Lily stood nearby, a vial of wolfsbane extract clutched in her delicate fingers, her expression radiating smug satisfaction.

"Two full cycles of the moon you devoted to that piece. Let us see how you will flaunt your talents before Alaric now."

Rage surged through my veins like wildfire. My hand moved before conscious thought could intervene, striking her cheek with a sharp crack that echoed through the ruined studio.

"You have spent months spreading whispers that I treat you as a lowly servant," I said, my voice cold as winter frost. "Very well. For the next three days, you shall truly know what that means. You will clean every corner of my gallery until it gleams like moonlight on fresh snow."

But the moment those words escaped my lips, the heavy oak door crashed open.

Alaric strode in, his powerful frame filling the doorway, brow furrowed with barely contained displeasure. Without uttering a single word, he pulled Lily behind his broad back, shielding her with his body.

"Lyra, can you not control that wild temper of yours for once?" His voice cut through the air like sharpened ice. "Lily works so hard to please this pack. Yes, she comes from a lesser bloodline—but why must you constantly target her?"

My chest heaved with fury, my wolf clawing beneath my skin. "Alaric, you need to understand what truly happened. She was the one who—"

Before I could finish speaking, Lily threw herself into his arms, her body trembling with theatrical sobs.

"Alaric, please forgive me! I was only trying to help Lyra organize her den-studio, and I accidentally destroyed her painting. She threatened to cast me out to the rogue territories! She called my mother a packless whore and said the pup inherited the dam's weakness!"

Her voice cracked and wavered, tears streaming down her pale cheeks—the perfect portrait of wounded innocence.

"I can endure being struck. I can bear harsh words. But why must she drag my mother's memory through the mud?"

Alaric did not ask for my account of events. Did not investigate. He simply accepted her words as truth.

His gaze turned glacial, golden Alpha eyes boring into mine with disappointment. "Lyra, when did you become this cruel creature? You have disappointed me deeply."

I wanted to howl my frustration to the moon itself.

Even with Alaric defending her at every turn, I refused to yield my ground. For three days, Lily scrubbed and swept like the servant she had always pretended to be.

When the punishment concluded, Alaric acted as though nothing significant had occurred. He merely released a soft sigh—light, dismissive.

"That fierce temper of yours, Lyra. When will you learn to let such trivial matters pass? It was merely a painting."

"You have had your vengeance. Let us move forward."

I was naive enough to believe we had.

Several days later, devastating news spread through the territories that Alaric's pack had suffered a catastrophic collapse. Ancient alliances crumbled overnight.

He was taken into Council custody shortly after, leaving me alone to face the destruction.

At first, worry did not consume me. Even if the Blackthorn pack fell into ruin, I still had my parents, my birth pack.

I sent urgent scent-messages immediately.

Both trails had gone cold, severed completely.

Panic clawed at my throat like a feral beast.

I raced back to the Nightveil estate, only to have Cedric meet me at the entrance, his weathered face pale as bone.

The day they received word of Alaric's capture, my parents had rushed back to offer their aid. A mountain storm had caught their carriage on the treacherous pass.

Neither survived the fall.

In a single night, my entire world crumbled to ash.

No mate. No parents. No pack left to shelter me.

I sold everything I possessed and retreated to a damp underground den at the edge of unclaimed territory, hiding from the rogue hunters who had purchased Alaric's blood debts.

Sleep became an impossibility. I would lie awake through endless nights, flinching at every rustle, every distant howl.

Eventually, they tracked my scent.

A group of rogues kicked down my door, armed with silver-tipped clubs.

They shattered two of my ribs. Broke my wrist so badly that I could never hold a brush again, could never create the moon-blessed art that had once defined me.

It took three years to accept my fate.

I surrendered everything—my art, my pride, my dreams of finding my true mate—just to survive another day.

And now I was being told it had all been an elaborate deception.

