I didn't look at him. I pushed back from the table and walked out of the estate on legs I had to force steady.

My heart felt like it was about to explode.

Margaret called after me from behind. I didn't answer — just quickened my pace toward the deep woods along the territory's edge.

"No she-wolf compares to her." Kieran's words played back like a blade, over and over.

I stopped walking, tilted my head back, and looked at the moon.

Then I shifted into my white wolf.

I ran. I ran as hard as I could, trying to fling that sentence out of my head, trying to outrun the pain in my chest.

"Running away, Seraphina? You were so talkative at the dinner table." Melody's voice came from behind me.

I stopped and turned. She had shifted too — smaller than me, her coat dull and mottled with brownish-grey patches. Not pure Alpha bloodline, and it showed.

I laughed coldly. "You chased me out here to brag about whatever sweet nothing Kieran said to you?"

"Jealous, Seraphina? Makes sense — Kieran only has eyes for me now." Melody suddenly lunged.

I stepped back on instinct. In the same moment, urgent footsteps sounded from the distance — Kieran was coming.

I caught the flash of calculation in Melody's eyes.

She spun abruptly, bolted toward the cliff nearby, and threw herself over the edge with a scream.

"Melody!" Kieran leaped after her almost before she'd finished falling.

I stood frozen.

I knew that cliff. It was barely three meters high. Below was soft earth and shrubs — nothing that could seriously hurt a werewolf.

But Kieran clearly didn't know that. He jumped without hesitation. Not even a half-second of doubt.

When he went over the edge, his eyes held only Melody.

I looked down from the clifftop. Kieran was holding her — careful, impossibly gentle, like something precious in his hands.

He climbed back up carrying her, Melody curled against his chest, trembling.

Melody looked up at me with tear-filled eyes, her voice soft and fragile. "Seraphina... why did you push me?"

I laughed.

This performance was so pathetic it made me sick.

Footsteps came from behind. Marcus had arrived with several Ashford elders.

Vivian shrieked. "My daughter! You vicious creature! You pushed her off that cliff!"

"You actually believe her?" I ignored everyone else and looked only at Kieran.

I looked at the suspicion and revulsion in his eyes, and suddenly felt cold — a chill that went all the way to the bone.

Marcus stared at me, his eyes full of disappointment. "Seraphina. How could you do this? She's your sister."

Kieran said nothing. But his expression said everything I needed to know.

Everyone gathered around Melody, fussing, asking after her.

No one asked me a single thing.

"You said I pushed you?" I walked toward Melody, and let myself smile.

In full view of everyone, I raised my front paw and brought it down hard on the back of Melody's leg, enough to come close to the bone.

"Remember this. This is what it looks like when I actually attack you. If I'd really wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't have just pushed you off a three-meter drop." My laugh was cold.

Melody screamed.

Kieran shoved me back. The full force of his Alpha dominance hit me like a wall, nearly driving me to my knees.

But I stayed upright. Head high. I looked him in the eye without flinching.

Kieran turned to the Ashford elders, his voice cold enough to frost the air. "Your pack has no discipline. In Frost Pack, a she-wolf who attacks another pack member like this would be put in the silver dungeon."

Then he picked up Melody and walked away without a backward glance.

I stood there, barely believing what I'd heard.

The silver dungeon was one of the harshest punishments a pack could impose — reserved for the most violent rogues.

When I was three years old, I'd wandered in by accident and seen a rogue being tortured inside, barely recognizable through the blood. It gave me nightmares for three days.

Once, after we'd been together in bed, I told Kieran that memory. He rubbed my back gently and promised me I would never see the inside of that dungeon again.

And now — over Melody's injury that would heal in less than a day — he was having Marcus put me in there.

At Marcus's order, the guards rushed me immediately and clasped silver chains around my wrists to suppress my shift.

Two guards dragged me into the silver dungeon. My knees hit the stone floor hard.

Marcus stood in the doorway, his face iron. "Chain her. Silver whip. Ten lashes."

A guard lifted a silver whip from the wall. In the dim light, it gleamed with a cold, killing edge. I fought with everything I had. "Marcus! What the hell is wrong with you?! I'm your daughter!"

Two guards pinned my shoulders. I was forced face-down onto the floor, my back exposed.

When the first lash came, I clenched my jaw tight. The silver burned through skin and went straight to bone.

