So much so that when we died miserably in my past life, he didn't shed a single tear.
If anything, he was relieved he wouldn't have to write up divorce papers after all. Relieved the mating bond would simply rot away with my corpse, no Moonfire Ritual required.
This time, no matter what it took, I would change my daughter's fate and my own.
Hildegarde and I knelt at the gates of the Silvercrest compound. The territory sentries couldn't bear the sight of us and reported our arrival five or six times. Two hours later, my father finally came out.
"Reduced to this sorry state, and NOW you remember you have a father?"
He stood in the archway, shoulders filling the frame, his aura pressing outward like the weight of a coming storm. The scent of ancient pine and frozen granite rolled ahead of him. He held no weapon, but his claws had half-extended, the tips catching the light.
"Your daughter knows she was wrong. Beat me, kill me, do whatever you see fit."
"I regret not listening to you back then. I put my trust in the wrong man."
Tears streamed down my father's weathered face. He didn't strike me. His claws retracted. He threw nothing to the ground because there was nothing to throw, but his hands were trembling when he pulled me to my feet.
"You were so heartless back then. You severed your own blood-bond and abandoned your pack for a man. But since you know you were wrong, cut those ties clean and come home where you belong!"
"As long as you sever that cursed mating bond completely, you are still a daughter of the Silvercrest bloodline, and this territory is still yours."
He told me to change out of my rags, but I shook my head.
His expression shifted. "Don't tell me you still intend to have dealings with that man?"
I smiled faintly. "He wronged me this deeply. You think I can just turn the page? I need to make him pay first."
That same day, I took Hildegarde to the Thornwood Pack compound and sent word inside.
"Tell Finn Thornwood his mate has come home."
The guards at the gate took one look at my tattered clothes, wrinkled their noses, and moved to shove us away. I could feel them sizing us up, two wolves deciding we were beneath their notice. One of them bared his teeth.
"Where'd you rogues crawl out from? This is the Thornwood Alpha's compound!"
"The Luna is hosting a banquet for the most powerful Alphas in the capital. If you disturb her guests, you and your little runt won't have enough lives to pay for it!"
"Go on, get! Get out of here!"
I'd expected exactly this. I deliberately stepped back, dropped to my knees, and raised my voice for the whole street to hear.
"Someone help me get justice! Finn Thornwood mated me six years ago in a proper ceremony. I bore him a pup! He promised to bring me back within three years and make me his Luna. But now that he's the Alpha, he left me and my child in the borderlands eating scraps and foraged roots! Is that something a wolf with any honor does?!"
The compound sat on a busy thoroughfare near the market district. The commotion drew wolves from every direction, and whispers rippled through the growing crowd.
"They say the Thornwood Alpha is famously devoted to his Luna. He's got two pups with her and won't even take a second mate. So where did THIS mate come from?"
"Probably a fraud. I mean, look at her. The Thornwood compound is high-ranking territory. She claims to be his mate, but she looks like a feral rogue off the road. Bet she's just some packless grifter trying to latch onto a rising bloodline."
I listened without a flicker of emotion, then reached into the bundle I'd brought and pulled out a mating certificate.
"Take a good look. This is Finn Thornwood's own handwriting. If he refuses to acknowledge me as his mate, I'll take this certificate straight to the Grand Pack Council and demand justice before every Alpha in the realm."
The head steward, lurking in the shadows, caught a glimpse of the handwriting on the certificate from a distance. His brow furrowed.
He leaned toward the gate guard, voice low. "Stay here and watch her. I'm going in to inform the Alpha and the Luna."
I saw every bit of it.
Sure enough, before a quarter hour had passed, Finn Thornwood came striding out of the compound, and right behind him, draped in gold and silver, was Edith Ashvale. The cloying scent of overripe peaches and crushed oleander reached me before she did, sweet enough to turn my stomach.
The steward pointed at me. "My Alpha, this woman claims to be your mate. If she's a fraud, I'll have her thrown out at once."
Finn looked down at me from the top of the steps. "Lift your head."
I tilted my chin up slowly, the ghost of a smile on my lips. My wolf was utterly still inside me, watchful, coiled, silent as a held breath.
The moment he saw my face, every drop of color drained from his.
