That was why he'd taken such special care of her.
Right up until the night before our mating ceremony—when I caught them tangled together in the den we'd prepared for our bonded life.
I couldn't believe it. The Alpha who'd sworn his devotion to me for over a decade, whose scent had been imprinted on my very soul, had so easily surrendered to another's touch.
I lost control completely. My wolf howled through me, clawing at the surface. Screaming. Sobbing. Hysterical.
I wanted to destroy them. Drag their betrayal before the Pack Council. Make them face the shame of what they'd done.
But all that rage collapsed into despair the moment the healers revealed my sire's wasting sickness—a curse eating through his blood that no moon magic could cure.
I begged Kael. I reminded him of everything my bloodline had done for him—the sanctuary, the warriors, the territory rights that had lifted him from nothing. All I asked was that he go through with the mating ceremony as planned.
Just long enough for my sire to leave for the distant healing sanctuaries with peace in his heart.
Kael agreed. But he kept it from Raven.
At the mating feast, she drove her vehicle straight at me.
My sire threw himself before the rushing metal.
In his final moments, bleeding and broken on the stone courtyard, he placed my hand in Kael's. Take care of her, he whispered through bloodied lips. Swear it on your wolf.
With the entire pack watching—with every elder pointing accusing fingers—Kael finally stayed by my side.
For a long time after, I drowned in guilt. I had killed my sire. That was the only thought my wolf could hold.
I woke howling in the middle of countless nights, my claws tearing at my own flesh. If I hadn't begged Kael to stay, would my sire have been spared the stress that weakened his blood? If I had never recognized Kael's scent at all, would my sire have lived to see me properly mated? To hold pups of our line?
Day after day. Moon after moon. I sank deeper into the darkness, hurting myself again and again.
Kael would hold me while I broke apart, murmuring apologies into my hair while his Alpha presence wrapped around me like a cage. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry.
Eventually, time dulled the sharpest edges. Life settled into something quiet. Something bearable.
But it was all a lie I told myself.
He had never forgotten Raven. Not for a single night.
All he saw was her—her misery, her helplessness. He bent himself backward to make it up to her.
He never once saw what he'd cost me. What he'd cost my sire.
In the darkness, I heard the soft whisper of the den door sealing shut. My eyes opened.
Sire... I want to reject the bond with Kael. You won't blame me, will you?
Sleep wasn't coming. I rose from the furs and walked to the corner where my sire's memorial portrait hung, surrounded by the soft glow of remembrance candles.
My fingers traced his smiling face. The grief swelled until my wolf keened with it, the sound trapped in my chest.
Through blurred tears, I accidentally knocked the frame. It clattered to the stone floor.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry—" I dropped to my knees, reaching for it.
That's when I saw it.
Behind the shattered frame, tucked against the backing, was a photograph. Color. Glossy.
I pulled it free with trembling hands.
Kael and Raven. Together. Smiling.
The edges were worn soft—handled often, touched again and again by reverent fingers.
Suddenly I understood.
For five years, Kael had stood before this portrait. I'd thought he was paying his respects to my sire's memory. Begging forgiveness from the wolf who'd given him everything.
Now I knew the truth.
He was never looking at my sire.
He was looking at her. At that radiant smile. At stolen moments that should never have existed.
I turned the photograph over. A single line in familiar handwriting:
Kael & Raven. Forever.
His handwriting.
How pathetic I must have looked. A fool clinging to a mate bond my sire had paid for with his life.
And Kael?
He played the devoted Alpha to perfection—while hiding a scent-partner's photograph behind my dead sire's face.
My stomach heaved. I barely made it to the bathing chamber before I was retching, gripping the stone basin until my claws scored marks into the surface.
I couldn't wait another night. I needed to sever this completely.
The next morning, I met my Tribunal Advocate at a gathering den in neutral territory.
While I waited, a server approached with a steaming cup of spiced brew—then dumped it directly over my head.
"Oh no, I'm so sorry." The voice dripped with mock sweetness. "Clumsy me."
I looked up into Raven's smirking face.
"Lady Ashvale." She tilted her head, eyes glittering with malice. "How was your night? Lonely, I imagine. That big nest of furs all to yourself."
She leaned closer, and I caught the deliberate way she let Kael's scent drift from her skin—marking herself with him, making sure I knew.
"Kael was with me. We were up very late." Her smile sharpened. "He says you're like carved ice in the furs. Five years of bonding, and you still can't hold his wolf's interest."
I met her gaze. Ice cold.
