“Miss Holly, we have found a body. The features match your mother. We need you to come to the pack hall for identification.”
My smile, reflected in the polished metal mirror of the bridal hut, shattered with a single message delivered by the patrol runner.
When the healers pulled back the hide-covered shroud, her body was hardly recognizable. Her eyes were gone. Her core and organs torn out, as if some creature had fed on her life essence.
I fell to the ground, screaming until my voice broke, and the world faded into darkness.
When I woke again, my fiancé, Evan Marks, the future Alpha of the Stoneclaw Pack, sat beside me. He brushed away my tears with gentle fingers and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.
“They caught the beast responsible,” he whispered. “I made sure he paid for what he did to your mother.”
He vowed that for the rest of his life, he would protect me the way she once did.
But that night, startled awake by another nightmare, I sensed movement outside the sleeping den. Through the narrow gap of the wooden door, I saw Evan holding my half-sister, Sarah, in his arms.
She sobbed into his chest, shaking from head to toe.
“If she ever discovers the truth, she’ll kill me.”
Evan cupped her face, gentle as always.
“Sarah, listen to me. Those wanderers fooled you. You didn’t know what they were. This isn’t your fault. You’re a victim too.”
A coldness settled deep in my bones. My breath caught.
So this was the truth. My mother died because of Sarah. And the male who swore to love me for life was protecting her.
After sending Sarah back to her quarters, Evan turned and saw me collapsed on the floor. His expression wavered for a heartbeat. Guilt. Irritation. Then something harder.
“So you heard everything?”
His voice held no warmth. Only annoyance that his secret had been found.
“Don’t blame Sarah. Your mother pushed too hard. She kept asking Sarah to help her place her savings with those travelers. She walked into danger on her own.”
He tossed a blank parchment onto the nearest table, the Stoneclaw seal still fresh.
“Write whatever number you want. But forget what you heard. For now, we keep the peace. The bonding ceremony is in five days. We will proceed as planned.”
I stared at the male who once promised to love me under the Moon Goddess's light. Now he felt like a stranger wearing a familiar face.
I wiped my tears, my heartbeat steadying into something colder.
If my ceremony was destined to become my mother’s funeral, then in five days…
I would return the favor, with interest.
……
I said nothing. Evan grew impatient, yanking off his leather chest wrap and tossing it onto the wooden stand beside our bed of woven furs.
“If you understand, then sleep.”
But something inside me snapped. Grief, rage, betrayal. It all tore free at once.
“Pretend? Are you serious?”
My voice echoed against the timber walls of the den.
“You knew. You knew my mother was the only family I had. You knew how much it mattered to her to see me walk to the bonding altar in white. And Sarah destroyed everything.”
Did he really not understand why my mother had been desperate to gather coin? Evan’s family had looked down on us from the moment our packs allied. His parents barely tolerated me. My mother had tried so hard to prove she belonged in the same hall as them. That was why she sought Sarah’s help, hoping for once she wouldn’t be dismissed as useless.
I still remembered the patrol commander’s quiet words.
“She tracked the wanderers down to reclaim her savings. She didn’t know they belonged to a rogue organ-trading circle. They butchered her and took what they could use.”
The memory hollowed my chest. Tears blurred my vision.
“If it weren’t for Sarah and her mother, none of this would have happened. All I want is justice for my mom. And you’re stopping me from even that.”
“Enough, Holly.” Evan’s growl cut through the room. His eyes darkened with irritation. “Sarah was fooled as well. She lost everything too. And you? Instead of compassion, you’ve been spreading that she is your father’s bastard cub. Do you have a heart at all?”
“Compassion?” I laughed, the sound brittle. “What about my mother? She died in the worst way imaginable.”
“She died because she made foolish choices,” he scoffed. “Sarah had no part in it. Do not even think about harming her.”
His voice held the frost of a winter storm. My wolf shuddered deep inside me.
I clutched the front of my tunic as if it could hold my breaking chest together. The packed-earth floor blurred under my tears.
“Evan,” I whispered, “have you forgotten? When you were taken by rogues, who risked her life to save you? Who fought them off with her bare hands?”
“Do you remember the night she lay in the healer’s bed, half-conscious, and you knelt beside her and promised you would never hurt me? That you would care for me for as long as you breathed?”
His jaw tightened. His expression hardened into something sharp and cold.
“Do not drag up old stories. I have given you and your mother shelter, food, status for years. Whatever debt I owed, it’s paid.”
Then, as if he wanted to slice me open further, he laughed without warmth.
“This is about coin, isn’t it?”
He flicked the parchment at me again. The edge scraped across my cheek, sharp enough to draw blood.
I tasted iron on my tongue as I clenched my fists.
“I don’t want your coin. I want Sarah held accountable.”
He rolled his eyes, a lazy exhale coming from his nose.
“Go ahead. Let’s see which pack elder will stand against me in a hearing. Know your place.”
Then his gaze narrowed. “I will not have a hysterical female as my mate. This ends here.”
His signal stone hummed. He glanced down and, instantly, his face brightened.
“A gift? From you? That is thoughtful. Truly, those trade alliances only succeeded because of your charm.”
“What? No escort? Don’t worry, I will come get you. Stay where you are.”
He did not grant me a single look as he strode out of the den.
The door of woven branches closed behind him. My tears burned trails down my cheeks.
Fine. If this was the path he chose, I would not stop him.
I turned to pack my belongings when the messenger stone on the table buzzed again.
“Miss Holly,” the paralegal from the council said cheerfully, “since you withdrew the charges in your mother’s case, we are closing the investigation. Just keeping you informed.”
My blood turned to ice.
I had never withdrawn anything.
