I shook off his hand and walked toward my den chamber like a dead woman walking.
He didn't follow. Behind me, I heard Corvina coaxing him: "Theron, go check on her, please. I'd hate for her to be upset because of me."
"Let her cool down. She loves me too much to stay angry. She'll come around."
Each word landed like a stone. Every step I took felt like dragging my feet through wet concrete. My wolf, who had been clawing at the edges of my ribs since I'd walked in on them, went eerily still. Not calm. The kind of still that comes before something breaks.
And the last five years with Theron began replaying in my mind, scene by scene, like a film I couldn't pause.
I'd met him seven years ago.
His pack had just been established, barely more than a handful of wolves holding contested territory. I hid the fact that I was the sole surviving heir of the Silvercrest bloodline and quietly funneled every alliance, every resource, every territorial connection my family had into building him up. From an Alpha with nothing to his name to one of the most powerful pack leaders in the region.
After we were mated, he treated me like I was the center of his universe.
When I got sick, he sat at my bedside and refused to leave, his wolf pressed against mine through the bond like a warm hand holding me steady.
When I was hungry, he cooked for me himself, making the oatmeal I loved, the kind that was easy on my stomach.
Every time we went out, he held my hand and never let go.
Every Moon Blessing Day, every anniversary, he showed up on time with a gift and a smile.
Then Corvina moved in, and everything changed.
She was his blood-brother's widow. That was the reason. She had no pack, no one else, so he brought her into our territory.
At first it was just small courtesies. Checking in on her. Making sure she was comfortable in the guest quarters. Then came the late-night summons. Her legs were swollen. Her feet were numb. She needed him. Again and again, she pulled him out of our bed in the middle of the night, her Omega distress pheromones threading through the halls like smoke under a door.
On our mating anniversary, he left me sitting alone at the feast hall and rushed to the Healing Hall to sit with her through a prenatal examination.
I got jealous. Of course I did. But every time, Theron would take my hands and say with absolute conviction: "Her mate saved my life once. His widow and his pup, how can I just abandon them? Seraphina, you're the kindest wolf I know. You understand, don't you?"
Because I loved him, I trusted him. I trusted us. I trusted what we'd built.
Until I saw him in bed with her.
Then I knew exactly how wrong I'd been.
If he wanted to warm another woman's body, he could have her. I was done.
When morning came, I wiped the dried tears from my face and made two calls on the communicator.
The first was to the Healing Hall. "I need to schedule a procedure. As soon as possible."
The second was to my mother. "Mom, Theron cheated on me. I'm dissolving the bond and coming home. Father's been wanting to hand the pack leadership over to me, right? I'll be there soon."
Lady Elara's voice didn't waver. "I told you from the start. You two come from different bloodlines. Mating with him was never going to end well. Come home. As for the pup, if you want to keep it, keep it. The Silvercrest line could use an heir."
I hung up and tore the writ in my hands clean in half.
Fifty billion gold moons. My father had transferred it to me. It was supposed to fund Theron's territorial expansion into the northern borderlands.
He would never see a single moon of it now.
I dug out our mating contract and was about to call the Pack Council's bond-dissolution office when my communicator buzzed twice. A message appeared in the spirit network group that Theron's inner circle had created to welcome me into their fold years ago.
Congrats, sister! The big day's finally here!
Congrats, congrats! It's been a long road! We're heading to the Healing Hall right now to celebrate with you and Theron.
I frowned, about to ask if they'd sent this to the wrong thread, when a third message appeared.
You idiot, wrong group! This is the FIRST mate's group. The little Luna is in the other one! Delete it, quick!
All three messages vanished in seconds.
My fingers tightened around the communicator until my knuckles went white.
A dull ache spread through my chest. Then a sharper one twisted low in my belly, and somewhere beneath my ribs my wolf stirred, pressing outward against my skin with a slow, grinding pressure, like something trying to surface through stone.
It had never occurred to me that there was another group. A second one. One I wasn't in.
Every time Theron's pack brothers saw me, they smiled and called me their Alpha's mate. Warm. Respectful. Familiar. They lowered their gazes in deference. They tilted their heads when they greeted me.
And the whole time, behind my back, they'd already given Corvina a title of her own.
