Her health had always been fragile, and I refused to let anything disturb her peace.

"Everything is fine. Let us watch the Moonrise Celebration together."

As the hour approached midnight, a commotion erupted beyond our threshold.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Someone was pounding against the ward-sealed door with violent force.

I peered through the window toward the courtyard below. Kael Stormhart's traveling carriage sat at the entrance to our den.

Dread coiled in my stomach. I immediately activated the ward-stone's vision recording.

The moment my father unlatched the door, Kael burst through. Behind him came his mother, his brother, and the rest of their pack.

"The Moonblessing token! Hand it over!"

Morwenna Duskthorn demanded before anyone could draw breath.

I met her gaze without flinching.

"My Moonblessing. Why should I surrender it to any of you?"

"That blessing belongs to the mated pair!"

Morwenna's voice rang with false authority.

"Kael is entitled to half!"

I lowered myself into a chair with deliberate calm.

"Then we shall discuss division when the bond rejection is finalized. Until then, I ask that you leave. This is my birth pack's den."

Morwenna shoved her son forward.

"Speak up! Say something to your mate!"

Kael studied me, his expression caught between conflict and something harder to name.

"Lyra, just bring out the token. We can talk this through properly."

"You call what happened at the feast a proper discussion?"

I held his stare without wavering.

"Rigging the Moonbite omen so I would be the one to find the marked portion? Announcing in front of everyone how my blessing would be divided? Sending your pack to tear through my belongings? That is what you consider talking things through?"

"If you keep defying the matriarch, you will only suffer for it!"

Kael's brow furrowed with frustration.

"You have never been careful with resources. Whatever you keep will vanish soon enough. Better to let Mother manage it."

A cold laugh escaped my throat.

Now I understood completely.

In his heart, there existed only the Stormhart pack. Our small family meant nothing.

I looked directly at Kael and spoke each word with care.

"What if I simply refuse to hand it over? What will you do then? Strike me? Or reject the bond?"

Kael went still.

He had never considered being forced to choose.

But Morwenna leaped up in fury.

"She must have hidden the token with her birth pack! Search everything!"

Seven or eight wolves immediately began tearing through the den, overturning storage chests and ripping open cupboards. The noise woke Liri, who had been sleeping peacefully in her nest of blankets.

My pup's wail split the air.

"Mama, I am scared!"

My mother rushed toward her, arms outstretched to gather the frightened child.

Without warning, Morwenna's hand shot out and shoved my mother with brutal force.

"The token might be hidden on her! Search her too!"

My mother stumbled, her footing lost. She crashed to the floor.

Crack.

The sound was sickening. My mother lay crumpled on the stone, blood pooling from a wound on her head.

"Mother!"

I kicked hard at Kael's grip on my arm and broke free, rushing to gather her limp form.

But my poor mother had already lost consciousness. No words would come from her lips.

"You! All of you are murderers!"

Rage turned my vision red. My entire body shook with it.

Everyone froze.

None of them had expected this outcome.

Kael moved as if to approach, but Morwenna seized his arm and held him back.

My father had gone pale with shock, his voice barely a whisper.

"We must... we must get her to the healer-den..."

I fumbled desperately for my communication crystal, ready to summon the healers.

But Morwenna snatched it from my grasp.

"No summoning! First, hand over the Moonblessing token!"

I screamed at her through my tears.

"My mother is dying, and you still think only of the blessing!"

Kael's face twisted with something that might have been reluctance. He opened his mouth to speak, but one look from his mother silenced him.

Morwenna planted her hands on her hips, unmoved.

"If you care so much about your mother, then give us the token! If she dies because of the delay, that blood is on your hands!"

Desperation broke me. Tears streamed down my face.

"Kael, I am begging you. Please, let me take my mother to the healers first. The Moonblessing... I will agree to split it with you."

I had to keep some portion. Without it, I would have no means to pay for my mother's healing.

