Chapter 3

By dawn, I had packed everything and made my way downstairs.

What I saw there made me stop.

Damian was sitting beside Lydia, feeding her broth with patient care.

Before I could say anything, he looked up, saw me, and stood at once.

He set the bowl down and explained with visible awkwardness, “Lydia hasn’t had much appetite this morning, so I made her some broth.”

I only nodded and reached for my suitcase.

That was when Damian finally noticed it. His brows drew together immediately.

“What are you doing?” he asked. “I only made Lydia some broth. Are you really going to make an issue out of that too?”

There was already anger in his voice.

He strode over and snatched the suitcase from my hand.

I looked at the red marks scattered along his neck and felt sick.

“Was it only broth?” I said coldly. “Why don’t you take a look at your neck first?”

For a moment, panic flashed across his face. He raised a hand to cover it.

“There were too many insects last night,” he said quickly. “That’s all.”

I gave a short laugh and said nothing.

My silence only seemed to embarrass him further. His expression darkened.

“Can you stop being jealous over everything?”

He threw my suitcase to the floor with more force than he meant to. Startled, I stepped back and instinctively covered my stomach.

Regret crossed his face at once.

He took two steps toward me, clearly about to soften and say something, but Lydia spoke first from behind him.

“This is my fault too, Damian. Let me apologize to Selene.”

She rose and carried the bowl toward me.

“Selene, don’t be upset anymore. You can have this broth.”

I looked at her smiling face, then at the rim of the bowl, still stained with her lipstick.

My disgust surged.

“Get away from me.”

As she kept reaching it toward me, I struck her hand aside.

The bowl shattered on the floor.

Lydia cried out at once.

“Damian, it hurts.”

She lifted her hand toward him, tears falling fast. There was only the faintest red mark there, barely visible, but Damian’s face tightened anyway.

He soothed her first, then turned back to me.

This time, he caught my wrist and pulled me into the kitchen.

I struggled, but his grip did not loosen.

When he finally stopped, he turned to face me, his breathing uneven.

“I told you before,” he said, voice low and tight, “you have to think about other wolves too. You were already upset, and Lydia was only trying to make peace. Why did you have to hurt her?”

At that moment, something about him felt terrifying.

Not because he had shouted, but because he looked at me as though I were the one doing wrong.

Tears slipped from my eyes before I could stop them.

The moment he saw that, his expression shifted. His voice softened again, and he reached toward me as if to touch my face.

I flinched away.

His hand froze.

Then he caught my wrist again, though less forcefully this time.

“You’re afraid of me?” he asked.

Something pained flickered across his face.

“Selene, I…” He stopped, his voice roughening. “I didn’t mean…”

Before he could finish, Lydia called out from the doorway.

Damian turned at once.

His grip loosened without thought.

I lost my balance and fell hard against the floor.

Pain tore through my lower belly in an instant.

Then warmth began to spread down my thighs.

Real fear hit me at last.

My whole body shook as I looked up at him.

“Damian,” I whispered, voice breaking, “the pup…”

He turned back, suddenly panicked.

Damian turned the moment Lydia called his name.

“Don’t use the pup to threaten me. You just scalded Lydia, and I haven’t even dealt with that yet. Right now, you and that pup together still matter less than she does.”

Then he picked Lydia up and rushed out.

I was left gasping on the floor, every breath raw with pain.

Somewhere through the blur, I remembered something an elder in the pack had once told me: if a mate truly turned away, a witch could sever the mate-bond.

But the cost was steep.

Once, I would never have chosen it. I had never imagined I would be driven to this point.

But now, staring at the door Damian had closed behind him without hesitation, I fumbled for my phone and called the witch.

When she answered, my voice was barely more than a whisper.

“Break the mate-bond between Damian and me.”

There was a pause on the other end.

“Are you sure?”

I shut my eyes as tears kept slipping down my face.

“Yes.”