Brooke POV:
The silence gave me space to remember.
I thought of my mother. A former warrior, crushed by the Spencer mines. Silver Poisoning-a slow, necrotic rot.
That was why I married Easton. A life for a life.
I remembered high school. Kelly and her friends cornering me in the locker room. Throwing dried Wolfsbane into the vents.
I was choking, dying. Then the door burst open.
Easton Spencer. He carried me out. Pine and rain.
Mate.
But he had just set me down and said, "Be more careful, Rollins."
I clung to that memory. A fool's hope.
Then came the wedding. A political union. Kelly ran away, leaving the Spencers needing a bride. I volunteered for the medical bills.
"This is a business arrangement," he had said. "Do not expect affection. Do not expect a Marking."
I pulled into the villa driveway. Dark. Empty.
I walked past the master bedroom to the guest room. My room.
Six months ago, I overheard Easton talking to his Beta.
"Why don't you mark her?"
"She's a miner's daughter, Mark. An Omega. Her blood is weak. She's just a warm body. She isn't fit to carry my heir. "
My hand drifted to my stomach. A phantom cramp twisted my gut. He didn't know. He didn't know about the winter solstice three years ago. The blood. The tiny life that flickered out because my body was too weak from stress and neglect. I never told him. Why would I? He barely looked at me.
I grabbed a suitcase.
I didn't pack the designer clothes. I packed my worn jeans, sketchbooks, and the wooden wolf carving my father made before his 'accident.' A car crash on a straight road. The brakes failed. The police called it bad luck. I always called it suspicious.
I looked in the mirror. My neck was smooth. No bite mark.
"Thank the Goddess," I whispered.
If he had marked me, leaving would kill me. But an unmarked bond? It would just feel like tearing a muscle.
I zipped the suitcase. The sound was a gavel strike.
But first, one last thing.