Morwenna still refused to yield.

"Words mean nothing. Bring out the token first!"

My heart turned to ice within my chest.

I looked at Kael with the last shreds of hope draining away.

"Kael, are you truly going to be this cruel?"

Kael's face twisted with reluctance, but he turned away, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Just hand the token over to Mother first."

I laughed bitterly.

It tasted like ash in my mouth.

What kind of wolf had I chosen to bind myself to?

My hand trembled as I raised it, pointing toward my satchel.

"Behind our bonding portrait..."

Morwenna snatched my satchel with greedy claws. Inside lay the portrait of our small family—me, Kael, and our pup together.

She ripped the image out without hesitation and let it fall to the floor.

Just as I'd hidden it, the Moonblessing token gleamed behind the portrait.

"Finally found it!"

Vesper rushed forward immediately.

"Wait—verify the rune-marks first. Make sure she hasn't tricked us."

They examined it over and over, checking the sacred inscriptions multiple times before breaking into triumphant laughter.

"It's the real one."

I stared at them with hollow eyes.

"Can we take my mother to the healer-den now?"

Kael moved quickly to help my mother stand.

"Come, I'll drive the carriage."

Throughout the journey to the healer-den, Morwenna clutched the Moonblessing token as though it were her very lifeblood.

I held my mother's ice-cold hand, unable to stop the tears streaming down my face.

In the reflection of the carriage mirror, Kael drove with an expressionless face.

Morwenna was already counting heads.

"Twenty wolves in the pack. Five thousand resource shares each..."

Ronan spoke up eagerly.

"Can I get my portion now? I've had my eye on a new communication crystal..."

"What's the rush! We'll claim the full blessing at the Council Hall tomorrow!"

I closed my eyes.

All I could hear was the sound of their scheming.

My mother was rushed into the healing chamber.

My father sat in the corridor, holding Liri close on the stone bench.

The others chattered and laughed among themselves.

Vesper announced loudly.

"I want ceremonial furs—I've been eyeing a set for ages."

Ronan added.

"After the crystal, I can upgrade my hunting gear too."

Morwenna smiled indulgently.

"Fine, all of it is fine!"

At that moment, a healer's assistant approached with parchment.

"Family of Selene Ashvale—we need ten thousand resource shares as a deposit."

I turned to Kael.

"Half of that Moonblessing belongs to me through our mating bond. Transfer ten thousand to me first."

Kael froze.

In Morwenna's calculations, I had never existed at all.

Morwenna overheard and her brow furrowed deeply.

"Your mother's sickness is her own pack's burden. Why should my son pay for it?"

I looked at her coldly.

"So you're denying it now? Earlier you claimed the Moonblessing was shared property of mated pairs! I should receive fifty thousand!"

Morwenna planted her hands on her hips and laughed.

"This was my son's tribute of devotion to me. I've already distributed it."

Of course.

This was exactly the face I'd expected to see.

"Is this what you think too?"

Kael kept his head down, saying nothing.

I fixed my gaze on him.

"Put yourself in my place. If it were your mother lying in that chamber, what would you do?"

He still wouldn't lift his head.

After a long silence, he forced out a single sentence.

"I'm sorry, but I already promised Mother... I can't take it back now."

"Then what about my mother? Just watch her die?"

Kael grimaced.

"Maybe you could ask your birth-pack for help..."

His voice grew smaller and smaller.

"Or use your own savings..."

"What savings do I have?"

I lost control.

"Every moon-cycle, you only cover the den-debt payments, while the carriage loan and daily provisions all come from me! Liri's training fees and lessons—all of it is me. If I had savings, would I care so much about that fifty thousand?"

I stared at him.

"You earn twenty thousand in resource shares each cycle. After the den-debt, you still have twelve thousand left. Where does it go?"

Kael opened his mouth, glanced at Morwenna, and didn't dare speak.

"It comes to me."

