I handed him to the pack nanny and rode off without looking back.

When I returned to the territory, exhaustion clinging to my bones, the first thing I saw was my old harp lying in the grass outside the lodge, abandoned like refuse.

Inside, Arthur stood near the doorway, hauling in several heavy travel chests.

“Mother,” he said flatly, not meeting my eyes, “Aunt Tessa will be staying with us for a time. She dislikes noise, so I cleared out your music room and turned it into a carving chamber for her.”

I looked at him, truly looked.

In that moment, I understood that I no longer belonged here. I was not family, not welcome. I was only a remnant, something unsightly left behind, lingering where it should not.

That harp had been Arthur’s gift to me on his eighth naming day. He had traded away all his winter tokens for it.

He used to sit beside me in the sunlit room, small fingers brushing the strings, laughing as he leaned against my arm and said, “I love Mother the most.”

That child was gone.

I swallowed the pain rising in my chest and forced a thin smile.

“So this is how you treat your mother now.”

Unease flickered across his face, brief and awkward. Before he could answer, soft footsteps approached.

Gerald stepped into the yard with Tessa beside him. His expression mirrored Arthur’s, distant and cold as he looked straight at me.

“Tessa fears the dark,” he said. “Your chamber receives the most sunlight. Move out and let her take it.”

I lowered my eyes and nodded.

“Alright. I will clear my things.”

They had expected resistance. Tears, perhaps. My calm acceptance unsettled him, and surprise tightened his features.

“Victoria…”

“Oh, you are so kind,” Tessa said quickly, smiling sweetly. “Let us live peacefully together during this time.”

I did not respond. I turned and went upstairs.

In the chamber, I dragged out one heavy pack after another. Each item carried years of quiet endurance, of giving without return.

When I tossed three decades of memories into the refuse cart, Gerald followed me out, frowning.

“Why are you discarding so much?”

“Things I no longer need.”

He hesitated, then reached into one pack and froze.

“These are the gifts I gave you.”

I smiled faintly.

“Old things should have been thrown away long ago.”

His jaw tightened.

“You used to treasure them.”

Yes. Once, anything from him had made me glow with foolish joy. I had sworn to keep each gift forever.

But forever was too heavy for a heart worn thin by betrayal.

I passed him without stopping.

“There is someone new in the lodge now,” I said quietly. “You never liked crowds.”

He seemed about to explain that Tessa’s stay was temporary, but I was already loading the last pack onto my mount.

He exhaled sharply.

“There is a feast tonight. You have not attended one in years. Come along with Tessa.”

He had not brought me to a gathering in a long time. Not since my body changed, not since I no longer suited his image.

At the feast, Gerald and Tessa dismounted first.

The host greeted them warmly. “Alpha Mortimer, your mate is as radiant as ever.”

Gerald did not correct him. He took Tessa’s hand naturally.

“Thank you.”

“And this lady is…?”

Only then did he glance at me, briefly, before looking away.

“Our aide.”

I stood still.

Though I expected it, the words still tore through me.

I lifted my chin and entered the feast hall with what dignity I had left.

Tessa clung to Gerald’s arm as they moved through the firelit gathering, graceful and inseparable, like a true bonded pair.

I remained apart, watching as though from another world.

Then, without warning, a sharp pain ripped through my injured right calf, burning and sudden, stealing the breath from my lungs.

In an instant, cold sweat soaked through my back.

The old injury from the ravine flared violently. The leg that had once been shattered throbbed with each heartbeat, pain spreading like fire through bone and muscle. I could no longer stand among the crowd and had no choice but to ask for a place to rest.

What they gave me was a narrow storage room carved into stone, dark and unheated, used only for tools and discarded supplies.

The moment I stepped inside, there was a sharp click behind me.

The door locked.

“Gerald has always loved me,” Tessa’s voice rang out from beyond the door, bright with malice. “You miserable woman who chased him shamelessly. Thirty years as his mate meant nothing. He never loved you.”

I slid down against the cold wall, breath coming shallow.

“You saw it yourself tonight,” she continued. “I stood at his side, where a true mate belongs. This silk mantle I wore was chosen by your daughter. That moonstone timepiece was given by your son. They adore me.”

Pain tore through my leg, stealing my strength. I pounded weakly against the door, my voice breaking.

“Take him. Take them all. I do not care. Just let me leave. I need a healer. Please.”

Her laughter was soft and cruel.

“Do not delude yourself. I will not let you crawl out and ruin this night. Stay here and remember your place.”

Something was hung on the outside handle. A ward sigil. Then her footsteps faded down the corridor, each step light and unhurried.

I collapsed onto the stone floor.

My hands shook as I reached for my rune-stone.

Dead.

“No one hears you,” I whispered hoarsely.

I struck the door until my fists burned raw, shouting until my throat tore, but the chamber was buried too deep, the night too still.

In the end, the pain swallowed me whole.

Darkness followed.

When the feast ended two hours later, Gerald finally noticed my absence. His expression tightened in irritation.

