It turned out Gerald had seen the pack notices spreading through the night fires. Fearing I might do something irreversible, he had searched for me until dawn.
I never imagined that the last warmth left in my life would come from someone beyond blood and bond.
My eyes burned. I swallowed hard. “I am… alive.”
“No,” he said quietly, fury held in check like a storm beneath ice. “You are not well. I am ending my journey. I will come for you.”
“Thank you,” I whispered. “I am sorry…”
“You never need to say that to me, Victoria,” Gerald replied. “My heart has never changed.”
Long ago, he had pursued me openly. But back then, my world held only Gerald, and I had been blind to everything else.
I never thought that after thirty winters, Gerald would still remember me.
When I returned from the healer’s den, the lodge reeked of unfamiliar scent.
Tessa lay sprawled across Gerald’s sleeping furs, wrapped loosely in one of his shirts, a cup of fermented honey wine in her hand. Her posture was careless, possessive.
Gerald had always been obsessed with order. Even a trace of my scent in his chamber used to irritate him.
Twenty years earlier, when his influence was still fragile, he had angered a powerful Alpha. To repair it, I drank until my stomach nearly ruptured.
When I staggered home that night, trembling with cold, Gerald stopped me at the door.
“You stink,” he said. “Clean yourself.”
I was left outside in the snow until dawn. Fever followed for days.
Now Tessa, heavy with drink, lay comfortably in his bed.
So those rules had only ever been meant for me.
She rose slowly, pulling the shirt open just enough to reveal dark marks blooming against her skin.
“Gerald was relentless last night,” she said lazily. “He said you were stiff and dull. You never knew how to satisfy him.”
Nausea surged, but I held her gaze, calm and cold.
“It does not matter,” I said. “You are still not his mate.”
The words struck her hard.
Her expression twisted. Then she smashed the cup against the stone floor and cried out as she collapsed.
“Tessa!”
Gerald burst in, panic flooding his face. He gathered her into his arms as if she were glass.
Tears clung to her lashes. “I only wanted to explain last night to Victoria. She told me to die and shoved me into the shards…”
Gerald’s eyes turned bloodshot as he stared at me.
“Apologize.”
I shook my head, despair tearing loose. “I did nothing. She—”
“I should leave before she hurts me again,” Tessa sobbed, pretending to struggle free.
Instead of releasing her, Gerald held her tighter.
“You are petty and cruel,” he said to me. “Reflect on yourself.”
He took Tessa away to the healer, leaving me behind like a criminal.
Later, the guards dragged me into the lower cellar. With no other choice, I called my son.
Arthur’s voice was sharp and distant.
“I heard everything from Father. You went too far. It was a misunderstanding, and you injured Aunt Tessa?”
“Mother, learn from her. Be graceful for once. Stop shaming the pack.”
Something inside me went cold.
Gerald meant to punish me. No food. No water.
After a day and a night, my injured leg burned with agony. At last, the old housekeeper secretly let me out.
At the healer’s den, my rune-stone lit up with Tessa’s latest message.
The first carving showed Gerald’s back as he hurried through the halls for her. The second was a healer’s record.
[With a mate who truly loves you, safety comes naturally.]
The Mortimer bloodline filled the responses.
My son praised his father.
My daughter, far away, congratulated Tessa.
Gerald himself wrote, claiming I was stirring trouble.
Then my daughter replied.
[Everyone knows you never stopped loving her. Follow your heart. We support you.]
I finally understood.
I typed slowly.
[Congratulations on your new pup. Do not worry. I will not interfere. Gerald and I are dissolving our bond.]
The moment I sent it, my rune-stone began to ring.
