Chapter 2

I unclenched my fists, keeping my breathing even. "He's not coming back."

Selene smiled, but her eyes were ice. "Oh? Has he found another she-wolf and doesn't need me anymore?"

Even now, after everything, Caleb was still nothing but a disgrace in Selene's eyes. Three years of devotion, of swallowed pride, of hopes repeatedly crushed — all worthless.

"Selene, if you despise him so much, why don't you just break the mate bond?" My voice was flat. "Or is having someone to torment too enjoyable to give up?"

Selene chuckled. "Sounds like he really has found another Alpha."

Her eyes glowed an eerie red, her wolf close to the surface.

I didn't look away.

I'm Beta-born. My father trained me from the time I could walk. I'd taken down rogue Alphas twice my weight in the pack's border raids. Selene might outrank me on paper, but if she came at me here, she'd get a fight she wasn't expecting.

She seemed to remember that too. Her wolf retreated behind her eyes.

I turned and walked past her toward the stairs. I hadn't come back to argue with these two. I just wanted to find out exactly what had happened in that room.

The Caleb I knew didn't go down without a fight. And the marks in that room told me he hadn't.

"Where do you think you're going?" Selene called from behind me.

"Caleb's room. Got a problem with that?"

She didn't answer.

I reached the landing and Elena was waiting at the top of the stairs, arms crossed. My mate. The Alpha whose bed I'd shared for three years and who hadn't actually looked at me in six months.

"Ryan." Her voice was quiet. "We need to talk."

"After."

"Now."

I met her eyes. "After, Elena. I'm not in the mood."

Something flickered across her face — surprise, maybe. She wasn't used to me saying no.

She stepped aside.

I walked past her to our bedroom, closed the door behind me, and locked it.

Through the wood, I heard her footsteps stop outside.

"Ryan. Open the door."

"No."

A long pause.

"You're being ridiculous."

I didn't answer. I was already moving — opening the closet, pulling out the small lockbox I kept under a loose floorboard. Inside were the mate bond severance ritual papers Caleb and I had filed last week. Two sets. One for him. One for me.

His was useless now.

Mine was about to become very useful.

I tucked the papers inside my jacket and unlocked the door.

Elena was still standing in the hallway. Her expression had gone careful.

"Talk," I said.

Before she could open her mouth, a ringtone broke the silence. A cheerful, lilting melody that I'd grown to hate over the last six months.

Victor's special ringtone — the one she'd set just for him.

Elena's hand twitched toward her pocket. She caught herself. Looked at me.

For one second, I thought she might actually let it ring.

Then she answered.

The voice on the other end reached me clearly, pitched to sound fragile and helpless.

"Elena, I think I might have a cold. I feel terrible. Could you take me to the healing den? I tried calling Selene but she didn't answer."

Victor's voice was full of pitiful whining, each word calculated to tug at her protective instincts. And it worked. It always worked.

I watched the concern bloom in Elena's eyes, her entire demeanor shifting from cold indifference to urgent worry.

A few months ago, I'd taken three claw wounds in a border skirmish — one of them deep enough to need stitches. I'd dragged myself home bleeding and she'd told me to wait for the pack healer to come around in the morning because she had "Alpha business." Then Victor called twenty minutes later about a hangnail and she was out the door in under a minute.

Even now, when I had walked back into this house carrying my best friend's ashes and was clearly two seconds from leaving her for good, she was still prioritizing Victor's sniffles over me.

That settled the last bit of doubt in my mind.

"I'll be right there," she assured him, her voice gentle in a way it had never been with me. "Have you taken any medicine? Are you staying warm?"

"Victor. I'm coming right now. Just hang on. I'll bring some of that herbal tea you like."

Not a single glance back at me. Not a word about what I'd just come home to say.

She was already halfway down the stairs.

"Elena."

She paused.

I pulled the severance papers out of my jacket and held them up so she could see.

"When you get back, sign these. We're done."

Her head turned, slowly.

For a second she looked like she was going to say something — argue, maybe, or threaten, or even tell me she'd hear me out when she came home.

Then Victor's voice came through the phone again, sharper. "Elena? Why are you taking so long? My head hurts."

"Coming." She turned back to the stairs.

She didn't look at me again.

I waited until I heard the front door slam, then walked down the hall to Caleb's room.

I had a lot of work to do.