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But I couldn’t build a defense on the same instincts that had failed to detect that Sloane was fully human.

Mom wasn’t being cruel. She was protecting the pack. That responsibility required her to act before grief softened the edges of what had happened.

Patty opened the group settings with shaking hands. A few taps, then it was done.

Sloane Harper has been removed from THE PACK.

The notification appeared for everyone. Seeing it made a piece of my heart crumble.

Trevor read the message and looked toward the road again. “She’ll see that,” he said.

Mom didn’t say anything in return.

Aunt Karen stood with her arms folded, the lone person who appeared vindicated rather than devastated. “I told all of you,” she said.

Mom turned toward her. “No one wants to hear it.”

Karen blinked. “I was right.”

“You endangered an accepted pack member with silver in the middle of a children’s game,” Mom snapped.

Karen took a step backward. “She wasn’t a pack member.”

“You didn’t know that when you made the choice.”

“I knew.”

Mom held up a hand. “No. You suspected.”

Karen looked around for support. None came. Even those furious with Sloane had no interest in celebrating Karen’s trap.

The party ended through a series of practical movements. Food covered. Children gathered. Tables folded. People hugged or didn’t hug. Nobody discussed the birthdays.

Trevor carried his gifts home unopened. Grandpa Alfonse took the leftover dessert. No one stopped him.

I stayed until the lawn had been cleared and every family accounted for. Work gave me something to do with my hands while my thoughts remained unavailable. When the last folding chair had been loaded into storage, Mom found me.

I was rinsing sticky punch from a plastic tablecloth at the outdoor faucet.

“You can leave that,” she said.

“It needs to be cleaned.”

“Someone else can do it tomorrow.”

“It will stain.”

She put her hand on my shoulder. “Hudson.”

I shut off the water. The tablecloth dripped between my hands.

Mom waited.

She had changed nothing about herself since the truth came out. Her hair was still neatly pinned, her shirt still unwrinkled. Her shoulders held the same quiet authority they always did. Only her eyes betrayed her.

She loved Sloane too. That made the security decisions harder, not easier.

“How are you?” she asked.