They thought I'd back down after all that.

I didn't.

I pushed the Blood Oath of rejection closer：

“No explanations needed. Sign, Roderic.”

He stared for two full seconds, then let out a cold laugh：

“Don't be stupid. Walk out that door and you can't even feed yourself.”

I looked at the face in front of me, so familiar yet so foreign, and felt a disappointment I had never known before. Beneath my skin my wolf went very still, the way she did when something she'd trusted turned strange.

So even he saw me that way.

Then why was I still bending over backward for this?

I was about to speak when his communicator chimed at his waist.

He answered, and his expression shifted：“Don't be scared. I'm coming right now.”

Then he looked at me, impatient：

“Seraphine's being harassed by some rogues. I have to go.”

“I've been good enough to you all these cycles. Seraphine and I are just friends. Don't you dare start this again.”

He swept the rejection papers into the hearth-bin and slammed the den door on his way out.

Brunhilde watched him go and let out a sharp snort, dry oak and cold ash curling off her with the contempt：“Ungrateful little wretch. Get out of my den.”

I didn't bother acknowledging the insults at my back. I walked straight out.

It wasn't until I reached the ridge road that I realized Roderic had already taken the carriage to fetch Seraphine.

He couldn't bear the thought of her getting hurt at all, yet he'd forgotten I was carrying his pup.

And he'd forgotten that five cycles ago, kneeling at my parents' burial cairns beneath the moon, he'd sworn before the Goddess to protect me for the rest of my life.

Maybe the vow had been sincere at the time. Too bad hearts change.

The person who promised to protect me was the one who hurt me the most.

The territory edge was remote. Not a single hired carriage passed the whole stretch.

I stared down the pitch-black mountain road, clenched my fists, and started walking.

By the time my legs felt like lead, my communicator buzzed with a message from an unknown sending-stone.

It was Seraphine.

“Did you and Roderic have a fight? He looked awful when he got here.”

“He's in a much better mood now, though. I took very good care of him.”

In the crystal-image she'd attached, a man stood with his back to the lens, water sluicing over him. Claw-marks streaked across his back, and the steam did nothing to hide that tall, familiar frame. His scent even carried faint through the image somehow in my memory, cedar gone sour, that cloying sweetness I'd once mistaken for warmth.

I saved the image without a word and called a friend who tracked secrets for coin.

“You said you had dirt on Seraphine Velvetmoor? I'll buy it. Whatever it costs.”

“And dig into my mate's holdings while you're at it.”

It took me four full hours to walk back to the den. The instant I turned the latch, I heard laughter inside.

“Just relax and stay here. Nobody's going to bother you.”

Roderic's voice. Soft. Gentle.

I pushed the door open. Seraphine was on the couch. Roderic stood over her holding a bowl of something rich and strengthening, spooning it carefully to her lips：

“The healer said you unsettled the pup. Stay still, I've got it.”

I stood there, staring at the two of them, and a sharp pain pushed through my chest, as if the den I'd lived in for five cycles had really been theirs all along. My wolf pressed low in my ribs and would not lift her head.

Seraphine spotted me and immediately stood：

“Aurora, you're back.”

She still had that flawless skin, that perfect face. The faint reek of overripe jasmine and sugared honey clung to her, and not a trace of pup-scent under it. She didn't carry as though she'd quickened at all.

Meanwhile the heat-carrying had wrecked me. My once-clear complexion had broken out, I'd gained over twenty pounds, and the face caught in the polished glass cabinet was oily and hollowed out.

Roderic set the bowl down and glanced at me, his tone flat：

“Seraphine's den was sniffed out by some obsessive admirers. I told her she could stay with us a few days.”

Seraphine came over and reached for my hand：

“I was just so scared, and Roderic insisted on bringing me here. You don't mind, right?”

I shook her hand off and stared at her, cold.

“You're a known performer. You think luring a mated wolf is something to be proud of?”

“That's not what this is, I……”

Seraphine turned to Roderic with wounded eyes, her lashes already glistening, a tear about to fall.

