The lead enforcer regarded me without expression, his wolf utterly still behind those flat, pale eyes.
"Miss Silvercrest, don't make this difficult for us. Your friends' bloodlines are respectable enough, but in the eyes of the Supreme Alpha, they're nothing. One word from Alpha Ashford and their packs lose every hunting ground they hold. Their families would be finished before the next full moon. I need to bring him something to show this matter is settled."
My entire body felt as though it had plunged through ice into black water.
Fury and helplessness crashed over me in equal measure, threatening to drag me under. My wolf whimpered deep inside my chest, pressing herself flat against the floor of my mind.
For the first time, I truly hated the choice I had made.
I was the one who had entered the mating bond with him.
And I was the one who had dragged this humiliation down onto my friends.
I drew a slow, shaking breath and forced the storm of emotions beneath the surface.
"Fine."
"I'll give you what you need."
I seized the decorative iron rod mounted on the wall beside me.
Under the shocked stares of everyone in the room.
I brought it down with all my strength onto my own left wrist.
The sharp, brittle crack split the air like a gunshot.
Agony devoured me instantly, a white-hot wave that roared up my arm and swallowed my vision. My wolf shrieked inside my skull, clawing desperately, trying to push healing into bones that had already shattered. My hand dropped, limp and useless, dangling at an angle no wrist should bend.
"Vivienne!"
They rushed forward to catch me.
My face had gone ashen. Cold sweat poured down my temples and the back of my neck. But I locked my knees, forced myself upright, and fixed my gaze on the enforcer. My voice came out raw, barely above a whisper, but steady.
"Now. Is that enough to report back?"
"That blow was on their behalf."
Something shifted behind the enforcer's eyes. A flicker, quickly smothered. His nostrils flared once, catching the copper scent of internal bleeding beneath my skin.
He said nothing.
After a silence that lasted several heartbeats, he turned and walked away. His pack enforcers followed without a word, their boots fading down the corridor.
"Have you lost your mind?" My friends' voices shook so badly the words nearly broke apart. "We would have fought them! All of us, together!"
I shook my head.
Even speaking had become an ordeal. Each word cost me something.
"You can't win against them…"
"It's all right… the bones can be set again…"
They were frantic, their wolves pressing distress into every gesture as they braced me on either side and guided me toward the door, intent on getting me to the Healing Hall.
We had barely stepped outside the entrance of the den-bar.
Raised voices erupted from above, sharp and desperate.
I looked up on instinct.
Serena stood at the edge of the second-floor balcony, her body swaying, teetering against the railing as if the slightest breeze would tip her over.
"Don't come any closer! I haven't forgiven you! One more step and I'll jump!"
She was sobbing, her voice cracking on every word.
He stood several paces away from her.
That man who was always in absolute control, whose composure never wavered, whose Alpha aura could flatten an entire room into silence. In that moment, his face held something I had never seen before.
Panic.
"Serena, don't be reckless. Come back inside. Just step down from there, and whatever you want me to do, I'll do it."
"Truly? Anything at all?"
"Anything. Even if it costs me my life."
I stood below, listening.
The words drifted down like ash.
All I felt was the absurdity of it. And a cold so deep my wolf curled into herself and went silent.
How much did he love her, exactly, to say something like that without hesitation? To offer his life as though it were nothing?
Then.
She seemed to calm, persuaded by his desperation. She began to inch carefully back from the edge.
The next instant.
Her foot slipped.
"Ah!"
She fell straight from the second floor.
And directly below her.
Was me.
The full force of her body slammed into mine like a boulder hurled from a cliff.
Darkness exploded behind my eyes. I was driven into the ground, my already-shattered wrist crushed beneath our combined weight, my spine striking stone. I became nothing but a cushion of flesh and breaking bones.
The agony swallowed everything. My wolf howled once, a long, thin sound, and then I felt her go limp inside me, retreating somewhere I couldn't reach.
He came tearing down from above.
Like a man possessed. Like a wolf who had lost all reason.
But the first person he gathered into his arms.
Was her.
"Serena, are you hurt? Don't be afraid. I'm taking you to the Healing Hall right now."
His voice trembled. His hands shook as they cradled her.
He lifted her.
He carried her to the waiting vehicle and was gone, tires shrieking against the cobblestones as the car vanished into the night.
From start to finish.
He never once looked at me.
My friends stared after the disappearing taillights, their bodies vibrating with rage so intense I could smell it, hot metal and ozone pouring off their skin.
But in the end.
All they could do was get me to the Healing Hall first.
When I woke again, the room smelled of antiseptic herbs and moonstone dust.
Only a healer's attendant sat beside the bed.
"Miss Silvercrest, you're awake. It's fortunate your friends brought you in when they did…" She paused, adjusting the silver-threaded bandage around my wrist. "They received an urgent summons from their packs and had to leave. They asked that you contact them as soon as you woke."
"No need."
My voice came out dry and cracked, scraped hollow.
"They're busy. Don't trouble them."
The attendant looked at me, her eyes brimming with quiet sympathy.
"But you need someone to look after you…"
"I can manage on my own."
