None of them noticed.
Or rather — none of them cared.
Father’s voice rumbled across the hall.
“Enough. Jace and Lyra return to the Highmoon lands once in a century and you still manage to poison the air with your bitterness. Must you shame us every time, Seris?”
His words landed like stones.
I met his gaze across the table, feeling the last threads of hope burn away.
So yes — it was me he blamed. Always me.
Who really made this house a grave?
“Sit down and eat,” Father ordered.
Mother said nothing, but her eyes glittered with the hatred of a she-wolf ready to bite her own cub.
Across the table, Jace’s attention never strayed from Lyra. Not once.
Halfway through the meal he seemed to remember I existed.
He reached across the dishes, dropped a plump river-shrimp into my bowl.
A gesture of peace — or guilt.
I didn’t touch it. I lifted another spoonful of plain rice instead.
Lyra’s painted lips curved. “Sister, why don’t you eat what the Alpha offered you? Are you upset because he’s sitting beside me?”
She giggled softly. “If it helps, he can sit next to you instead. I’d hate for jealousy to ruin your appetite.”
She rose half-way, feigning contrition. “Let me kneel and apologize—”
Jace’s hand caught her wrist before her knees touched the ground.
His eyes flashed cold toward me. “Seris, will you never stop? Must Lyra grovel before you for you to be satisfied?”
From behind his shoulder Lyra smiled, the wolf-mark on her collarbone glowing faintly in triumph.
I lowered my eyes. “I haven’t said a word. Every sound in this room comes from you.”
That silenced him. For a heartbeat. Then Lyra gasped, clutching her chest.
“Ah— my heart hurts … Alpha …”
Jace froze, and every scrap of doubt fled his face.
He swept her into his arms and stormed from the hall, leaving me alone with their echoes.
Mother hissed, “Look what you’ve done. Curse-bringer! I should never have kept you alive!”
I exhaled, steady. “Then let’s end it. You and I — no more mother, no more daughter.”
She choked on her fury, pointing a shaking finger at me, too angry to speak.
Father’s cane struck the floor. “Enough, Seris. This isn’t the time for childish rebellion.”
Childish.
He still thought I could be cowed by his voice.
---
When I finally left the manor, the night air bit like frost.
I didn’t go to a healer. The gashes on my knees and palms still bled, but I welcomed the pain.
It reminded me I was still alive.
I returned to the villa — that mockery of a home Jace once promised we’d share.
The scent of him lingered in the drapes, warm spice and cedar, but it no longer felt safe.
I packed every belonging that bore my scent. Dresses, rings, old gifts.
The silks that once fluttered around his claws, the blankets we’d shared under the lunar frost.
All of it went into black bags.
What could be reused, I sent to the orphan-dens beyond the northern ridge.
What couldn’t — I burned.
Only then did I remember: we were still bonded in the laws of the pack.
Our mating vow was written in blood, unbroken.
Not for long.
---
I booked a room at a neutral inn, then went straight to the healers’ tower in the central packlands.
Jace had claimed Lyra needed “urgent treatment.”
The corridors smelled of disinfectant and wolfbane.
When the elevator doors opened, familiar voices drifted down the hall.
“… Follow the script exactly,” Lyra was saying, her tone low but sharp. “When Jace arrives, you’ll tell him my wolf-heart is failing — that only a transplant from Seris can save me.”
My pulse stopped.
Wolf-heart transplant …
The healer stammered. “M-Miss Lyra, your lunar heart is perfectly sound. To extract another wolf’s core is— it’s forbidden. The Council—”
Lyra cut him off. “You’ll do as you’re told. And you’ll be well compensated.”
He hesitated. “But… we don’t even have records of this Seris Thorn’s compatibility. The resonance levels, the core-flow — none of it’s tested. If anyone finds out—”
“Then you’ll have bigger problems than Council law,” Lyra snapped. “Just prepare the chamber. When the Alpha arrives, he’ll sign the consent rune.”
The healer swallowed hard. “If this surfaces, both of us could be executed.”
Lyra’s laugh was soft, deadly. “Only if there’s a witness.”
---
In the shadows of the corridor, I pressed record on my comm-crystal.
Her words etched themselves into the memory stone, each syllable gleaming like ice.
My wolf stirred beneath my skin, growling for the first time since the surgeries years ago.
She wants your heart, it whispered. Let her try.
The lights overhead flickered. The moon beyond the glass burned blood-red.
For the first time, I didn’t flinch from its pull.