He pulled her behind him instantly and fixed me with a hard stare, a low growl threading beneath his words：“I told you, there's nothing between me and Seraphine. Can you stop with the pointless jealousy?”

The way he shielded her from me made me feel like I was the shameless rival omega.

I swallowed the burn in my nose and pulled out the rejection papers I'd fished back out of the hearth-bin, every word deliberate.

“I'm not jealous. I'm giving you what you want.”

My eyes, steady and unblinking, held his.

“Aurora……”

His heartbeat stuttered without warning, and he reached for me.

A young she-wolf had once set her sights on Roderic. When I caught the scent of it on him, I wouldn't let it go. I kept asking, kept pushing, and he gave me a full week of silence for it.

After that, the smallest thing could set my nerves on edge, my wolf pacing under my skin at every shift in his scent.

This time, he'd assumed at first that "bond rejection" was just another bid for attention.

Now he was confused. Why wasn't I clashing with Seraphine? Why wasn't I even baring my teeth?

What he didn't understand was that jealousy had lost all meaning.

The harder I fought, the further his heart tilted toward Seraphine and her soft, wounded act.

More than that, I simply didn't care anymore.

Just as Roderic was about to reach for me, Seraphine let out a sharp cry:

"Roderic, my stomach hurts so bad!"

His expression changed instantly. He pulled his hand back, scooped her up, and rushed for the door.

"I'm taking Seraphine to the Healing Hall. We'll talk when I get back!"

He looked frantic, cradling her like she was something precious.

I slammed the blood-oath papers down on the low table, turned, and went upstairs to pack.

Late that night, Roderic climbed into bed and wrapped his arms around me from behind. Beneath the cedar of his scent, that sour, cloying rot lingered, and my wolf curled away from it.

"Aurora, I know I've been neglecting you lately. I know you're upset."

"But Seraphine and I really are just friends. Her mate's away across the far territories, and she's carrying a pup with no one to look after her. That's the only reason I let her into the den, just to keep her safe for now."

I lay silent in the dark.

Did he actually believe that after what I'd seen with my own eyes, I'd still swallow his lies?

"Once this whole thing with the obsessed she-wolf blows over, she'll go. I promise. Everything will go back to normal."

His voice dropped lower, softer: "Aurora, I love you."

He sounded exactly the way he used to, same warmth, same voice, as if nothing had changed.

All I felt was disgust.

Maybe the tenderness was real. But so was the pup he'd made with someone else.

I wrenched myself free of his arms. I couldn't stand another second of his touch.

I could feel his gaze lingering on my back for a long time.

The next morning, I woke to the smell of cooking drifting up through the den.

I walked into the main room and found Roderic, who had never once set foot near the hearth, wearing an apron, carrying a bowl of stewed fish to Seraphine.

"The healer said more fish stew makes the pup stronger."

Seraphine spotted me and waved with a bright smile:

"Aurora, come join us! Roderic was up before first light making this. You're so lucky, a hearth-cooked meal like this every morning."

Roderic's hands went still.

I gave a faint smile: "He's never once cooked for me."

I glanced at the stew. My stomach turned, the smell sitting wrong in the back of my throat, and I headed for the washroom.

"I can't stand the smell of fish. Never could."

Seraphine followed me in. Under her sugared scent, that thread of tin sharpened, and a growl I didn't let surface stirred low in my chest.

Her face was all sincerity: "Aurora, I've never wanted to come between you two. Please don't overthink this."

The moment the door closed behind her, the mask dropped: "If you're going to leave, leave already. He stopped caring about you a long time ago."

Pity and triumph flickered together in her eyes.

"Did you know? He's already sworn his inheritance. Every holding goes to me and our pup. As for you and your whelp, you can spend the rest of your lives rotting in this run-down corner of the territory."

"Bond-betrayal really is your one true calling, isn't it."

I met her gaze. My voice was calm, but it cut.

The color drained from Seraphine's face.

I lowered my voice further:

"Roderic may not know what you really are. I know exactly what you are."

"I can walk away. But don't push me again."

A beat later, Seraphine's lips slowly curved into a smile, quiet, unreadable, and promising nothing good.

