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.

“What kind of foolish tale is that?” I said hoarsely. “Since when does betrayal dress itself up as mercy?”

Gerald’s reply still echoed in my ears when I lifted my head.

They were there.

Gerald and Tessa walked side by side through the healer’s stone corridor, their steps unhurried, their closeness unmistakable.

The moment he saw me, Gerald’s expression darkened. He strode toward me, holding up his rune-stone.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Are you following us now?”

Leaning on my staff, I answered calmly, “My leg was acting up. I felt faint from hunger. I came to see a healer.”

Tessa laughed softly. “Victoria, you have always been resilient. Since when did you become so delicate?”

For a brief second, Gerald hesitated. His gaze lingered on my pale face and unsteady stance. His voice lowered.

“What happened to your leg? Why did you not tell me?”

I met his eyes and said nothing.

Why did it hurt?

Even now, he believed my pain was an act.

After the accident, he had disappeared for seven days to celebrate with her. When he returned and saw me using a support staff, he mocked me for pretending injury to gain sympathy.

Later, he had locked me in the cellar to appease her anger.

Since I was already leaving, there was no reason to explain.

I lowered my gaze and endured the silence.

Something in my stillness unsettled him. He reached out and seized my wrist, urgency creeping into his voice.

“Tessa and I only underwent a ritual with the healers,” he said quickly. “It will not affect our bond. Tomorrow is our thirtieth bonding night. I prepared something special for you.”

I almost laughed.

“I have a surprise for you as well,” I said softly.

Perhaps driven by guilt, he arranged for my stay in the healer’s den and even brought me fruit. An unfamiliar kindness.

My son and his mate came later, awkward and restrained.

“Mother, it is not what you think.”

“Father and Aunt Tessa ended things long ago. They are only allies now.”

“Allies who share blood rituals?” I replied tiredly. “That is enough. You may go.”

They stared at me, stunned. I had always spoken gently. My coldness struck harder than shouting.

At that moment, my rune-stone vibrated.

[I am coming for you tonight. Be ready. If not, I will carry you.]

I replied with two words.

[Do not be late.]

Gerald entered with another basket of fruit, his gaze flicking to my rune-stone.

“Who were you speaking to?” he asked.

“A debt keeper,” I replied. “It is time to settle accounts.”

He smiled faintly. “If you lack resources, you only need to ask. I have never let you go without.”

True. Even beggars were fed scraps.

That day, Gerald played the role of a devoted mate, tending to me with care.

I knew better.

It was not love. It was guilt.

As night fell, his rune-stone lit up.

He glanced at it, locked the screen, and stood quickly.

“There is an urgent matter,” he said, pressing a brief kiss to my forehead. “Rest. I will return.”

Minutes after he left, a message appeared on my stone.

[Do not grow proud. One call from me and he is already gone.]

Attached was an image of Gerald kneeling before her, lips pressed reverently to her swollen belly.

I turned the stone dark.

Then I opened my travel chest and left the healer’s den.

A black carriage waited beneath the moonlight. The window lowered, revealing Edmund’s calm, resolute face.

Once inside, I opened the pack message board and selected several records.

One of the bond ring and dissolution parchment sealed away.

One of my healer’s record from the accident.

One of Gerald and Tessa entwined while I lay near death.

And one final page from my journal, where I had counted sixty-six disappointments.

At the strike of midnight, I sent them all, marking Gerald.

[After the sixty-sixth wound, I am free. Enjoy your thirtieth bonding night. This is my farewell.]