The wolfsbane — concentrated, vicious — drove my wolf into near-total collapse. I could barely sense her at all.
Bianca and the others lunged forward, but several Gamma-ranked warriors from Ashford Pack were already blocking their way.
One of them clamped his hand on my shoulder and forced me to the ground.
Then another bucket of wolfsbane ice water came crashing down.
The burn and the cold detonated at the same time. I couldn't even summon enough strength to curse — the words froze in my throat.
Bianca clawed at the warrior's hands. "Let her go! What the hell do you think you're doing? Who gave you the authority—"
"The Luna did something wrong." The warrior's tone was as calm as a weather report. "Alpha Cain's orders. This ends when she apologizes to Vivienne."
The Cain I knew had never used this kind of punishment on any pack member. He handled things with cold restraint. He wasn't even cruel to rogues.
And now he'd ordered his men to douse his Luna in wolfsbane ice water in public — just to force me to bow my head and apologize to that woman.
For what?
I hadn't done anything.
I clenched my jaw and fought, but with my wolf suppressed by the wolfsbane, my body was no different from a human's. The warrior's grip on my shoulders was iron. It didn't budge.
The wolfsbane water came at regular intervals. Burning and freezing, burning and freezing — my skin erupted in angry welts, and feeling drained from my limbs piece by piece.
My resistance grew weaker. Eventually, I couldn't even twitch.
In the end, I heard my own voice grinding out from between my teeth, shaking so badly it barely formed words.
"I'm sorry… I was wrong…"
The grip released. The warriors stepped back and calmly relayed the message.
I lay on the ground — gray-faced, wrung out, trembling without stop — like a rag that had been twisted dry and thrown aside.
The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Bianca rushing over, wrapping her jacket around me, screaming for the pack healer.
When I woke, I was in the treatment room.
My head was splitting. The wolfsbane burns still smoldered across my skin.
The moment I stirred, a cup of warm water appeared in front of me.
I stared at the hand holding it. Then I used every ounce of strength I had left and smashed the cup right back.
"Get out."
The cup shattered on the floor. Water splashed across Cain's sleeve. He wiped it off. His face showed nothing.
"So you do know what pain feels like, Wren?"
"After you threw wolfsbane on Vivienne, she burned with fever for an entire day and night. You know what Omega bodies are like — she nearly died. Did you ever stop to think about how she felt?"
I pushed myself up against the headboard, my voice raw. "If you're so worried about your Vivienne, what are you doing here?"
Before I could finish, my phone buzzed.
A message from Bianca, sharp and furious:
[Wren, someone used your name to contact Seline — trying to get Vivienne installed in a senior position at Kingsley Pack. Did you know about this?]
My head snapped up. I pinned Cain with my gaze.
"That was you."
"How dare you use my name to shove Vivienne into Kingsley Pack? That pack is what my parents left me. Seline has held it together all these years, waiting for me to come back. And you're handing it to an Omega?"
Cain didn't look the least bit surprised.
He frowned slightly, as if my phrasing displeased him.
"The scandal you caused got her blacklisted by every pack. She had nowhere to go. Giving her a safe place — what's wrong with that?"
A pause. His voice was flat.
"It's not like you're planning to go back and run Kingsley Pack anyway."
My nails dug into my palms.
Then he said one more thing.
"You gave up the Alpha position at Kingsley Pack yourself. You chose to bond with me and become Luna of Ashford Pack. That was your decision."
In that instant, every sound in my ears vanished.
So he'd always known.
Known what I'd given up for him. Known that the Kingsley Pack Alpha succession had been mine by right — that I'd handed it over with my own two hands, because I chose to stay by his side.
He knew how much I loved him.
And that was exactly why he could tear that love from my chest so casually now, and drive it back in like a blade.
I was quiet for a long time.
Long enough that Cain took it as agreement and started to get up.
"Fine."
My voice was level.
"But I have one condition."
