The Blackmoor warriors led me through the forest in silence. I kept my spine straight and my pace even, though my legs felt like they were made of wet sand. The bite on my neck throbbed with every step. Nara paced inside me, restless, her ears pricked toward something I couldn't yet name.
The Blackmoor estate rose out of the trees like something from another century. Stone walls, iron gates, windows that caught the morning sun and threw it back like a challenge. The main house was three stories of dark wood and slate roof, surrounded by training grounds and outbuildings that sprawled across the clearing. I had seen it once before, years ago, during a territorial negotiation. It had been impressive then. Now it felt like a fortress.
The lead warrior — the woman with the scar — gestured toward the main entrance. "Wait here."
She disappeared inside. The other three warriors remained at a polite distance, not quite guarding me, not quite ignoring me. I stood in the courtyard and felt their eyes on the bloody collar of my shirt, the mark on my neck that was already bruising purple around the edges.
I did not look away. I did not explain.
The door opened again. The scarred warrior stepped aside, and Felix walked out.
I had forgotten how tall he was. Or maybe I had never let myself remember. Six-four, broad through the shoulders, moving with the kind of economy that came from absolute certainty in your own body. Dark hair, grey eyes, a face that would have been handsome if it weren't so controlled. He wore dark jeans and a plain black shirt, no pack insignia, no ceremonial nonsense. He didn't need it.
His eyes found mine. Held.
And then something happened that I did not expect.
His entire body went still. Not the stillness of caution. The stillness of a predator that has just caught a scent it recognizes on an instinctive, bone-deep level. His nostrils flared. His wolf surfaced behind his eyes — not threatening, not aggressive, just *there*, suddenly and completely present in a way that made the air in the courtyard feel heavier.
The Lycan aura hit like a shockwave.
All four warriors dropped to one knee. Heads bowed. Necks bared. I felt the weight of it press against my sternum, a physical force that wanted me on the ground with them.
I locked my knees. I met his eyes. I did not bend.
Nara lifted her head inside me and made a sound I had never heard her make before — low, questioning, almost a whine. *What is that?*
I didn't answer her. I couldn't.
Felix's jaw tightened. His aura pulled back, reined in with visible effort, and the warriors rose slowly to their feet. He did not look away from me. His gaze moved from my face to my neck to the bloodstain on my collar and back to my face.
When he spoke, his voice was low and deliberate, stripped of inflection. "Quinn Mason."
"Felix Blackmoor."
A pause. The courtyard was so quiet I could hear the wind in the pines beyond the gate.
"You crossed my border uninvited," he said. "Wearing another Alpha's mark. Reeking of a severed bond."
"Yes."
"Why."
It was not a question. It was a command, delivered in a tone that expected immediate compliance. I had heard that tone before, from Brandon, from a dozen other Alphas who thought authority was the same thing as being right.
I looked at Felix and said, very clearly: "I need territory, resources, and an alliance. I am not here for a mate."
Something flickered across his face. Surprise, maybe. Or something closer to pain, there and gone so fast I might have imagined it. His wolf was still visible behind his eyes, watching me with an intensity that made my skin prickle.
He inclined his head. Once. Precise as a blade.
"Then we negotiate," he said.
---
The guest quarters were on the second floor of the east wing, overlooking the training grounds. Clean lines, minimal furniture, a bed that looked like it had never been slept in. The scarred warrior — her name was Kira, she told me without being asked — showed me where the bathroom was, where the kitchens were, and informed me that I had access to the training grounds and the pack library.
"The Prince says you're to be treated as an ally," she said. "Not a guest. Not a prisoner. An ally."
I nodded. She left.
I stood in the middle of the room and felt the silence press in. The estate was saturated with Felix's scent — cedar and cold air and something darker, wilder, something that made Nara pace and whine and press against the inside of my ribs like she wanted *out*.
I stripped off Brandon's t-shirt and threw it in the corner. I showered until the water ran cold. I dressed in the clothes someone had left folded on the bed — plain grey sweats, soft and clean and smelling faintly of laundry soap. Not Felix's scent. Not anyone's.
I lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
The severed bond ached. It was not the sharp, tearing pain of the rejection itself. It was duller, deeper, like something rotting inside me. I pressed my hand to my chest and felt the hollow where the bond used to sit. Nara curled up small and quiet, and for the first time since I was nineteen, I felt truly alone inside my own head.
I did not cry. I had not cried in the forest. I would not cry here.
I closed my eyes.
When I opened them again, the room was dark. I had not meant to sleep. The window was open, and the night air carried the scent of pine and distant woodsmoke. I sat up slowly, my neck stiff, my body aching in places I had not noticed before.
There was something outside my door.
I crossed the room and opened it.
A blanket. Dark grey, thick wool, folded neatly and left on the floor just outside the threshold. I picked it up. It was warm. And it carried Felix's scent — not faint, not accidental, but deliberate. Offered.
Nara stirred. *Use it,* she said. Just that.
I stood there for a long moment, holding the blanket, staring down the empty hallway.
Then I closed the door. I wrapped the blanket around my shoulders. I lay back down on the bed, and for the first time since the bond had snapped, the ache in my chest eased just enough that I could breathe.
I did not think about why.
I did not say thank you.
But I used it.
---
Word traveled fast in the pack world. Faster than I expected. Faster than I wanted.
By the second morning at Blackmoor, I knew the gossip networks were on fire. Kira told me, blunt and unbothered, while I was wrapping my hands in the training room. "Every Alpha from here to the coast knows you rejected Brandon Cole the morning after your Marking Ceremony. They're calling it the coldest exit in pack history."
I tied off the wrap and flexed my fingers. "Good."
She raised an eyebrow. "You wanted them to know?"
"I wanted them to know I walked out on my own feet. That I spoke the words. That he didn't get to spin it."
Kira nodded slowly. "Smart."
I hit the heavy bag until my knuckles bled through the wraps.
Back at Silverfang, things were falling apart.
I didn't hear it directly. I heard it through the warriors who had trained under me, who still had my number, who texted me in the middle of the night with messages that started with *I shouldn't be telling you this, but—*
Brandon's Beta had confronted him. Demanded an explanation. Brandon had used his Alpha tone, shut the door, and refused to answer questions. Three of the senior warriors had requested transfers to allied packs. The younger ones were whispering in the barracks, asking why their Luna had left, why no one was talking about it, why Skyler Knight was suddenly wearing the moonstone pendant that everyone knew had been promised to Quinn.
And then the photographs started.
Skyler posted them to her private social media — private, but not private enough. A mountain retreat. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking a valley. A fireplace. A bed with white sheets. The location tag was visible in the corner: *Silverpeak Lodge*.
The same lodge I had booked six months ago for our honeymoon bonding trip.
The same lodge Brandon had promised me we would go to after the Marking Ceremony, just the two of us, no pack business, no interruptions.
Skyler's caption was a single word: *Healing.*
I stared at the screen. Nara snarled.
I did not throw the phone. I set it down very carefully on the nightstand, and I walked out onto the balcony, and I let Nara howl inside me until my throat was raw and my hands were shaking.
When I came back inside, there was a new message. From Derek. Brandon's Beta. My friend.
*She's in the master bedroom now. Wearing your pendant. He's not stopping her. I'm sorry, Quinn. I'm so sorry.*
I deleted the message.
I did not reply.
I wrapped Felix's blanket around my shoulders and sat on the floor with my back against the bed, and I waited for the sun to come up.