My consciousness began to blur. My mind, without my permission, drifted to a rainy night in a cemetery.

It was the anniversary of my mother's death. I'd been sitting in the rain at her grave, not wanting to go home.

Kieran had found me. He draped his jacket over my shoulders.

"Don't sit in the rain. You'll get sick."

Then another night — a pack council meeting where he stepped between me and a group of elders who were questioning my presence.

"Seraphina is an Alpha's daughter. She has the right to sit in on any council decision." His voice was cold and certain, and every challenge fell silent.

I had believed, back then, that his care was something real. That I was different to him.

Looking back now, I had simply been fooling myself.

I started to laugh, quietly.

Vivian blinked. "What are you laughing at?"

I raised my head. Blood at the corner of my mouth. "I'm laughing at the two of you. A mother and daughter who have spent their whole lives picking up someone else's scraps."

Vivian's face twisted. "What did you just say?!" She crossed the room and drove her foot into my ribs.

A sharp crack. Something broke.

Blood flooded my throat. I opened my mouth and coughed it out — a mouthful, then darkness.

When I came to, I was in my own room. My body was agony, every part of me in shreds.

Margaret was sitting at the bedside, her eyes red and swollen. "You're awake. I put moonlight herb on you — I had someone smuggle it from the pack healer. But silver wounds are so hard to close..."

Margaret had once nearly died on the border. My mother had brought her home.

After my mother died, Margaret stayed voluntarily and served in the pack house to look after me.

"Please." Margaret was crying. "Go apologize to the Alpha. If you just show a little humility, he'll soften. He's your father, in the end."

I laughed, and the movement tore at my wounds. Another wave of pain. "Show him humility, and I'll end up worse than my mother."

Margaret wept harder.

I forced my arm out against the pain, reached under the pillow, and pulled out a bank card. I pressed it into her hands. "I'm leaving. I won't be coming back. This is enough for the rest of your life — get out of Ashford Pack."

Margaret's hands were trembling around the card, tears streaming.

I suddenly thought of the venison soup she used to make when I was small. My voice came out softer than I meant it to. "Margaret. I want some of your venison soup."

She stopped. Then she wiped her eyes and stood up. "I'll go make it right now."

For the next few days, I lay in my room recovering.

Marcus never came. Neither did Vivian. Neither did Melody.

It was as if I had already ceased to exist.

I pushed through the pain and began to pack.

Clothes. Documents.

I opened the drawer at the very back of my wardrobe.

Inside were everything Kieran had ever given me.

The moonstone necklace. A custom-made silver wolf sculpture. And one of the Frost Pack family crests.

He'd been drinking the night he pinned the crest to my collar. Said it would keep other male wolves from getting too close.

My heart had raced. I thought it was a courtship signal.

Now I could see it for what it was — a careless joke.

Together, those things were worth nearly fifty million dollars.

Part of me wanted to throw it all away.

But then I thought: what a waste. Better to let those things do some good.

I called the pack alliance's charity auction house and told them I had items to donate.

That evening, I hired a car and hauled several large boxes to the alliance's charity hall.

The staff member checking the items looked up with wide eyes when he saw what was inside. "Miss Ashford, these things..."

"Auction everything." I cut him off. "Every cent goes to the orphanages in neutral territory."

He nodded and packed the items away with careful hands.

I turned to leave. Made it to the door.

And stopped.

There they were.

Kieran and Melody, walking in hand in hand.

Kieran's gaze caught the boxes of items near me. Something shifted in his eyes — a flicker of displeasure, quickly suppressed.

His eyes swept over me, paused for a moment on my pale face, then moved away with indifference. Like I was a stranger.

Melody spotted me too.

She tightened her grip on Kieran's arm. At an angle he couldn't see, she gave me a slow, triumphant smile — then rose on her toes and murmured something in his ear.

Kieran tilted his head down. He smiled, indulgent. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

That kind of kiss. Tender. Reverent. A kiss that made a promise.

Nothing like the possession he'd shown me in bed.

My heart seized. I couldn't breathe.

Just then, a drunk rogue wolf swayed toward me. "Hey, beautiful—"

He reached for my waist. The smell of liquor hit me like a wall.

I stepped aside.

He crowded in again. "Don't run—"

His mouth was moving toward my face.

I was about to slap him when Kieran appeared in front of me in an instant.

