True enough—after all, I once served as a Pack Chronicle Keeper, and my greatest skill was stirring the winds of rumor until they became storms.

Unfortunately, the first time I lost control and exposed her shameful rut-bond with Dorian Frostclaw, she threatened to have me scent-suppressed and cast out from the profession entirely, claiming I had violated pack privacy laws and damaged her standing. The pack council sided with her.

Now finding anyone willing to help me was nearly impossible.

I cast a sidelong glance at her, long past feeling any wounded pride from being falsely accused.

My hands continued wrapping the anniversary offering for Noah—a small bundle of herbs and moon-blessed tokens for his rune-stone.

"You should know that your disgraceful affairs aren't limited to what's already been revealed. If I wanted to expose more, you'd bleed territory and resources far worse than before."

She stood frozen in the doorway for a long while.

Finally, her voice emerged, almost helpless.

"After this, I'll sever things with him completely. But promise me—we'll live properly from now on, yes? Once the pup comes, we'll be a happy family."

During my pregnancy, she had said such things nearly every day.

Yet it never stopped her from remaining tangled with Dorian Frostclaw.

Sometimes she pitied his status as an unacknowledged offspring. Other times she felt sorry that he had no pack to call his own, no family to lean on.

In short, she had ten thousand reasons why she couldn't help being drawn to him, why she had to help him rise through the ranks.

She remained blocking the doorway as though she wouldn't leave until I answered.

Watching her shadow swallow the morning light, I gave a hollow response just to be rid of her.

It wasn't until the next morning, when an uncensored scent-vision recording of my supposed betrayal spread across every territory network, that I understood what she meant by "after this."

Selene Valeheart had released a public proclamation.

In the recording, she wept before the pack councils, her voice breaking as she declared that her own brother-by-bond had discovered me rutting with another during her pregnancy. She claimed I had struck first with false rumors about her to cover my own guilt.

Dorian Frostclaw appeared beside her, his expression heavy with grief. He said he had only tried to counsel me against hurting Selene's feelings, but I had mistaken his concern for a threat to expose my infidelity—and so I had lashed out in revenge.

Every wolf across the territories howled for Selene to sever our bond immediately, to cast out this low-born climber who had clawed his way into the Valeheart Pack through mating alone.

But she put on a mask of devotion.

"No matter what sins Kael commits in this lifetime, I cannot stop loving him."

Watching her false performance, I couldn't hold back. I retched.

Selene heard from outside the den chamber and rushed in.

"What's wrong?"

I frowned, seeing Dorian trailing behind her like a shadow. I shook off her reaching hand.

"Nothing. Just found you revolting, that's all. To protect your rut-partner's crimes, you'd destroy your own mate's reputation without hesitation. Selene Valeheart, your love is truly magnificent."

Her face went pale as bone. Her mouth opened to explain.

But Dorian suddenly dropped to his knees.

"Forgive me, brother. This is all my fault! Sister-mate only used you as a shield because of me. But she's still recovering from the birth—she was afraid you'd be angry and came to explain despite her weakened state. Please don't blame her."

Selene's eyes filled with tender concern for him. She turned an accusing glare on me.

"I came specifically to tell you about this. Those recordings were scent-glamour forgeries I created. When it comes down to it, he shares your blood—sacrificing yourself to help him is only right. I'm helping him because I'm helping you maintain your bloodline ties. Why must you be so aggressive toward him?"

"Besides, you're a scent-suppressed outcast now. Reputation means nothing to you. What outsiders say won't change my feelings—I know it's fake, and that's enough. But he's different. He has no pack, no family to fall back on. He survives by his standing in the chronicle circles. If his image is destroyed, everything falls apart."

Listening to her grand justifications, I felt nothing but disgust.

A scent-suppressed outcast—and whose doing was that?

Back then, she hadn't just forced the pack council to revoke my position. She had spread word through every chronicle keeper's den across the territories: anyone who employed me would be making an enemy of her.

I was turned away from every interview. When I finally found a small private recording den willing to take me, she filed malicious complaints against them.

In the end, all my chronicle-keeping credentials were stripped away. I became a pariah that every wolf in the profession spat upon.