“Where did she go?” he asked. “I told her to stay where she was.”

Tessa held his arm, her voice gentle with false concern.

“Did she leave because you called me your mate? If I had known she would misunderstand, I would have explained.”

Gerald scoffed.

“Tonight was filled with elders and leaders. In her state, she would only have disgraced me. Tessa, I am glad you were there. You saved my standing.”

“She is always overly dramatic,” he added. “Let her sulk. We are going home.”

Tessa glanced once toward the storage chamber, satisfaction flickering across her face.

And I remained locked inside, forgotten.

Not one member of that family remembered me.

At dawn, when Henry was to be taken to his lessons, my son finally thought of me.

“Why has she not arrived?” he snapped. “Does she know the time?”

When my rune-stone did not answer, he did not try again. He simply waved it away and told the nanny to take Henry instead.

I was discovered later by a groundskeeper.

After my rune-stone was recharged, there were no messages from Gerald. No questions. No concern.

Instead, a glowing announcement filled the screen.

[The Alpha Mortimer’s long unseen mate is revealed to be a master sculptor. A perfect union of power and artistry.]

I stared at it for a long moment, then smiled bitterly.

The rune-stone rang again.

For an instant, I thought it might be Gerald.

But it was Edmund.

The moment I answered, his voice came through, tight with restrained fury.

“Victoria. I called you all night. What happened? Where are you? Are you safe now?”

It turned out Gerald had seen the pack notices spreading through the night fires. Fearing I might do something irreversible, he had searched for me until dawn.

I never imagined that the last warmth left in my life would come from someone beyond blood and bond.

My eyes burned. I swallowed hard. “I am… alive.”

“No,” he said quietly, fury held in check like a storm beneath ice. “You are not well. I am ending my journey. I will come for you.”

“Thank you,” I whispered. “I am sorry…”

“You never need to say that to me, Victoria,” Gerald replied. “My heart has never changed.”

Long ago, he had pursued me openly. But back then, my world held only Gerald, and I had been blind to everything else.

I never thought that after thirty winters, Gerald would still remember me.

When I returned from the healer’s den, the lodge reeked of unfamiliar scent.

Tessa lay sprawled across Gerald’s sleeping furs, wrapped loosely in one of his shirts, a cup of fermented honey wine in her hand. Her posture was careless, possessive.

Gerald had always been obsessed with order. Even a trace of my scent in his chamber used to irritate him.

Twenty years earlier, when his influence was still fragile, he had angered a powerful Alpha. To repair it, I drank until my stomach nearly ruptured.

When I staggered home that night, trembling with cold, Gerald stopped me at the door.

“You stink,” he said. “Clean yourself.”

I was left outside in the snow until dawn. Fever followed for days.

Now Tessa, heavy with drink, lay comfortably in his bed.

So those rules had only ever been meant for me.

She rose slowly, pulling the shirt open just enough to reveal dark marks blooming against her skin.

“Gerald was relentless last night,” she said lazily. “He said you were stiff and dull. You never knew how to satisfy him.”

Nausea surged, but I held her gaze, calm and cold.

“It does not matter,” I said. “You are still not his mate.”

The words struck her hard.

Her expression twisted. Then she smashed the cup against the stone floor and cried out as she collapsed.

“Tessa!”

Gerald burst in, panic flooding his face. He gathered her into his arms as if she were glass.

Tears clung to her lashes. “I only wanted to explain last night to Victoria. She told me to die and shoved me into the shards…”

Gerald’s eyes turned bloodshot as he stared at me.

“Apologize.”

I shook my head, despair tearing loose. “I did nothing. She—”

“I should leave before she hurts me again,” Tessa sobbed, pretending to struggle free.

Instead of releasing her, Gerald held her tighter.

“You are petty and cruel,” he said to me. “Reflect on yourself.”

He took Tessa away to the healer, leaving me behind like a criminal.

Later, the guards dragged me into the lower cellar. With no other choice, I called my son.

Arthur’s voice was sharp and distant.

“I heard everything from Father. You went too far. It was a misunderstanding, and you injured Aunt Tessa?”

“Mother, learn from her. Be graceful for once. Stop shaming the pack.”

Something inside me went cold.

Gerald meant to punish me. No food. No water.

After a day and a night, my injured leg burned with agony. At last, the old housekeeper secretly let me out.

At the healer’s den, my rune-stone lit up with Tessa’s latest message.

The first carving showed Gerald’s back as he hurried through the halls for her. The second was a healer’s record.

[With a mate who truly loves you, safety comes naturally.]

The Mortimer bloodline filled the responses.

My son praised his father.

My daughter, far away, congratulated Tessa.

Gerald himself wrote, claiming I was stirring trouble.

Then my daughter replied.

[Everyone knows you never stopped loving her. Follow your heart. We support you.]

I finally understood.

I typed slowly.

[Congratulations on your new pup. Do not worry. I will not interfere. Gerald and I are dissolving our bond.]

The moment I sent it, my rune-stone began to ring.