The next morning arrived in heavy silence. Every servant in the Silverfang Pack house already knew what had happened last night. No one dared look at me, and no one knew how to speak to me.
I sat at the long breakfast table, flipping through a simple magazine, eating slowly. The air felt cold.
“The Blackwing Pack said they will not wait anymore. In three hours, they will send someone to collect you.”
Just like that, a letter slid across the table toward me. My father had been sitting there for almost half an hour without saying a word, his food untouched.
[The Announcement of Dowries
Lady Freya Silverfang of the Silverfang Pack will be given the following:
50 million golden coins
The Silverfang Pack’s heirlooms
Half of the pack’s castle]
“I—I didn’t know you were going to mate Auron Blackwing,” my father said softly. “Your grandmother made everything official this morning. I found out only today.” He swallowed. “Freya… I don’t hate you. If you could just be a little more obedient—”
“I won’t be here anymore to stop you from bringing your mistress into this house,” I cut in coldly. “So go ahead. Bring Gwyneth’s mother home and give her my mother’s place.”
My father flinched. My mother’s death was the one subject no one touched, as if she never existed.
“With this, we are no longer father and daughter, Alpha Atlas,” I said quietly.
“I am cutting off all ties. Live well with your mistress and your other pup.”
My voice sliced through the room. His mouth opened, then shut again. His shoulders tightened, but he didn’t try to argue.
At the hallway outside my room, Gareth stood like a shadow. He was watching, waiting. Normally, a slap to the Alpha of the Grey Wind Pack would make him furious. But after what I said yesterday, even he knew he had crossed a line. He took that slap without a word.
His eyes narrowed as he took in the boxes, the folded clothes, the empty perfume stands. When he noticed my old painted portraits thrown into the trash beside torn journals, his voice dropped into low frustration.
“Lady Freya, you could have at least told me you were leaving. Now I have to pack everything in a rush.”
I didn’t respond.
“You always do this,” he muttered under his breath. “No warning, no plan. Just running away like the sky is falling. What’s going on, Freya?”
I folded my last scarf and placed it inside the trunk. Then I turned to face him fully.
“I am leaving for a vacation,” I said in a flat voice.
“You don’t have to follow me anymore.”
His brows pulled together, disbelief sharp in his tone.
“What are you talking about?”
He knew about my weak body, my panic attacks, the health issues the healers always warned him about. He knew I was never left alone.
“We have a contract, Freya. It is my duty to stay with you day and night and protect you-”
“And yet you failed,” I said.
“I don’t trust you to protect me anymore. The least you can do is obey my orders.”
Then I handed him a small velvet box tied with a navy ribbon.
“Bring this to Gwyneth,” I said.
He opened the box. His whole body froze like I had struck him again. Inside was the key to the Silverfang Luna’s jewelry chest, the one given to the heiress when she was a pup.
“This chest?” Gareth’s voice cracked with disbelief.
“I remember when we were kids—you said you’d rather die than give it up. You cried when Lady Gwyneth tried to touch it… and now you’re handing it away?”
“I was foolish to think it held any value,” I whispered.
“If Gwyneth likes it so much, she can have it.”
Gareth stared at my bare face, my simple black dress that covered every inch of my skin. No jewels. No red lipstick. Nothing like the confident, fiery woman I used to be.
For a second, just a second, his mask broke. Something uneasy flickered in his eyes, like a warning he didn’t understand.
His gaze dragged over me as if he were staring at a ghost… or watching someone slip out of his hands while standing right in front of him.
“You can send me the location where I have to join you,” he said stiffly.
“I’ll give this to Gwyneth first… then come find you.”
He waited for a response that wasn’t coming.
“Go,” I said quietly.
And he did.
An hour later, I stood in front of the pack cemetery. Behind me, the private carriage that belonged to the Blackwing Pack. It had waited with quiet readiness.
My mother’s picture shone softly on the carved stone. I placed a bunch of blooming red roses on her grave, the color she loved most.
“Mom,” I whispered, tears rolling down my cheeks, “I’m getting mated to the man they call the Dark Alpha and somehow it doesn’t feel as bad as it should.”
I wiped my face.
“I used to think love looked like Gareth. But that was an illusion… and now I’ve thrown it away. From today on, I will choose my own happiness.”
My grandmother tried to contact me through mind-link for five times. As for my father, he tried to contact me seven times. And more than a hundred mind-link from my twin brothers, who always chose Gwyneth over me because I was ‘too strict’.
‘Lady Freya, when are you leaving?’
‘My lady, answer me.’
‘Send me the address.’
A small smile touched my lips. I closed my eyes, breaking off my mind link with them. FInally, I cutting myself free from everything tied to the Silverfang Pack.
The coachman bowed, “Lady, we’re ready for our journey.”
I stepped onto the carriage without hesitation.
Farewell.
I no longer needed Gareth to follow me. I was leaving forever.
