Annette POV:

I lay on the cold stone floor. I didn't cry. Not a single tear fell. Pippa was beside me, her sobs echoing in the hollow space, as she tried to help me up, but I couldn't move.

My fingers trembled as I began to gather the broken pieces of obsidian. Each sharp edge was a fresh cut, not on my skin, but on my soul.

Creed found the Silver-leaf. He didn't look back. He simply handed the herb to Dr. Hayes, and together, they carefully lifted Coralie and carried her out of the shrine as if they were the wronged party.

Finally, there was quiet. A dead, empty quiet that filled the space where my hope used to be. It was just me, Pippa, and the wreckage.

I collected every last shard, wrapping them carefully in the silk handkerchief I had been using to polish the tablet. I clutched the bundle to my chest, holding my broken heart in my hands.

An image flashed in my mind: the day the Moon Goddess had declared us mates. Creed, on one knee, swearing to protect me for all his days, his blue eyes as clear and true as the sky.

But another memory surfaced. An earlier one. Before he was an Honored Knight-Aspirant, when he was just Creed. He would sit with me in the gardens while I tended my mother's roses, listening patiently as I chattered about trade routes and numbers, things no warrior cared for.

When did it change? When he joined the knighthood and met Coralie? Or was it earlier, when his mother, Lady Beatrice Raymond, first looked at me with disdain, her eyes cataloging my merchant Pack origins as a fatal flaw?

I realized with a sudden, painful clarity that the boy I missed was long dead. The man who wore his face was a stranger.

I stood up, my movements steady, robotic. "Help me to my room, Pippa."

She wiped her tears and nodded, her small frame a sturdy support as I walked away from the place that had just witnessed the death of my marriage.

The walk from the shrine to my chambers was a long one, down a corridor lined with portraits of Wright family heroes. Their painted eyes seemed to follow me, judging this out-of-place Omega. Usually, I would lower my gaze. Today, I met theirs, my chin held high.

In my room, I didn't collapse onto the bed. I went straight to my writing desk.

It was made of fine mahogany, its surface neatly arranged with my ledgers, quills, and inkpots. This was my sanctuary, a world of numbers and logic, of clean, irrefutable facts.

I sent Pippa away, instructing her that I was not to be disturbed.

"My lady..." she began, her eyes wide with worry.

"I'm fine," I said, my voice so calm it surprised even me. "I just have to do something I should have done a long time ago."

Once the door was closed, I knelt and pulled a locked wooden box from the bottom drawer of my desk.

It didn't contain jewels. It held the special parchment our Allison trade Pack used for the most binding of contracts. Soaked in a magical solution, any words written upon it, once sealed with a blood-oath, became law.

I spread a sheet on the desk. It smelled of ancient promises and grave consequences.

I ground the ink, my hand steady. I picked up my favorite quill. The anger and grief had receded, leaving behind a pristine, cold clarity.

As the heir to the continent's wealthiest merchant guild, I had been taught never to pour capital into a failing venture. Creed Wright was a bankrupt investment.

I began to write. Not a letter of love or complaint, but a formal, legal document.

I listed the facts of our union. I stated my intent to dissolve it.

In the world of werewolves, it is called The Rejection. A brutal ritual that tears the soul of the bond in two, inflicting unimaginable pain on both parties.

I felt no fear of the pain. Only relief.

I wrote the final line. "I, Annette Allison, reject you, Creed Wright, as my mate."

I set down the quill, blew the ink dry, and carefully rolled the parchment. I tied it with a single black silk ribbon and placed it in a plain envelope, sealing it with a drop of black wax.

I left it unmarked. An anonymous bomb.

I looked at the envelope, and for the first time in years, I saw a future.

You destroyed what I treasured most, Creed Wright. So I will destroy the only thing that binds us together.