I had no desire to argue with her anymore. In just over half a moon's cycle, I would be completely free.

The Matriarch had promised me that when the time came, she would release the scent-records to prove my innocence. What they thought of me no longer mattered.

I stared at her with an empty expression, let out a long breath, and turned to lie down on the sleeping furs.

"Do as you please. Whatever you want."

She thought I was going to lunge at Dorian Frostclaw the way I used to, claws extended. Her muscles tensed with fear, and she planted herself firmly in front of him as a shield.

But when she saw me simply turn my back and settle onto the bed, all her defensive instincts ground to a halt.

After a long silence, she spoke in a voice thick with disbelief.

"You're... you're not angry?"

My voice came out flat and even.

"Isn't this what you've always wanted? For me to accept him peacefully?"

She relaxed and actually laughed.

"You've finally learned to behave. I knew you weren't truly cold-hearted. I'll make it up to you someday, I promise."

I didn't respond. Even as they left the chamber, I never once looked at her.

Much later, I pressed my hand against my chest where my heart beat steady and unmoved.

So this was what letting go felt like.

Over the following days, she seemed driven by guilt. Every few days she would send gifts to my quarters. When I refused them, she didn't grow frustrated—she simply kept telling me about the wonderful life we would share in the future.

It wasn't until she mentioned the pup's First Moon Feast that her tone turned hesitant.

"Dorian will never be able to publicly claim his own blood-born pup. So I thought... while the little one is still too young to understand, I could let him stand openly as the father during the feast."

"It would give him some closure for his regret. Don't you think?"

My hands didn't pause in their work. I didn't even lift my gaze.

"I told you to do as you please. This pup was never mine. Whatever you choose has nothing to do with me."

Her breath caught. Red crept into her eyes—part hurt, part rising anger—and she snatched away the offerings I had prepared for Noah's memorial.

"Why have you been acting like this lately? Do you understand what it means if he attends? It means the pack will see him as the Valeheart heir-consort. You never would have allowed that before."

I paused, then gave her a bored glance.

"And that's a problem? Two moons ago, when you were helping him through his rut-fever, didn't you say it was a shame you could never give him a proper place at your side?"

I watched her face drain of color until she stood frozen like a statue carved from pale stone.

I took back the memorial items, my emotions so steady it was as if nothing had happened.

She hovered at my ear, babbling explanations—claiming she didn't love him, that she only felt responsible because they had shared a rut-bond. Her sickening words crumbled against my silence.

After that day, she stopped visiting me.

But I often saw Dorian's posts on the pack's message board. He was showing off images of them together—the three of them posing for portrait after portrait in every style imaginable. A perfect little family.

On the day she emerged from her birthing confinement, the entire Valeheart household gathered to celebrate the bastard pup's First Moon Feast.

The Matriarch sent word that my Bond Severance documents would be finalized by tomorrow.

When I returned to collect my belongings, I found that the cozy den we had once shared as mates had been completely transformed to match Dorian's tastes.

Even the portrait that used to hang by the main hearth—the one where I cradled her swollen belly—had been replaced with a new image. Her, Dorian, and the pup. A perfect family portrait.

In that photograph, Selene Valeheart was smiling radiantly.

More beautifully than she had smiled on our mating day.

I went to the sleeping chamber, intending to pack the few garments I had brought before our bond was sealed.

But no matter how thoroughly I searched the storage chests, I couldn't find the hand-stitched ceremonial suit my mother had made for me before she passed.

I was about to call and ask when I saw a new image on the pack message board—Dorian wearing that very suit at the First Moon Feast.

Rage boiled through my veins like molten silver.

I called for a transport and rushed to the feast hall. There he stood, one arm supporting Selene, both of them laughing graciously as pack members showered them with praise and congratulations.

When Selene spotted me, guilt flickered across her face—but beneath it lay a smug satisfaction, as if she had expected this all along.

She released Dorian Frostclaw from her embrace and strode toward me.

"I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away. But today is an important occasion for the pup, so don't—"

I didn't give her the chance to finish. I lunged past her and drove my fist straight into Dorian's face.

