They thought I'd back down after all that.
I didn't.
I pushed the Blood Oath of rejection closer：
“No explanations needed. Sign, Roderic.”
He stared for two full seconds, then let out a cold laugh：
“Don't be stupid. Walk out that door and you can't even feed yourself.”
I looked at the face in front of me, so familiar yet so foreign, and felt a disappointment I had never known before. Beneath my skin my wolf went very still, the way she did when something she'd trusted turned strange.
So even he saw me that way.
Then why was I still bending over backward for this?
I was about to speak when his communicator chimed at his waist.
He answered, and his expression shifted：“Don't be scared. I'm coming right now.”
Then he looked at me, impatient：
“Seraphine's being harassed by some rogues. I have to go.”
“I've been good enough to you all these cycles. Seraphine and I are just friends. Don't you dare start this again.”
He swept the rejection papers into the hearth-bin and slammed the den door on his way out.
Brunhilde watched him go and let out a sharp snort, dry oak and cold ash curling off her with the contempt：“Ungrateful little wretch. Get out of my den.”
I didn't bother acknowledging the insults at my back. I walked straight out.
It wasn't until I reached the ridge road that I realized Roderic had already taken the carriage to fetch Seraphine.
He couldn't bear the thought of her getting hurt at all, yet he'd forgotten I was carrying his pup.
And he'd forgotten that five cycles ago, kneeling at my parents' burial cairns beneath the moon, he'd sworn before the Goddess to protect me for the rest of my life.
Maybe the vow had been sincere at the time. Too bad hearts change.
The person who promised to protect me was the one who hurt me the most.
The territory edge was remote. Not a single hired carriage passed the whole stretch.
I stared down the pitch-black mountain road, clenched my fists, and started walking.
By the time my legs felt like lead, my communicator buzzed with a message from an unknown sending-stone.
It was Seraphine.
“Did you and Roderic have a fight? He looked awful when he got here.”
“He's in a much better mood now, though. I took very good care of him.”
In the crystal-image she'd attached, a man stood with his back to the lens, water sluicing over him. Claw-marks streaked across his back, and the steam did nothing to hide that tall, familiar frame. His scent even carried faint through the image somehow in my memory, cedar gone sour, that cloying sweetness I'd once mistaken for warmth.
I saved the image without a word and called a friend who tracked secrets for coin.
“You said you had dirt on Seraphine Velvetmoor? I'll buy it. Whatever it costs.”
“And dig into my mate's holdings while you're at it.”
It took me four full hours to walk back to the den. The instant I turned the latch, I heard laughter inside.
“Just relax and stay here. Nobody's going to bother you.”
Roderic's voice. Soft. Gentle.
I pushed the door open. Seraphine was on the couch. Roderic stood over her holding a bowl of something rich and strengthening, spooning it carefully to her lips：
“The healer said you unsettled the pup. Stay still, I've got it.”
I stood there, staring at the two of them, and a sharp pain pushed through my chest, as if the den I'd lived in for five cycles had really been theirs all along. My wolf pressed low in my ribs and would not lift her head.
Seraphine spotted me and immediately stood：
“Aurora, you're back.”
She still had that flawless skin, that perfect face. The faint reek of overripe jasmine and sugared honey clung to her, and not a trace of pup-scent under it. She didn't carry as though she'd quickened at all.
Meanwhile the heat-carrying had wrecked me. My once-clear complexion had broken out, I'd gained over twenty pounds, and the face caught in the polished glass cabinet was oily and hollowed out.
Roderic set the bowl down and glanced at me, his tone flat：
“Seraphine's den was sniffed out by some obsessive admirers. I told her she could stay with us a few days.”
Seraphine came over and reached for my hand：
“I was just so scared, and Roderic insisted on bringing me here. You don't mind, right?”
I shook her hand off and stared at her, cold.
“You're a known performer. You think luring a mated wolf is something to be proud of?”
“That's not what this is, I……”
Seraphine turned to Roderic with wounded eyes, her lashes already glistening, a tear about to fall.
He pulled her behind him instantly and fixed me with a hard stare, a low growl threading beneath his words：“I told you, there's nothing between me and Seraphine. Can you stop with the pointless jealousy?”
The way he shielded her from me made me feel like I was the shameless rival omega.
I swallowed the burn in my nose and pulled out the rejection papers I'd fished back out of the hearth-bin, every word deliberate.
“I'm not jealous. I'm giving you what you want.”
My eyes, steady and unblinking, held his.
“Aurora……”
His heartbeat stuttered without warning, and he reached for me.
