Chapter 8

This time, Kaelen locked me away for three days.

The confinement cell was cold and damp, and the silver bars embedded in the walls left me weak and powerless. The spiritual trauma, combined with the abuse from the pack of Omegas Cassandra had incited, had pushed my body to its absolute limit.

They stole my food, tore my clothes, and humiliated me with the most vicious words.

I didn't fight back.

Because I knew this was all with Kaelen's silent approval.

The heavy iron door scraped open, and a sliver of light pierced the darkness. Kaelen stood at the entrance, his brow furrowed as he looked at my pathetic state.

"What is this?" His voice was cold, without a hint of concern.

I pushed myself up against the wall, the wounds on my body stinging. "It was them—"

"Enough," he interrupted, his eyes filled with annoyance. "Cassandra warned me you'd pull a stunt like this to get sympathy. Estelle, when will you learn to behave and stop making things so difficult for me?"

He wouldn't even listen to a single word of explanation. He only believed Cassandra.

"Get up. Come with me," he commanded.

I dragged my heavy body behind him, out of the cell. Returning to the magnificent, gilded estate, everything felt like a bitter joke. Kaelen sat on the main sofa, surveying me like a king.

"I've given it a lot of thought," he said, "and I've decided how this is going to work."

I watched him silently, my heart no longer capable of feeling anything.

"I will divide my time," he announced, as if granting me some great mercy. "I'll spend half with you, to fulfill my duty as your mate. The other half will be for Cassandra."

My heart sank into an icy abyss.

He was treating his companionship as a handout, his betrayal as "fairness."

"Now, I'm going to Cassandra's," he said, standing and adjusting his collar. "She's been frightened and needs me to comfort her. Before I get back, I want you to stay here and think about your place."

He turned and left without a shred of hesitation.

Did he think I was still the same Estelle who would cling to him?

No. The Estelle of the past was dead, killed by his own hand.

I listened to the sound of his car's engine until it faded completely into the distance. The entire mansion was suddenly quiet, the only sound my own heartbeat.

My phone vibrated.

It was a secure message from an encrypted number, just a single line of text.

[The Council of Elders has ruled: The Rejection is complete. The mate bond is officially severed. You are free.]

I stared at the words for a long, long time.

Then, I smiled.

I picked up the suitcase I had packed days ago in the corner of the room and walked out of the prison that had held me for years, without a single look back.

At the border of the Black Moon territory, my parents' car was already waiting. Before getting in, I took out my phone. A photo of Kaelen and me was still my lock screen.

I squeezed the phone in my hand until the screen shattered into a web of cracks—a fractured mirror for our fractured love.

"Let's go," I said to my father.

The car crossed the border, into the territory of the Silver Creek Pack.

I had vanished from Kaelen's world completely.