I struggled to prop myself up and pulled a box from beneath the bed. Inside lay the Death Walker's Iron Medallion, cold against my fingers, humming faintly with the old oath bound into its metal. I pressed it into Rowan's hands.

"Rowan, take this to the Alpha King's court. Give it to him and tell him Perenna Ashvane is calling in her Blood Debt. Tell him I want a Moon-Sealed Bond Severance."

Years ago, when the Alpha King himself had traveled to the Hollowmere Pack to bring the Alpha Heir and the Beta Lord back to Ironhold Territory, he'd been so grateful for my saving their lives that he promised me one request, anything I asked.

I had never dared waste that chance. Now, finally, it had a purpose.

Hadeon didn't return with Soren Ashwick until the following afternoon.

By then, the pack healer Rowan had summoned was already on his way out.

Hadeon caught the healer by the arm. "How is my mate?"

"She'll live. But I'm afraid..."

Hadeon's voice dropped low, unsteady in a way I'd rarely heard when it concerned me. "Afraid of what?"

The healer shook his head with a heavy sigh. "Her body is ruined. She'll spend the rest of her life in pain."

Something like guilt flickered across Hadeon's face. He gathered me into his arms, my body limp as a threadbare rag. "I'm sorry, Perenna. It's not that I didn't want to help you, but the Alpha Heir's mate is carrying a royal pup. I couldn't afford the delay..."

I gritted my teeth against the pain and pulled myself free of his embrace. I shook my head. "It's fine. You were up all night, my lord. Go rest."

His hands hung frozen in the air where I'd been. His voice came out scraped raw. "Are you angry with me, Perenna?"

I closed my eyes. My answer was flat, toneless. "This Omega wouldn't dare."

"Omega?"

Hadeon caught the shift instantly. He stared at me as though I'd spoken a foreign language.

Before, I had always addressed myself as "your mate" in his presence.

Now I'd changed the word. The line between us, drawn clean.

"Yes. This Omega was born lowly. Naturally, I can't be compared to the Alpha Heir's mate. So you did the right thing, my lord. This Omega wouldn't dare hold it against you."

A violent cough tore through me, and blood splattered from my lips. Hadeon saw it, and for once, he asked nothing more.

He rubbed slow circles on my back, his voice softening. "You've always been the most sensible one, Perenna. I was overthinking it. Rest now. Your mate will stay right here. I'm not going anywhere."

I didn't know how long I slept before the noise from the courtyard dragged me awake.

The moment I opened my eyes, I saw Rowan sprawled in the center of the yard, a silver-tipped switch cracking down across her body again and again.

Her clothes were soaked through with blood. Each breath she drew looked like it might be her last. The smell of burned skin rose with every strike where the silver bit into her, and something in my chest went so still it frightened me.

Cressida Thornwood sat nearby, watching with cold, disinterested eyes.

When Hadeon saw me stir, he didn't bother explaining. He simply pressed my shoulders back down. "The Alpha Heir's mate is disciplining a servant. Don't interfere, Perenna."

I had braced myself for some grave offense. But the crime, it turned out, was nothing more than this: after delivering the Bond Severance petition to the Alpha King, Rowan had taken it upon herself to summon the pack healer for me.

The Alpha King and his Luna already carried guilt over the Alpha Heir breaking his fated bond with me. When they learned what had happened, they'd rebuked Cressida harshly.

Called her vicious. Said she'd shown callous disregard for another she-wolf's life.

Cressida couldn't touch me, not with the Alpha King and his Luna shielding me. So she'd turned her fury on Rowan instead.

I watched Rowan's broken body twitch with each blow, barely clinging to life, and the tears wouldn't stop. The silver left thin lines of smoke rising from her skin. My wolf pressed itself flat inside me, whimpering low, unable to look away.

I seized Hadeon's sleeve and begged. "My lord, please save Rowan. Every fault is mine, all of it."

"She was only worried about me."

Hadeon's expression pinched with reluctance. "Perenna, she's just a servant. Let the Alpha Heir's mate vent her anger and it'll blow over."

I stared at that handsome face of his, so perfectly composed, so perfectly human, and could not fathom the rottenness it concealed.

Because we were born lowly, our lives simply didn't matter?

Mine didn't. Rowan's didn't. And neither had the hundred-some families of the Hollowmere Pack.

I couldn't hold it in any longer. The words ripped out of me, raw and bleeding. "Is that what you told yourself when you slaughtered the Hollowmere Pack, my lord? That they were just a bunch of lowborn nobodies?"

Hadeon flinched as if I'd driven a blade between his ribs. His hand shot to my throat and squeezed, his eyes splitting gold with fury.