"Remember your place as the rut-partner on the side. Don't be like your mother—that old bond-breaker who loved stealing what belonged to others."

As I spoke, I pulled out the ceremonial blade I'd hidden beneath my cloak and sliced through the formal tunic he wore.

The fabric tore with a sharp ripping sound, accompanied by his shrill scream. I shredded the garment completely.

"If you have nothing to wear, then go bare-furred. My mother made this with her own hands. You're nothing but a side-bond, and I'd rather destroy it than let you wear it!"

The gathering descended into chaos. Matriarch Aurelia Valeheart, who always placed pack honor above all else, remained strangely still and made no move to intervene.

Selene Valeheart draped the ruined scraps over his shoulders and glared at me with fury burning in her golden eyes.

"How can you be so vicious? In front of all these wolves, where is he supposed to put his dignity? It was just borrowing a garment for the ceremony. Did you really need to be this petty?"

Looking at her inability to distinguish right from wrong, I let out a cold laugh. My blade rose and fell again, cutting away every fastening from the traditional bond-robe she wore—the one my mother had stitched with her own hands.

"You've forgotten the oath you swore to my mother—that you would never betray me for as long as you lived. It doesn't matter. I haven't forgotten. What lies between us is like this robe now—severed completely, all bonds broken!"

"I wish your little family a hundred years of happiness together."

With those words, I walked out through the stunned crowd.

The First Moon Feast did not go well after that. Dorian Frostclaw fainted from the shock, and Selene rushed him to the Healer's Den.

Matriarch Aurelia finished hosting the ceremony alone, holding the pup herself.

The next morning, I successfully obtained the Bond Severance decree.

My communication stone still held messages from Selene demanding I apologize.

I blocked her scent-signature and deleted every trace, then took the severance papers to the memorial grounds to see my Noah.

Half a moon cycle ago, I had already arranged for the keepers to erect his rune-stone.

Looking at the carved words—Beloved Pup Noah Frostclaw—grief flooded through me without end.

I opened my mouth, about to speak to him.

Behind me came Selene's voice.

"I knew you'd come here. You always came to see the pup whenever you were angry before. But yesterday you went too far. In front of everyone—"

Before she could finish, Dorian let out a startled cry.

"Sister-mate, your bonded actually gave that dead pup the same name as our living one!"

"Brother, even if you didn't want that pup, you were still going to be his father. Why would you curse him to an early death by using the same name?"

Selene frowned and stepped closer to read the rune-stone. She saw the name Noah Frostclaw carved into the ancient stone.

Her eyes moved downward. The inscription listed only one parent—Father: Kael Frostclaw. Her name was nowhere to be found.

The fact that the pup bore my bloodline name stirred something strange and unsettling within her.

But quickly, that unease dissolved under Dorian's indignant protests.

She fixed me with a furious stare.

"The pup's death is a wound in my heart too. But why did you make this decision without consulting me? Are you trying to curse your own nephew to death?"

"I haven't even confronted you about humiliating Dorian in front of the entire pack yesterday. Do you think just because I love you, I'll tolerate everything?"

"You have ten minutes. Order the memorial keepers to destroy this rune-stone immediately. Once I've chosen a proper name, we'll have a new one carved!"

I looked coldly at this female who had wept uncontrollably when our son died.

"And if I refuse?"

She froze, staring at me with disbelief.

After a long moment, heavy disappointment filled her amber eyes.

She raised her hand, and three Enforcers emerged from the carriage behind her.

"Kael Frostclaw, he was my pup. But Dorian's pup is also mine now. If you insist on doing this, then I have no choice but to dig up his grave!"

"I'm sure his spirit will understand that I'm only protecting his little brother. He won't blame me for it."

Even though I already knew her true hideous nature, hearing her threaten to dig up my pup's grave for the sake of her lover—all over a name—still sent a sharp pain through my chest.

She stood there with that triumphant expression, certain I would surrender to protect my child's resting place.

I laughed.

Calmly, I reached into my coat and pulled out the bond severance document, tossing it at her feet.

"I'm terribly sorry, Alpha Valeheart, but I don't believe you have any right to dictate what name I give my pup."

"Because as of one hour ago, we are no longer bonded mates."