(Isara’s POV)
The next few days moved fast. I held a quiet moon rite for Sariah, inviting only the few pack members and old friends who truly cared for her spirit.
Xavian hardly spoke to me. He spent all his time around Brienne, making sure she was comfortable for the grand Alpha gathering.
The day before the celebration, I found Xavian inside his study in the pack manor. He was speaking through a crystal communicator with the event steward about the feast.
When he noticed me, he lifted one finger, telling me to wait.
I stood there while he discussed roasted elk, rare wine and silver moon lilies, as if he had not ended Sariah’s life.
At last, he ended the call and looked at me with annoyance. “What do you need?”
“I require your mark on these.” I placed a folder before him. “They are for Sariah’s death scroll and burial rites.”
He glanced over the papers without reading them. “Fine.”
He picked up his pen.
“I am sorry about your foster mother,” he said in a distant tone as he signed the first page. “But it was her time, was it not? The healers already told you her spirit was fading.”
My teeth pressed together.
He kept signing, not truly seeing the words. “It happens. She was old. She lived long enough.”
He killed her. And now he spoke as if it was the Moon Goddess’s will.
“There.” He pushed the folder back. “All done. Anything else?”
“No.”
“Good. Finish everything quickly. The gathering is on Saturday. I do not want sorrow spoiling the mood.”
Sorrow. That was what my grief meant to him.
“Of course,” I said softly, taking the folder.
As I turned, Brienne’s voice sounded from the hall.
“Xavian? Are you finished? I need your thoughts on my gown. Oh...” She paused when she saw me. “Isara. I did not notice you.”
“I am leaving,” I said.
“Wait.” She stepped inside, her hand resting over her stomach. “I wish to speak with you.”
I remained silent.
“I know you are grieving Sariah,” she said gently. “Losing a mother is painful.”
My hands tightened around the folder.
“But remember,” she went on, “Sariah carried me in her womb. We shared true blood. If anyone suffers more, it is me.”
I stared at her. She had rejected Sariah after the blood test revealed the truth.
“You only lived with her for ten years,” Brienne said. “She bore me for nine months. That bond is deeper than anything you can claim. So truly, I am the one who lost a mother. You are only making a scene.”
Something inside me broke. My hand rose before I could stop it. The sound of the slap rang across the stone walls.
Brienne stepped back, clutching her cheek. For a heartbeat she stood frozen. Then she burst into loud tears.
“Xavian,” she cried. “She struck me. She did it again.”
Xavian rose at once.
“What’s wrong with you?” he thundered.
“She was mocking me,” I said, my voice trembling. “She said that she felt more pain than I ever could.”
“I do not care what she said.” His hand came down across my face.
The force made me stumble. I caught the wall to stay upright.
“I only tried to comfort her,” Brienne sobbed. “I told her I shared her sorrow because Sariah was my birth mother too and she attacked me.”
“You are lying!”
Xavian seized my arm harshly. “Enough. I will not hear another word.”
He pushed me toward the door.
“Leave my sight,” he said coldly. “If you so much as glare at Brienne again, you will regret it.”
I stumbled from the study, holding the folder close.
Behind me, his voice turned soft. “Are you well, my heart? Did she wound you? Come, let me see.”
I climbed the stairs slowly, my cheek burning where he struck me.
In eight winters of marriage, Xavian had never raised his hand against me. Now he had done it twice in four days for Brienne.
I entered the bedroom and locked the door. Then I opened the folder and looked at the papers he had signed.
He had not read a single word.
He had signed the separation decree. He had signed the transfer confirming my half ownership of Silverhowl Fragrances. He had signed the proof that I withdrew my gold from his trade empire.
He had signed the ruin of his own house and did not even know it.
I took images of every marked page and sent them to Raiden.
[He signed everything. The gathering is tomorrow night. Are you prepared?]
His answer came at once. [Everything is ready. Tomorrow, you leave that manor and never return.]
The day of the gathering arrived. Xavian and Brienne left hours earlier for the grand hall of the territory, leaving only my parents behind.
At the sixth hour of evening, my mother knocked.
“Isara, put on your dress. We are heading to the hall soon.”
“All right.”
“Wear something bright. Not black.”
I did not reply.
She sighed. “Xavian works hard to make this night flawless. Do not ruin it with your mourning.”
Then she walked away.
When the house fell silent, I moved fast. I pulled the travel trunks from the back of the wardrobe and placed them in the hall.
On the table, I set a large envelope. Inside were the signed separation scrolls, the images of Xavian and Brienne together and the healer records showing what he did to my unborn pups.
There was also the contract proving my fifty percent claim over Silverhowl Fragrances and the document showing I withdrew my investment.
And every other paper needed.
I looked at the envelope. It sat there like a spell waiting to be unleashed.
By the time he opened it, I would be gone.
His trade empire would fall and his name would be stained across every pack.
I summoned a courier hawk through my communicator, then lifted my bags and stepped out of the manor.
A black carriage waited behind the estate walls. Raiden stood beside it and opened the door for me.
“Are you prepared?” he asked quietly.
I glanced back once at the manor. At the life I was leaving.
“Yes,” I said. “I am ready.”
I entered the carriage. Raiden joined me.
As we rode away, I sent one final message to the courier.
[Deliver the envelope now.]
Then I blocked Xavian’s number, Brienne’s number and my parents’ numbers.
I was finished.
“Where are we going?” I asked Raiden softly.
“To my kingdom beyond the northern borders,” he said. “Where no one can touch you.”
I placed my hand over my stomach, over the small life growing within me.
“Good,” I whispered.
As the manor disappeared from sight, I watched it fade without regret.
Xavian believed I was weak and easy to control. He had no idea what he had forged.
The woman who loved him died the night I found him with Brienne beneath the moonlight.
The woman riding beside Raiden was different.
She would make him answer for every lie, every betrayal, every slain pup.
Xavian Silverhowl’s perfect Alpha gathering was about to become his darkest humiliation and I would watch his world burn.