Seraphine dropped to the floor of the washing den, clutching her belly, and screamed.

“My pup! Aurora, why did you push me?”

The next second, Roderic burst through the door.

He saw Seraphine crumpled on the cold stone, sobbing, and his face went dark as he turned on me. The cloying sweetness of his scent soured in an instant, copper sharpening to something feral.

“What did you do to her?!”

Before I could say a word, he shoved me aside and scooped up Seraphine, still crying her pretty little eyes out.

“Ah!”

I hit the cold floor hard, and a searing pain tore through my stomach.

Beneath me, a dark red stain slowly spread.

I reached for Roderic, terrified: “I didn't do anything to her. Roderic, my stomach……”

“Shut up. Don't fucking pretend with me.”

He didn't even glance at me. He carried Seraphine out the door and was gone, and his scent went with him, leaving the den hollow and silent.

I curled up on the floor, cold sweat soaking through every layer I wore.

My abdomen was screaming. Somewhere deep inside me my wolf had gone utterly still, the way a creature goes still when something it was guarding has already slipped away. My heart, though, that didn't hurt so much anymore.

I dragged myself upright, made it down the stairs one step at a time, and summoned a carriage alone.

Blood ran down my legs. The driver was so frightened he took the bends in the road too fast, the storm-hawks straining against their harness.

We passed the little grove on the corner, and I suddenly remembered where it all began.

That same old tree. A boy standing under it, face going red because I'd told him first, nodding before he could get a full sentence out.

“Yeah, yeah……”

“I mean, I like you too, Aurora.”

The memory flickered past, so sweet it made me laugh out loud even as my eyes blurred with tears.

That “honest wolf” I'd found so endearingly sincere had only ever been something I invented.

Just last night, a full account of Roderic's holdings had landed in my sending-stone.

Vast hunting grounds. Territory stretching past the far ridges.

Even his parents weren't ordinary lore-keepers. They were silent owners behind an entire pack, seated among the Elders.

Yet he hadn't even been willing to give us a decent mating ceremony beneath the moon.

I finally saw it for what it was: he had never loved me.

Five cycles bonded as mates, nothing but a game to him. A lie spun to keep me from ever learning about the wealth.

Sitting on the bed in the Healing Hall, I pressed my hands against my hollow stomach, and my eyes went cold.

I reached my advocate through the sending-stone:

“I've sent over all the evidence. Move to freeze Roderic Ashthorne's holdings.”

I'd meant to part on decent terms. No need for that now.

My sending-stone pulsed. A message from Dorian Greywood, my old academy lab-mate and Alpha of the Silvercrest Pack.

“Passage is arranged. I'll send a carriage for you the day after tomorrow.”

“Good. See you then.”

The pup was gone. Five cycles of love, severed clean. It was time to leave.

At the edge of pack territory, right before departure, a message from Roderic.

“Do you have any idea Seraphine almost lost the pup because of you?”

“Fine, I lied to you. I took her to my bed. But if you're angry, take it out on me. What does she have to do with it?”

“Just lower your head to Seraphine and we'll put it behind us. You only did all this because you love me too much, and carrying the pup made you a little emotional. I get it.”

That interrogating tone, that lofty charity-dispensing attitude, I actually laughed.

What right did he have to defend Seraphine to me?

Where did he find the nerve to demand I bare my throat to her?

I sent back fast: “In a few days, you can speak to my advocate. Before the Council.”

Sent. Stone dark. I walked toward the waiting carriage without looking back.

Once I stopped loving him, the whole sky opened up. I was done being someone's useless mate. I had a place to claim, the lead architect of the Silvercrest Pack's territory-strengthening lore, work the whole wolf-world would one day know.

Eight hours later the carriage crossed into Silvercrest land and I woke the stone again.

Roderic's missed calls and messages hit the surface like a volley of arrows.

The first few dozen were all threats and warnings.

Then the tone shifted, fraying into agitation and unease.

By the last hundred or so, the long and short voice-sendings, the broken strings of words, they reeked of raw, bone-deep panic.

He had finally realized the bond rejection was real, and that I had slipped out of his grip for good.