"Nira."
"What happened to the pup… that was my fault. Once you're better, I'll give you anything you want. That garden in the Southlands you love so much — I'll buy it for you, and it'll be our den after the mating ceremony. How does that sound?"
"And that ruby jewelry set you had your eye on last time — I'll send someone to the western territories right now to have it made…"
He paused, drew a long breath.
"As for Vesper… she really didn't mean it. She lost her parents young, and I spoiled her, but she's not bad at heart. Don't hate her. Do it for me, if nothing else. Can you do that?"
He leaned down and pressed a kiss to my forehead. "Once Vesper is mated off, we'll have our ceremony. I'll make it grand. And then we'll have lots and lots of pups…"
I jerked my face away, dodging his lips.
His scent — pine resin, rain-soaked stone — settled over me like something that used to mean safety. Now it only made my stomach turn.
I hadn't told him that the last few times Vesper had driven me to the edge of death, I'd seen things in my dreams — fragments of a life before this one.
Each time, right when I was about to learn who I really was, the vision broke apart.
But the pattern was clear: every time they broke me, another piece of my memory came back.
All I had to do was wait. Once my memory returned and I found my pack, I wouldn't need him anymore.
Cassian's brow creased at my coldness.
"Nira, I'm already begging you. What more do you want?"
"Vesper was right — I'm the one who spoiled you. Let you think that having some talent at moonsong meant you could act however you pleased!"
"But you might want to take a good look at yourself right now. Drive me away, and what wolf would have you? Or would you rather go back to being a nameless ghost with no pack in the world?"
My eyes flew open, staring at him in disbelief.
The impatience on his face, the casual cruelty — and I understood that the man who had once so carefully soothed every flicker of my fear was gone.
How much I'd been made to suffer for Vesper's sake these past moon cycles, I couldn't even count anymore.
The day Vesper first arrived at the estate, she said my rooms had the best view and wanted to swap.
Cassian defended me without hesitation — said I was settled there, it wasn't convenient to move, and told her to pick somewhere else.
It was me who couldn't bear to put him in that position, so I offered to move on my own.
Cassian was so touched by my selflessness that he moved me into his own study. After that, we were together morning and night.
I thought he would always favor me like that.
But it wasn't long before Vesper invited me to see the frost-blooming trees behind the ridge.
When we reached the lake, she shoved me in.
Freezing water flooded my nose and mouth. I couldn't swim. I thrashed, screaming his name over and over.
Cassian took his time calming a hysterical Vesper before he ordered anyone to pull me out.
And even then, he pushed Vesper aside first — then came for me.
When I was dragged from the water, his first words weren't concern. They were blame.
"How could you be so careless? The ice was that thin and you were still playing around?"
"Cousin, I don't even know what happened — I felt someone push me, and I almost fell into the lake myself, so I grabbed at whatever I could, and I accidentally dragged Nira down with me…"
Vesper's version was deliberately vague. Her scent had been sharp with jasmine and copper that day, the way it always turned when she was performing distress.
But the way Cassian looked at me changed instantly.
"You two were the only ones there. Nira — did you hold a grudge over Vesper taking your rooms? Did you try to push her into the lake and end up falling in yourself?"
My mouth opened and closed, the injustice choking me, but I couldn't force out a single word in my own defense.
Once he suspected me, any explanation would have been useless anyway.
Then came the autumn hunt. Vesper's horse spooked and threw her — she scraped her skin.
My horse had been tampered with. I was flung from the saddle, and three of my ribs snapped clean.
