After placing the two urns down with the utmost care, I began packing my daughters' belongings one piece at a time.
Their tiny dresses.
Their carved wooden wolf toys.
Their little bowls and cups.
Their paintbrushes and sketchbooks.
At last, I walked to the small desk in their room.
A family portrait rested there.
Only my daughters and I were in the painting.
Jordon was nowhere to be found.
I quietly removed the picture from its wooden frame.
One of my daughters had drawn a tall wolf beside us with colored charcoal.
In her uneven handwriting, she had written:
**Father loves Mother.**
A tiny heart sat beside the words.
My vision blurred.
Clutching the portrait against my chest, I finally broke down.
Throughout the five years I had raised them alone, no matter how deeply Jordon had hurt me, I had never spoken ill of him before our daughters.
But pups understood far more than adults believed.
They had always known.
They knew their father had never truly loved their mother.
By the time the sun disappeared beyond the mountains, I had finished packing everything.
Several large wooden chests were carried onto a wagon waiting outside the packhouse.
"Lady Diana," one of the workers asked respectfully, "is there anything else?"
I slowly shook my head.
Then I walked back inside one final time.
On the table in the great hall, I placed the dissolution of our mate bond, already signed in my own hand.
Without another glance, I picked up my daughters' urns and stepped out of the packhouse forever.
Holding them close, an unfamiliar peace settled over my heart.
After a long silence, I removed the communication crystal Jordon had once given me.
I crushed it beneath my fingers and cast the fragments into the forest.
At the same time, within the Moon Shrine's healing hall, Alpha Howell and my sister-in-law arrived after learning where Jordon had gone.
They found him accompanying Annette during her pregnancy examination by the pack's senior healer.
The instant Jordon saw them, his expression darkened.
He let out a cold laugh.
"So Diana couldn't wait to run crying to both of you?"
"She acted so calm when I left the packhouse."
"I should have known it was all another performance."
Before he could finish speaking, Alpha Howell struck him across the face with such force that the entire chamber fell silent.
"You disgrace!"
The old Alpha's voice thundered through the hall.
"You sent your own daughters to their deaths."
"And today, while they await their final journey beneath the Moon Goddess, you bring your former lover here to celebrate another pup."
"How did the Howell bloodline produce a son as cold-hearted as you?"
Jordon stumbled backward, barely keeping his footing.
The color drained from his face.
His voice came out strained.
"...What did you just say?"