Morwenna strode forward, her expression smug with triumph.

"Kael's resource shares are all held in my keeping. Precisely to guard against certain wolves who might covet them."

Certain wolves.

She meant me.

His bonded mate of seven cycles.

My gaze grew ever more hollow with despair.

"So Kael, you've decided our bond means nothing to you, is that it?"

"That's not—"

He reached for me with desperate urgency.

"Mate, I only asked Mother to safeguard my portion for me."

I wrenched my arm free from his grasp.

"Then now that we need those resources to heal my mother, are you willing to release them?"

Kael hesitated, but still gathered enough nerve to try.

"Mother, my share of the pack resources..."

"Why do you cower before her!"

The matriarch cut him off sharply.

"She's already whelped your pup—does she think she can sever the bond now? Would she truly abandon what she has?"

Her expression hardened like stone.

"Your allocations have been locked into the pack's secured holdings. Before the next moon cycle completes, don't even think of touching them!"

Kael lowered his head in helpless resignation.

"Lyra, perhaps you should ask your birth pack for assistance."

His tone carried not a trace of sorrow or concern.

He pulled out a small pouch and transferred a meager sum to me through our pack's oath-ledger.

"This is all the personal reserve I have left—two thousand tokens. I'm giving you everything."

I laughed bitterly, though moisture gathered at the edges of my eyes.

"Kael, we've been bonded for seven cycles, yet you hid this from me—surrendering your earnings to your mother. That counts as concealing mated assets. Under Pack Law, that's a violation. Did you know that?"

Kael's jaw dropped open in shock.

"How could that possibly be considered—"

"A son honoring his pack elders is sacred duty!"

Morwenna snarled with fury.

"Violation this, Pack Law that—if you're so certain, then bring your accusations before the Council!"

My gaze turned to ice as I met her stare directly.

"You've spoken true. I will bring this before the Council."

"You forced entry into my birth pack's den—that's a ward breach, a violation of territorial sanctity!"

"You threatened and coerced me to surrender my Moonblessing token—that constitutes forcible resource seizure!"

I pointed at the matriarch, my voice unyielding as forged steel.

"You struck my mother and left her lying unconscious—you've committed assault against a pack elder!"

The healer-den corridor fell utterly silent.

No one had expected me to bare my fangs so fiercely.

Morwenna stamped her foot in rage.

"Insolence! A mated Omega daring to bring charges against her bond-mother!"

She shoved Kael forward.

"Discipline her properly! Show her what pack hierarchy means!"

Kael remained motionless, only watching me with uncertain eyes.

I raised my speaking-stone, still capturing every moment.

"Lay a claw on me, and I summon the Territory Wardens!"

Morwenna's face twisted into something monstrous.

"I've seen sixty winters and more—let the Wardens come! I don't fear them!"

She lunged toward me, claws extending.

The healer attendants sensed the danger and rushed out immediately.

"Silence! Or we'll call the den guards!"

"If you're not immediate blood-kin, leave this place at once!"

Morwenna halted her advance, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"We never should have set paw in this healer-den. What foul fortune!"

She turned and gestured to the others.

"We're leaving, all of us..."

Kael released a heavy sigh, disappointment plain in his amber eyes.

"Lyra, we're supposed to be pack. How can you be so cold-hearted?"

Cold-hearted?

They had certainly taught me a lesson today.

What true cold-heartedness looked like.

After the Stormhart wolves departed, I ended the recording on my speaking-stone.

My father's face was drawn with worry.

"Daughter, what are we going to do? Your mother and I have some tokens saved—enough for perhaps ten thousand to cover the initial healer's bond, but the ongoing treatments... that's another matter entirely."

I placed my hand on my father's shoulder.

"Father, leave this to me. I've already found a way."

Garrick looked at me with questioning eyes but asked nothing more.

I went first to pay the healer's deposit.

Three hours later, the glow-stones outside the treatment chamber finally dimmed.