Chapter 34 · Saturday Is Not Optional

Pack council tried to schedule a gala on a Saturday. Sebastian declined. Marcus relayed the message. Council grumbled. Boys ate pancakes. Priorities clarified.

Sebastian Blackwood had learned many things since the night he cast Zaia out in the rain. The hardest was that Alpha command could not schedule a child's trust.

Saturday belonged to the boys. Sunday partially. Wednesday bedtime when council allowed. School events, healer appointments, nightmares, science fairs, the ordinary architecture of fatherhood rebuilt from absence.

He kept a calendar separate from pack business—paper, not phone, with stickers Milo applied randomly. Leo corrected the dates. Zaia checked nothing; that was the point.

"Co-parenting isn't custody," she'd said early on. "It's showing up when it's inconvenient."

Sebastian showed up.

This Saturday: pediatric dentist, grocery run, Leo's quiet meltdown over a broken model ship, Milo's triumph at climbing the pantry shelves.

"I'm not mad," Zaia said over the phone when Sebastian called during a board crisis. "But if you miss dentist again, I will be."

He canceled the board crisis.

Marcus met him in the parking garage with paperwork. "Council can wait."

"Leo can't," Sebastian said. "Neither can Milo's teeth.