I struggled to prop myself up and pulled a box from beneath the bed. Inside lay the Death Walker's Iron Medallion, cold against my fingers, humming faintly with the old oath bound into its metal. I pressed it into Rowan's hands.
"Rowan, take this to the Alpha King's court. Give it to him and tell him Perenna Ashvane is calling in her Blood Debt. Tell him I want a Moon-Sealed Bond Severance."
Years ago, when the Alpha King himself had traveled to the Hollowmere Pack to bring the Alpha Heir and the Beta Lord back to Ironhold Territory, he'd been so grateful for my saving their lives that he promised me one request, anything I asked.
I had never dared waste that chance. Now, finally, it had a purpose.
Hadeon didn't return with Soren Ashwick until the following afternoon.
By then, the pack healer Rowan had summoned was already on his way out.
Hadeon caught the healer by the arm. "How is my mate?"
"She'll live. But I'm afraid..."
Hadeon's voice dropped low, unsteady in a way I'd rarely heard when it concerned me. "Afraid of what?"
The healer shook his head with a heavy sigh. "Her body is ruined. She'll spend the rest of her life in pain."
Something like guilt flickered across Hadeon's face. He gathered me into his arms, my body limp as a threadbare rag. "I'm sorry, Perenna. It's not that I didn't want to help you, but the Alpha Heir's mate is carrying a royal pup. I couldn't afford the delay..."
I gritted my teeth against the pain and pulled myself free of his embrace. I shook my head. "It's fine. You were up all night, my lord. Go rest."
His hands hung frozen in the air where I'd been. His voice came out scraped raw. "Are you angry with me, Perenna?"
I closed my eyes. My answer was flat, toneless. "This Omega wouldn't dare."
"Omega?"
Hadeon caught the shift instantly. He stared at me as though I'd spoken a foreign language.
Before, I had always addressed myself as "your mate" in his presence.
Now I'd changed the word. The line between us, drawn clean.
"Yes. This Omega was born lowly. Naturally, I can't be compared to the Alpha Heir's mate. So you did the right thing, my lord. This Omega wouldn't dare hold it against you."
A violent cough tore through me, and blood splattered from my lips. Hadeon saw it, and for once, he asked nothing more.
He rubbed slow circles on my back, his voice softening. "You've always been the most sensible one, Perenna. I was overthinking it. Rest now. Your mate will stay right here. I'm not going anywhere."
I didn't know how long I slept before the noise from the courtyard dragged me awake.
The moment I opened my eyes, I saw Rowan sprawled in the center of the yard, a silver-tipped switch cracking down across her body again and again.
Her clothes were soaked through with blood. Each breath she drew looked like it might be her last. The smell of burned skin rose with every strike where the silver bit into her, and something in my chest went so still it frightened me.
Cressida Thornwood sat nearby, watching with cold, disinterested eyes.
When Hadeon saw me stir, he didn't bother explaining. He simply pressed my shoulders back down. "The Alpha Heir's mate is disciplining a servant. Don't interfere, Perenna."
I had braced myself for some grave offense. But the crime, it turned out, was nothing more than this: after delivering the Bond Severance petition to the Alpha King, Rowan had taken it upon herself to summon the pack healer for me.
The Alpha King and his Luna already carried guilt over the Alpha Heir breaking his fated bond with me. When they learned what had happened, they'd rebuked Cressida harshly.
Called her vicious. Said she'd shown callous disregard for another she-wolf's life.
Cressida couldn't touch me, not with the Alpha King and his Luna shielding me. So she'd turned her fury on Rowan instead.
I watched Rowan's broken body twitch with each blow, barely clinging to life, and the tears wouldn't stop. The silver left thin lines of smoke rising from her skin. My wolf pressed itself flat inside me, whimpering low, unable to look away.
I seized Hadeon's sleeve and begged. "My lord, please save Rowan. Every fault is mine, all of it."
"She was only worried about me."
Hadeon's expression pinched with reluctance. "Perenna, she's just a servant. Let the Alpha Heir's mate vent her anger and it'll blow over."
I stared at that handsome face of his, so perfectly composed, so perfectly human, and could not fathom the rottenness it concealed.
Because we were born lowly, our lives simply didn't matter?
Mine didn't. Rowan's didn't. And neither had the hundred-some families of the Hollowmere Pack.
I couldn't hold it in any longer. The words ripped out of me, raw and bleeding. "Is that what you told yourself when you slaughtered the Hollowmere Pack, my lord? That they were just a bunch of lowborn nobodies?"
Hadeon flinched as if I'd driven a blade between his ribs. His hand shot to my throat and squeezed, his eyes splitting gold with fury.