Alaric's "penance" had stripped me raw, peeled away every layer of who I once was, and rebuilt me into someone I could no longer recognize.

My message stone hummed with incoming energy.

A scent-message from Alaric.

"Lyra, I am being released from Council holding in three days. Do not forget to collect me."

My fingers tightened around the smooth stone until my knuckles went white. A dull ache spread through my chest, settling deep in my bones.

Even now, he was still playing his cruel games.

He was already at his celebration gathering. I had witnessed it with my own eyes.

He had been holding Lily close, celebrating his freedom, surrounded by an enormous feast and beautiful decorations befitting an Alpha heir.

And yet he was still treating me like a fool to be manipulated.

I stared at those words until tears blurred my vision, turning the glowing script into meaningless smears of light.

Then I blinked them away and read the message once more.

I traced my claw across the scent-message parchment, embedding my reply:

"Understood. I'll retrieve you in three moon cycles."

Three cycles later, I stood at the gates of the Pack Holding Cells to collect Alaric—without exposing his deception.

I caught his scent before I saw him, mingled with false notes of deprivation. He emerged dressed in torn furs, playing the part of an Alpha heir stripped of territory and status, reduced to nothing. He'd even used ash and herb paste to create a fake scar slashing across his jaw.

The moment his amber eyes found me, he limped forward, rushing toward me with exaggerated emotion.

"Lyra!"

He pulled me against his chest, his eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"I reflected on everything during my confinement. The Council Elders noted my reformed behavior and granted early release."

"Lyra, you've endured so much these past seasons. I'm deeply sorry."

He looked so sincere, so genuinely moved—as if he'd truly suffered through three years in the binding den.

But I gently pushed against his chest, my expression unchanged. "It's good you're free."

Alaric stiffened, his wolf clearly sensing something different in my demeanor. But the next heartbeat, he seized my wrist.

"Lyra, what happened here?"

His concern seemed genuine as his thumb traced the damaged flesh.

But I found it almost laughable.

Alaric, what exactly are you pretending for?

You're the one who sent those wolves. They appeared claiming to be Rogue Hunters collecting on my family's debts and beat me until I looked like this.

And now you're playing innocent?

A wave of exhaustion washed over me. Or perhaps I was simply afraid to face what would happen if I tore away the mask.

"It's nothing. I fell during a run."

I pulled my hand free from his grip. "The Pack Healer said it will mend with time."

Alaric finally relaxed, releasing a breath that stirred the air between us. "That's good."

He reached for my hand again, lacing his fingers through mine with practiced tenderness.

"The injury's on your right wrist. If it worsens and affects your moon-blessed painting, you'll be howling with grief again."

His voice dripped with indulgence. But every word cut straight through me.

I used to possess extraordinary talent for scent-art painting—the rare gift of capturing emotions in pigments that carried living scents.

Recognition from allied territories, more honors than I could count. Everyone said my future shone bright as the full moon.

But for those experimental treatments—for that tribute payment—

To secure Alaric's early release from confinement—

I let them destroy my wrist in the healer's trials.

Now I cannot even grip a brush.

And now I learn it was all merely a punishment game Alaric orchestrated.

How utterly absurd.

I remained silent the entire journey back to the den. Alaric seemed nervous, filling the quiet with endless chatter.

Obviously rehearsed words he'd gathered from other wolves.

All to convince me he'd truly spent three years in the holding cells.

I listened without really hearing. When he finally stopped, I asked quietly:

"Alaric."

"Did I do something wrong?"

He went completely still. His eyes reddened as he turned to look at me, his wolf flickering behind his gaze.

"What do you mean, Lyra? Why would you ask that?"

I suddenly remembered the last time I'd been permitted to visit the binding den.

I was so happy. I'd saved my meager allowance for ages and hunted fresh game to prepare for him—a proper meal I'd made with my own hands.

No wonder he'd wrinkled his nose and refused to touch it.

He thought the offering was beneath him.

