Liora’s POV
“I think those twins carry Kaelen’s blood—with that homewrecker,” someone muttered from the back of the feast hall.
“Of course they do,” another wolf growled. “Why else would he push Liora to transfer the entire Blackthorn estate to them?”
“Poor Luna. She was completely played.”
The whispers spread like wildfire through the hall, sharp as claws, burning like shame against my skin. What had started as a celebration beneath the moon had become a public spectacle—me, stripped of dignity at its center.
My mother clutched my arm, her face streaked with tears. “Liora, this is exactly what we warned you about,” she cried, her voice breaking. “That male has always been calculating. He never loved you. And those pups—you don’t even know whose blood runs through their veins. But you refused to listen!”
My father had stormed out earlier, his temper too wild to contain. Now he returned, fury radiating off him like heat from a forge.
“How could I have raised such a foolish daughter?” he roared, his wolf aura shaking the air. “You gave up your womb for him, your rank, your freedom—now even your assets? Liora, you are a disgrace to the Oldfang name!”
Judgment pressed in from every corner, murmurs thick and merciless. I looked down at the parchment—the divorce decree—in my hands. But no one noticed the faint, almost amused curve of my lips.
“Liora,” Kaelen said, his voice slick with false gentleness, the tone I had come to despise, “you can’t blame me. You can’t bear pups. What choice did I have?”
A dry laugh tore from my throat, cold and humorless. “You’re the one who made me do it. You told me to undergo the Healer’s ritual so we could live child-free. You swore that if I sacrificed that, you would stay with me forever.”
Kaelen shrugged, careless, his silver eyes gleaming. “That was then. Things change. An Alpha needs heirs. And since you can’t give me any, I’ll take them elsewhere.”
“Exactly.” Seraphine stepped forward, her golden hair catching the torchlight, her voice smooth as venom. “What good is a Luna who cannot produce heirs? And what use is a fortune if there’s no blood to inherit it?”
Around us, wolves began to nod in quiet agreement, whispers rising again, echoing her cruelty.
My mother stepped forward, eyes blazing with fury. She jabbed her finger at Kaelen. “You! Have you forgotten where you came from?” Her voice trembled with rage.
“You were a starving orphan, half-dead on our borders. Couldn’t even afford your own meals. If Liora’s father hadn’t stepped in, your sick mother would have died before the next moonrise. We gave you a home. A seat at our table. A chance to prove yourself. And when you took Liora as your mate, we asked for nothing in return—no dowry, no riches. Instead, we gifted you a house, gave your brother a position among our hunters, treated you as our blood.
“And this… this is how you repay us?”
The hall fell silent.
Kaelen let out a humorless laugh. “Why bring up the past? None of that matters now.” He turned to me, smirking. “Well, Luna? Are you just going to stand there clutching those papers? Sign or not, it doesn’t matter. The estate’s already been shifted to the twins. The vaults, the lands, the titles—they are theirs now. As for you—” His mouth twisted. “You’ll have a handful of coins for your retirement. Consider it thanks for your… sacrifices.”
Gasps rippled through the pack. Wolves growled low, whispers cutting through the air.
“If not for her, Kaelen’s mother would have perished. He’d still be a nameless orphan in the woods.”
“The Oldfangs gave him everything—and he gutted them like prey.”
“Look at him—grinning like a wolf who’s stolen the kill.”
Kaelen’s smug smile stretched wide, too wide.
Then—smack!
The sound cracked through the hall like thunder. My father had stormed forward and struck Kaelen across the face, so hard his head snapped to the side.
“You bastard!” my father bellowed, his voice shaking the stone walls. “She gave you her body, her rank, her life! And this is how you repay her? You would strip her bare in front of the entire pack?”
Kaelen’s face flushed crimson, more from humiliation than pain. He waved his arm sharply. “Guards! Remove this old fool from my sight!”
Like trained hounds, the Blackthorn sentries surged forward, eyes blazing, teeth bared, surrounding my father with fists clenched and waiting for a command to descend on him.
