But not a single person noticed the blood pooling beneath me.
I lay on the cold stone floor of the Healing Hall, screaming in agony. My wolf thrashed inside me, weak and frantic, clawing at something she couldn't hold on to. No one answered. The corridor stretched empty in both directions, and the sound of my voice came back to me off the walls like something already dead.
"Help... please, save my pup..."
My mother had told me I could keep the child and take her to the Silvercrest ancestral lands. Leave the mate, keep the pup. Those words had been carved into my mind for weeks.
I'd already decided to keep this child.
So why was this happening?
My wolf let out a sound I'd never heard from her before. Low. Broken. Like something tearing at the root. The edges of my vision darkened, and the scent of my own blood filled my nose, sharp and wrong, copper and moonflower twisted together into something that smelled like ending.
As consciousness slipped away, I saw a healer's apprentice passing by the open door. She froze, then rushed in.
"What happened? Someone help! Miss, don't be scared. Why are you here alone? Where's your mate? Do you remember his contact sigil? I'll reach him for you!"
"I... don't have a mate..."
Then everything went black.
My pup was gone.
Four moon cycles along. Just barely formed.
The healer said it would have been a girl.
I stayed in the Healing Hall for three days. My wolf did not speak to me once during that time. She lay curled at the very bottom of my consciousness, utterly still, and I could not tell if she was grieving or if something in her had simply stopped.
In those three days, Theron didn't reach out to me once.
But I saw his announcement on the spirit network.
Blessed with a pup.
Four words. Accompanied by a captured image of a woman and child sleeping, taken from behind. The woman's hair fanned across a pillow. The pup was swaddled in Ironmaw colors.
The comments were flooded with congratulations. Pack members, allied Alphas, wolves I'd personally brokered alliances with on Theron's behalf, all falling over themselves to celebrate.
I stared at that image. The tears came anyway.
They slid down my face and hit the linen sheets without sound. My wolf stirred, barely, like something shifting in deep water. Then went still again.
Some things are simply cruel.
But I was grateful, at least, that I'd found out before it was too late. I could still walk away.
The day I was discharged, a young healer helped me gather my things.
"Ms. Silvercrest, how come no one's visited you these past few days? Are you sure you'll be okay returning to the den alone?"
"I'm fine. Thank you all for taking care of me. I'm feeling much better."
I managed a smile and walked out of the room. My body ached in places I couldn't name. My wolf moved with me like a shadow that had lost its shape, present but formless, refusing to settle.
I hadn't gone more than a few steps when I heard the healers whispering behind me.
"Poor thing. A lost pup, and not a single soul by her side. Where's her mate?"
"She said she doesn't have one. Probably lost him. A broken bond, maybe. Life really isn't fair, is it? You know the she-wolf in the next chamber? Her mate adores her. He's at her bedside every single day, holding the pup. You can tell he's absolutely smitten."
"Oh, I know. That chamber's been a revolving door of visitors. And they're all striking wolves, too. How come I never get that kind of luck?"
They didn't know.
The devoted mate they were gushing about was mine.
I walked to Corvina's door. The scent hit me before I reached the threshold. Honeysuckle and warm vanilla layered over something cloying, something that made my stomach clench. And beneath it, tangled through it like a stain, scorched iron and dry cedar bark. Theron's scent. Woven so deeply into hers that I couldn't separate them.
Sure enough, Theron was lying beside her, asleep. His arm was draped across the bedding. His jaw was slack, his breathing even. He looked peaceful in a way I had never once seen him look beside me.
Corvina had her communicator out, leaning against his chest, capturing image after image. Her lips curved as she angled the screen, adjusting the light.
Theron rolled over and pulled her into his arms, his voice low and groggy. "I thought you said you were tired. Go back to sleep."
"I'm not tired."
She looked up at him, then undid the laces of her sleeping gown and climbed on top of him.
"I want you. Give it to me."
His throat worked as his eyes traced her body.
"You just had a pup. Rest. Don't start something."
"I don't care. I want you."
She leaned down and kissed him.
He pushed at her a few times, halfheartedly. Within seconds, they were tangled together. Her scent thickened in the air, that sweet chemical sweetness flooding the small chamber until it was all I could taste on the back of my tongue.
The sight made my stomach turn.
I spun around and ran. Down the corridor, past the healer's station, through the Healing Hall entrance and out into the cold air. I grabbed the old rowan tree by the gate and threw up until there was nothing left. My body shook. My wolf shook. Something inside me had come loose and I did not know how to put it back.
I never imagined the man I'd loved all these years could be this person.
The moment I got home, I went straight for my documents. The mating dissolution papers. The territorial release forms. Everything I would need.
I was going to the Pack Council.
When my parents had returned to the Silvercrest ancestral lands, I'd stayed behind for Theron. I had muted my bloodline, suppressed my wolf, poured every resource of my heritage into building his pack from nothing, and I had done it because I believed the bond between us was real.
Now it was time to go.
