I smiled faintly. "He wronged me this deeply. You think I can just turn the page? I need to make him pay first."
That same day, I took Hildegarde to the Thornwood Pack compound and sent word inside.
"Tell Finn Thornwood his mate has come home."
The guards at the gate took one look at my tattered clothes, wrinkled their noses, and moved to shove us away. I could feel them sizing us up, two wolves deciding we were beneath their notice. One of them bared his teeth.
"Where'd you rogues crawl out from? This is the Thornwood Alpha's compound!"
"The Luna is hosting a banquet for the most powerful Alphas in the capital. If you disturb her guests, you and your little runt won't have enough lives to pay for it!"
"Go on, get! Get out of here!"
I'd expected exactly this. I deliberately stepped back, dropped to my knees, and raised my voice for the whole street to hear.
"Someone help me get justice! Finn Thornwood mated me six years ago in a proper ceremony. I bore him a pup! He promised to bring me back within three years and make me his Luna. But now that he's the Alpha, he left me and my child in the borderlands eating scraps and foraged roots! Is that something a wolf with any honor does?!"
The compound sat on a busy thoroughfare near the market district. The commotion drew wolves from every direction, and whispers rippled through the growing crowd.
"They say the Thornwood Alpha is famously devoted to his Luna. He's got two pups with her and won't even take a second mate. So where did THIS mate come from?"
"Probably a fraud. I mean, look at her. The Thornwood compound is high-ranking territory. She claims to be his mate, but she looks like a feral rogue off the road. Bet she's just some packless grifter trying to latch onto a rising bloodline."
I listened without a flicker of emotion, then reached into the bundle I'd brought and pulled out a mating certificate.
"Take a good look. This is Finn Thornwood's own handwriting. If he refuses to acknowledge me as his mate, I'll take this certificate straight to the Grand Pack Council and demand justice before every Alpha in the realm."
The head steward, lurking in the shadows, caught a glimpse of the handwriting on the certificate from a distance. His brow furrowed.
He leaned toward the gate guard, voice low. "Stay here and watch her. I'm going in to inform the Alpha and the Luna."
I saw every bit of it.