He kicked the rogue wolf aside in a single motion. Everyone around them froze.

So did I.

But Kieran barely glanced in my direction. He turned his Alpha dominance on the auction hall manager instead. "I thought this event was restricted to Alphas. How is a rogue wolf getting in?"

The manager nearly dropped to his knees apologizing.

But Kieran had already turned back to Melody, his voice gentle. "I know seeing rogues unsettles you. It's handled. Don't let it ruin your evening — find something you like and I'll get it for you."

Melody looked up at him, her eyes bright. "Anything I want?"

"Anything." His voice was quiet and indulgent.

Melody smiled like a child who'd been given the world. She rose on her toes and kissed his cheek. "You're so good to me."

I stood there watching, and suddenly felt like laughing.

This man who was protecting his true love — and still, a second ago, had moved to protect me.

What exactly did he think he was doing?

I turned and pushed through the doors to the terrace.

I leaned against the railing. My phone buzzed — an Instagram notification.

I opened it.

Melody had posted. Nine photos. Kieran had spent fifty million dollars on a massive diamond ring for her.

The second photo: Kieran holding her hand, sliding the ring on.

The third: the two of them in profile.

Kieran looking down at her — with a tenderness I had never seen from him. Had never received from him.

The last photo: the two of them together.

Melody nestled in his arms, glowing like the happiest she-wolf alive.

Her caption: "#Proposal. My Alpha, my everything."

The likes were already in the tens of thousands. The comments section was flooded with congratulations.

"Oh my god, she's so lucky!"

"I can't believe she got the Frost Pack Alpha!"

My grip on the phone tightened until my nails nearly cracked the screen.

In two years with Kieran, even at his most intimate, he had never given me a ring. Had never offered anything that looked like a promise.

I breathed in slowly. Then I went back inside. Kieran was gone. Only Melody remained.

The auctioneer was presenting the next lot. "An ancient alchemical formula manuscript — said to be the life's work of a renowned alchemist from twenty years ago—"

I was on my feet before I realized it.

That was my mother's handwriting. Years of her research and her heart, bound into those pages.

It should have been locked permanently in her laboratory. How was it here?

I looked at Melody.

She was sipping champagne, utterly at ease. She raised her glass in my direction, her smile curling with a challenge.

"Opening bid: one million dollars."

The price climbed. I kept my paddle raised, teeth clenched, driving the price to five times its market value.

The auctioneer raised his hammer. "Fifteen million — going twice—"

"My apologies, everyone." Melody rose gracefully, her smile sweet as honey. "This manuscript is a personal keepsake of mine — I'm afraid it's not actually for sale. A staff member made a mistake including it."

She walked up to the stage, took the manuscript back from the auctioneer, and as she turned away, winked at me.

I followed her backstage and cut her off.

"Melody." I kept my voice level. "Give me back the manuscript."

"Why?" She tilted her head. Perfectly innocent. "It's mine."

"It was my mother's."

"Oh." She nodded, almost thoughtfully. "But your mother is dead. It's in my hands now. Doesn't that make it mine?"

I curled my fingers into my palms, nails cutting into skin. "What do you want for it?"

"I'll trade it for anything — the estate inheritance, a bank account, even your title as the Alpha's daughter. Name it."

Melody smiled, that exquisitely sweet smile. "Look at you being so humble. That's not like you at all."

She paused, then pointed toward the industrial furnace burning nearby. "But I'll give you a chance."

"I hear you're very proud of your Alpha bloodline. The furnace runs hot. But an Alpha should be able to take a few seconds, right?"

"If you can go in there and pull the manuscript out before it's ash, it's yours."

I lunged to stop her, but she had already thrown the manuscript into the flames.

I didn't think. I shifted into my white wolf and threw myself into the fire.

The heat hit me like a wall. It scorched through my fur.

The stench of burning filled my lungs. I bit down and held on, and pulled the manuscript from the fire just before it turned to nothing.

I stumbled back out and shifted to human form, sinking to my knees.

My beautiful dress was in tatters. My hair was singed and curling. My hands were raw and bloody.

But I held the manuscript against my chest. Like I was holding my mother.

Melody had already drifted back into the main hall.

At that moment, Kieran's car pulled into the car park.

He stepped out — and the first thing he saw was me, on my knees on the ground, looking like wreckage.