Of course. I believed he'd spent three years suffering in confinement.

But in reality, he'd been traveling through distant territories with his little Omega Liaison.

Fine feasts. Imported delicacies from across the realm.

Why would he ever lower himself to share my hardships?

Even that prison visit—he'd paid a hundred and twenty tribute coins to stage the entire scene.

These past three years, I'd been nothing but a fool. Their plaything, spun in circles by their lies.

When Alaric noticed my tears, panic flashed across his face. He stepped closer, reaching up to wipe them away with his thumb.

"Lyra, why are you crying? Did someone hurt you?"

I looked into his eyes.

"If someone hurt me, what would you do?"

"Would you still protect me like you swore before—no matter what, even if it cost you your life?"

Alaric reached for a cloth, his movements clumsy as he wiped my tears.

He didn't even hesitate. Just nodded, firm and certain.

"Anything, Lyra. Whatever you ask, I'll do it."

I held his gaze—those eyes so full of sincerity.

"Really?"

"Then kill Lily Ashgrove."

His head snapped up. He stared at me, stunned.

"What did you say?"

A flicker of panic crossed his face. "Did something happen? Did you misunderstand something?"

He was terrified I'd figured it out.

His whole body went rigid, his wolf's energy pulling tight beneath his skin.

"After the pack lost its territories, Lily left her position and crossed into foreign lands. I haven't had any contact with her in three years."

"Did she come after you while I was in the holding cells? If she did, I swear I'll make her pay—"

I grabbed his arm and let out a soft laugh. "Relax. I was kidding."

"Killing a pack member without Council judgment is forbidden, you know."

"You just got out of the binding den. You think I'd let you go back?"

"I was just teasing."

I turned away, lowering my eyes as I reached for something. He couldn't see my expression.

He thought it was really just a joke. I heard him exhale with relief.

"Lyra, I'm sorry."

"These three years... you must have suffered so much."

I didn't turn around. But in my heart, I was thinking:

It's fine.

Your reckoning is coming.

After Alaric's release, I started visiting the territory infirmary more and more frequently.

Pack Healer Rowan Ashenvale looked at me over his spectacles. "Are you really not going to tell your pack?"

"This isn't some minor ailment. Your mate has a right to know."

I shook my head with a faint smile.

"Let's just leave it. I don't want him to know. And I don't want treatment anymore."

Alaric was hiding in the corridor, catching fragments of the conversation—but nothing clear.

When I stepped out, his face was all concern.

"How did it go? What did the healer say?"

I smiled and shook my head, about to answer—

When Lily's scent-message reached him through the pack bond.

"Alaric, my den flooded from the storm and I'm soaked through. Can you come help me?"

His expression shifted instantly.

"Sure. I'm on my way."

He thought I hadn't sensed it. Blocking the bond-thread, he turned to me with a perfectly straight face.

"Lyra, remember that alliance pact I mentioned? I'm going to meet with them now. If it works out, we might finally rebuild our territory."

I stared into his eyes.

When he'd claimed me as his mate, those same eyes had been filled with nothing but sincerity.

Now they looked just as sincere.

But the lies rolled off his tongue without so much as a blink.

My unbroken gaze made him uneasy. He nearly tripped over his own act.

"Lyra... is something wrong?"

"Go ahead."

"If you can secure this alliance, we won't have to worry about those rogue hunters anymore."

Those rogue hunters—every single one of them had been sent by Alaric himself.

They'd cornered me in dead-end forest paths.

Stripped the den of anything worth trading.

Most weeks I ate once every three days. When the hunger became unbearable, I'd drink from the stream just to fill my stomach.

I thought about last night—waking up in tears, asking Alaric:

"Where are my parents?"

When his pack lost its territories, I'd tried to reach them for help.

But they'd vanished. No answer through the bond, no trace of their scent.

Alaric told me they'd been caught in a mountain collapse on their way back to our ancestral grounds.

Both of them. Gone.