"You don't have to worry about that. I don't need your bonding ceremony."

In the six years we were in love, I had always given him his freedom.

When he wanted to drink, I would sit quietly by his side, never rushing him.

If it wasn't a place I should be, I'd leave the moment he asked and wait to pick him up later.

When he was drunk, I'd take care of him without complaint until he was comfortable.

When he wanted to go hunting alone with his friends, I would plan the entire trip for them.

Even when he offered to let me check his communication crystal, I never did.

I loved him, and I didn't want to repeat my mother's mistake of driving her mate away with her suffocating control.

I thought I had given him enough space.

At least, before his "accident," we were inseparable, still deep in our honeymoon phase.

But now I knew. My love suffocated him.

So, was that the real reason he faked an injury to seek cheap thrills?

Our eyes met, and I couldn't see a single trace of the man who had once loved me.

I swallowed the question that almost escaped my lips.

My steady gaze only made his frown deepen. He snatched the moonlight flowers from his Beta's hands and thrust them into my arms.

"Alright, now that you have my attention, stop putting on this act. Take the flowers and get out of here!"

He thought I was still just some meek Omega who could be appeased with a cheap gift.

He couldn't believe that the woman who had sworn to be his and his alone would actually go back on her word.

I handed the flowers back to his Beta.

"These are for your new lover. It's not appropriate for me to accept them."

"I transferred the aura voluntarily. You don't have to force yourself to bond with me."

A strange panic flashed in his eyes.

Shouldn't she be ecstatic? Why does she keep refusing the bonding ceremony? Is she… actually angry?

A flicker of anxiety crossed his eyes. "Phoebe, I..."

A pointed cough from one of his followers made him switch tracks instantly.

"Phoebe, I am a man of my word."

But I just smiled.

"You should go be with your lover."

"I'm leaving now."

Hearing my calm dismissal, Roryn's heart skipped a beat.

He felt that something was different about me tonight.

But he couldn't put his finger on what had changed.

Seeing his hesitation, his friends draped their arms over his shoulders and pulled him away.

"Come on, stop looking, or your Sabrina will get jealous! This is just a switch from a pity party to playing hard to get. An Omega's tricks are all the same. Only a naive guy like you would fall for it!"

"Exactly! And look at the mess you made. You're not a rookie, how could you let someone get hurt by a silver weapon? Luckily, Sabrina is magnanimous, not like some people who donate a little aura and try to force a marriage..."

Listening to their jeers, spoken just loud enough for me to hear, I felt no stab of heartbreak—only a bone-deep chill.

Even the bright moonlight couldn't warm me.

I watched them leave, then discharged myself from the hospital.

While Roryn was away, I called a neutral cleaning company to help me at the Alpha Manor.

The Omega supervisor of the company stared blankly at our meticulously decorated home.

"Phoebe, these are all brand-new ceremonial decorations. Are you really just getting rid of them like this?"

"Yes. My Alpha is dead. I have no use for them anymore."

The Omega immediately apologized and offered her condolences.

To spare me the pain of revisiting old memories, she started with our ceremonial totems and dozens of photo albums.

In just half a day, all traces of our shared joy were erased from the home I had built with so much love.

A cold house for a cold me.

The Omega looked at the dozen bags of de-scented items at the door, sighed, and shook her head.

"Phoebe, try to look on the bright side."

I nodded with a faint smile.

After the cleaning company left, I made sure no trace of me remained in the manor, then went before the ancestral totem, carved away my bloodline imprint with a ceremonial dagger, and left the territory of the Crestfall Pack forever.