"Perenna, what nonsense are you spouting?!"

I struggled to break free, and the wound below tore open again. Blood soaked through the bedsheets in an instant.

Hadeon panicked at the sight. He gathered me into his arms, clumsy and desperate. "Perenna, stop moving. Please."

I pried his hands off me and glared straight at him. "Hadeon, you've been lying to me for years. Was it worth it?"

"Hundreds of lives. And my two pups. Don't you lose sleep at night?"

Hadeon's hand hung frozen in midair, trembling beyond his control.

"You know about all of it?"

When I said nothing, he rushed to explain. "Perenna, I had no choice. Wolves in the Hollowmere Pack saw you with the Alpha Heir. If the pregnancy got out, it would have torn the court apart."

I let out a bitter laugh. "Was it really about the court? Or were you afraid your precious Cressida would lose her power?"

Hadeon's brow creased. Whatever guilt had been in his eyes vanished, replaced by cold displeasure. "That was all my decision. Cressida had nothing to do with it. Leave her out of this."

Even now, he was still shielding Cressida. The last thread of hope in me snapped. Somewhere beneath my ribs, my wolf went utterly still, as though the creature had simply stopped breathing.

"Then what about my pups? The first one, fine, I'll blame myself for grieving too hard to protect it. But the second?"

Hadeon saw that I had ripped away the final veil, and he stopped pretending. "Yes. I had someone take care of it."

His scent had changed. The black walnut bark and iron I had once pressed my face into were still there, but that sweet, wrong undertone had risen to the surface, thick as rot. I could taste it on the back of my tongue.

"I wasn't ready to be a father."

"Even now, you're still lying to me..."

"Perenna, stop this. Whatever I've done, I owe you. I've sworn an oath. I'll make it up to you. I'll give you a life of wealth and luxury, secure in your place as my mate for the rest of your days!"

I didn't want to hear another hollow promise. "Hadeon, I don't want any of it. I'll give up everything. Just grant me the Bond Severance and set yourself free."

"If you're worried I'll expose the massacre, you can have my life too."

"All I'm asking is that you save Rowan!"

I thought the weight of hundreds of dead pack wolves on his conscience would be enough to buy one life. I still underestimated how shameless he was.

"Perenna, stop. I can't help you this time."

"Cressida's been through a trauma. She's always been sensitive and stubborn. If Rowan doesn't die, Cressida won't be able to sleep."

And then I finally understood. In Hadeon's heart, the lives of ordinary wolves weren't worth as much as one good night's rest for Cressida Thornwood.

I shoved him away and dragged my broken body across the floor toward the courtyard. The mating mark on my neck throbbed with each movement, a dull sick pulse that no longer felt like connection but like a wound that refused to close. I collapsed at Cressida's feet, clutching the hem of her gown. "My lady, please spare Rowan. It was all my fault."

Cressida looked down at me with a satisfied smirk. The scent of crushed foxglove and honeyed amber rolled off her, so sweet it made my stomach turn.

"Your fault how?"

"I'm lowborn. I should never have troubled the Alpha King's healer."

"I should never have displeased you, my lady."

"Enough. The sight of you covered in blood is revolting."

Cressida kicked me away in disgust and turned to Hadeon. "Hadeon, I'm tired. Walk me back?"

Hadeon looked at me sprawled on the ground. He hesitated for a moment. But in the end, he chose Cressida.

I reached for Rowan beside me, her breath barely there, and called after him one last time. "My lord, could you at least send for Soren Ashwick?"

Hadeon opened his mouth to give the order, but Cressida cut him off. "No one calls for any healer. I've already spared her life. Whether she survives is her own fate."

Hadeon looked back at me, something unreadable churning behind his eyes. Then he clenched his jaw and walked away.

Everything I had held together shattered in that moment. My wolf collapsed inside me, not howling, not whimpering, just a silence so total it felt like the creature had been scraped out of my chest and there was nothing left where it had been. I screamed at his retreating back, "Hadeon Ravencrest, I want a Bond Severance!"

Cressida had just reached the doorway. She laughed out loud and nudged Hadeon playfully. "She says she wants a Bond Severance. Aren't you going to go coax her?"

Hadeon glared at me, visibly annoyed.

No need to coax her. She's just throwing a tantrum. She'd never survive outside this den.

Besides, she's carried pups twice and she's a second-bonded mate. Who else would want her but me?

He was right. Leaving the Ravencrest Den might very well be a death sentence.

But staying was a fate worse than death.

I forced myself up through the pain, set the Moon-Sealed Bond Severance papers on the table, and found a rickety old cart meant for hauling firewood. I loaded Rowan onto it and walked out of the Ravencrest Den.

This time, I was finally free.