d known from whatever she’d become in the past year.

Would she tell Maxim where I was?

*Would she?*

I didn’t know. I didn’t know who she was anymore.

That was the thing I kept snagging on, like a loose thread you can’t stop pulling.

I sat on the couch in the small living area that connected to our bedroom. Dmitri’s jacket was thrown over one arm. His keys on the coffee table. The ordinary debris of a life.

My phone was in my hand.

I turned it over. Once. Twice.

I looked down at my phone.

My father’s number was still in there. I’d never deleted it. I didn’t know why. Some habit of sentimentality I’d never managed to talk myself out of.

I hadn’t spoken to him in a year.

He hadn’t tried to contact me either.

That said something, probably. I’d tried not to think too hard about what it said.

If Irina was here—if she’d been sent, or brought, or had somehow ended up in the alpha king’s palace—he would know why.

And I needed to know why.

I unlocked my phone.

Found the number.

Stared at it for a long time.

The mind link was gone. I’d cut it clean the night I’d left. One clean severing, before I’d had time to think about what I was doing, before the guilt could stop me.

I hadn’t felt him in my head since.

Hadn’t heard his voice.

I wondered if he’d felt it. The moment it broke. If he’d woken up in the dark with that horrible empty silence where a bond used to be.

I wondered if he’d missed *me.*

I stood up. Moved to the window. Outside the sky was just beginning to turn, that flat dark blue before proper dawn. The palace grounds stretched out below, empty. A guard doing his rounds, steps methodical. A cat moving through shadows near the eastern wall.

Everything quiet.

Everything normal.

I took a breath. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Then I hit call.

It rang.

Once.

Twice.

Click.

"Who is this?"

His voice. Rough from sleep. Wary.

He didn’t recognize the number. Of course he didn’t. I’d gotten a new phone when I left. A new number. A new everything.

I opened my mouth.

Closed it.

Said nothing.

*Hang up,* some part of me said. *Hang up right now. This is a mistake. This was always a mistake.*

The guard outside completed his circuit. Turned. Started back the way he’d come.

The cat had disappeared.

"Hello?" My father’s voice again. Sharper now. Alert. "Who is this? Say something or I’m hanging up."

I pressed my free hand flat against my stomach.

I exhaled.

Made myself speak.

"Father," I said. "It’s me."