Evelyn POV:
The pounding in my head was relentless, the mental equivalent of a siege engine against a fortress gate. Lucius was tearing at my defenses with a raw, frantic terror.
I let out a slow breath and deliberately lowered a fraction of the wall in my mind. A mere fissure.
Instantly, the Oracle's gift flared. I saw Lucius in the great hall, not pacing so much as caged within it, his eyes holding a feverish, unnatural light in their depths, the red of banked embers. His hands were driven through the dark tangle of his hair. Behind him, on the great stone table, lay a map of the eastern borderlands—marked not with troop positions, but with three black circles drawn in what looked disturbingly like old blood.
Evelyn! His voice roared through the Mind-Link, a sound so forceful it made my teeth ache. Where have you gone?
I kept the tenor of my thoughts deliberately flat, stripped of all inflection.
I grew weary of the castle, I replied smoothly. I thought to take a walk. Perhaps to seek a Second Chance Mate.
A Second Chance Mate was a rare dispensation from the Goddess when a first bond failed.
The moment the words formed, a wave of undiluted Alpha aggression surged through the link, a heat so intense it felt like a physical scald against my consciousness.
You are in the tavern on the borderlands, he growled, his thoughts dropping into a dark, possessive rumble. Open your senses to me. I am coming for you.
My hands curled into fists in the folds of my cloak.
We completed the rite of rejection, Lucius, I reminded him, my thoughts turning to ice. You have no right to track me. You have no claim.
The Moon Priestess has not yet severed the final thread at the altar! he shouted back. The bond is wounded, but you are still mine until the elders give their seal!
He was behaving like a man unhinged.
Why did you reject me? I demanded, pushing my own anger into the mental bridge. Tell me the truth, or I swear upon the ruins of my house that I will vanish from these lands before sunrise.
A heavy, profound silence filled the link. I could hear the ragged edge of his breathing. I could feel a crushing sorrow radiating from him, a tide he quickly dammed.
The dissolution of our contract does not mean we must be enemies, he finally said. His thoughts were exhausted, hollowed of all truth. I wish only for your safety, for your prosperity.
A bitter laugh escaped my lips.
You are greedy, Lucius, I spat. You desire the prophesied mate to secure your power, yet you wish to keep me as your ward, a hidden pet. You seek two Lunas.
No! Evelyn, that is not—
I did not permit him to finish. I slammed the walls of my mind shut, building them higher and thicker than before. I locked him out. I even blocked the faint, residual warmth of the mark he had placed on my neck years ago.
He was hiding something. I could feel it in the tremor behind his words, in the exhaustion that bled through every syllable. But if he would not give me the truth, I would find it myself.
I told the carriage driver to stop at a small, remote inn in a quiet farming village. I paid for a room with a single gold coin, ignoring the innkeeper's curious stares. I bolted the thin wooden door, curled into the small bed, and willed myself into a dreamless sleep.
When I awoke the next morning, the air in the room felt heavy. The Pack Mind-Link Network—the ceaseless, telepathic murmur shared by all wolves—was a venomous hum.
Did you hear? The Alpha prepares the mating altar for Lady Rosalind.
I knew that fallen noble, Evelyn, was but a temporary amusement.
She could not even provide him with a pup. Good riddance.
The whispers echoed in my consciousness like the hissing of adders. Rosalind was moving quickly, manipulating the entire pack against me.
A heavy weight settled in my stomach. I placed my hands over my ears, closed my eyes, and with a great effort of will, I severed my connection to the network, plunging myself into a profound and isolating silence.
But in the quiet, one thought burned clear: Rosalind wanted me erased. And I had just made myself an easy target.
I pulled the healer's note from my sleeve and unfolded it, reading the words again by the pale morning light. Confirmed. You carry the Alpha's heir. I pressed the parchment to my lips. You are all that matters now, I whispered to the life within me. And I will burn this pack to the ground before I let anyone touch you.
