Chapter 5_Exile.

Nerissa’a POV

The beeping wouldn’t stop

It was the only sound in the hospital room after Doctor Hale said the words that ended me.

“I’m sorry, but you lost the child.”

My hand was still on my stomach. it was flat, empty, cold I pressed harder as if I could hold it in by force, my fingers shook.

The hospital dress clung to my ribs, where Selene’s friends had kicked me. Every bruise screamed pain.

“Lady Nerissa?” The nurse’s voice was soft and pitying. “Would you like water”?

I didn’t answer, I was listening. for footsteps, for the door to open and for his. Silver eyes to find mine, for Kaelen to come and say, I’m sorry, it wasn’t your fault . I’m here.

One minute. Two. Ten.

The door never opened.

“Your family was here earlier” the nurse added, glancing at her chart. “They signed the release forms, they’ll be here to take you home when you’re discharged”.

Home.. The word felt like a joke

I closed my eyes. Behind them,I saw it again.

Kaelen’s hand in Selene’s. The red mate mark bright on her neck. His mouth moving, glad you lost it. Now I can be with the woman I truly love and desire.

The beeping got louder, or maybe that was my heart.

Hours passed, it was Night time. The hospital dimmed, No one came.

The door finally opened near midnight, I sat up too fast and pain shot through my sides.

It was Cedric. He came Alone, No Vivian, No Selene, No guards.

He looked at me like I was a broken table he couldn’t throw away.

“Can you stand?” He asked

“Dad” my voice cracked, “Did Kaelen_”

“He is mated now,” Cedric cut in. To Selene.”

The ceremony was small. Private.“

I felt air leave my lungs.

“Your stepmother thinks is best,”

he went on,

eyes on the floor.

It wasn’t me. “And the council, they agreed.

You are…a liability. A mated king cannot be tied to a scandal, and you cannot stay in silvermoon. At least not for now.”

I gripped the blanket, “where will I go?”

“Your uncle’s pack. At the border.”

He said, like he was sending a cattle.

“Rowan is expecting you. You will stay there until… until things calm a bit.”

“Until they forget about me?” The words came out before I could stop them.

Cedric’s jaw tightened. “ you brought this on yourself, Nerissa.

You chased a king. You trapped him. This is the cost you have to bear.”

I tried to stand, but my legs were weak, He didn’t move to help.

“Please,” I whispered. It was the last time I would ever beg him.

“Don’t send me away. I have nowhere_”

“You’d have a roof,” he said flatly.

“Be grateful for that.” He turned. “A carriage leaves at dawn. Pack a simple bag. That’s all.”

He left. The door clicked.

That way it. No apology. No are you hurt?Just exile.

I sat back down and stared at the ceiling until dawn.

Selene came before the sunrise.

She looked rested. Her blonde hair was curled. She wore a cream dress that matched the bandages she’d never needed. She held a vase of white lilies, the one’s used at funerals.

I hated her immediately.

“Sister,” she said sweetly, setting them on the table. “How are you feeling today?”

I didn’t look at her.

“I heard about the baby,” she continued, voice dropping to a whisper. “ I’m so sorry sister. Truly.”

Lies.. I muttered to myself.

“It’s for the best,” she said , And her tone changed. Softer. More cruel.

“Kaelen could never love you, Nerissa. You know that. At least now you won’t be a burden to him. Or to us.”

I lifted my head.

She smiled. “Father was very upset. I told him exile was the only way to protect the pack’s name. He agreed with me immediately.”

I looked up at her, so that was it. She’d signed my banishment.

Something in me went quiet. The shaking stopped, the expectations stopped. In its place was a cold heavy stone.

I stood. Slowly. Every rib protested, I walked to the window without a word.

Behind me, Selene faltered. “Don’t you have anything to say?”

I touched the glass. Outside, the moon was fading. I was mad at her and I felt like charging at her and strangling her for all she did to me, but I held myself.

“No.” I replied her, looking away.

Her perfume lingered as she left, she left the lilies behind.

At dawn, a guard took my bag. One dress, One shawl, No money. No letter. Cedric was at the gate, already on his horse. He did not get down.

“Go,” He said, with a straight face.

I climbed onto the carriage, No one said goodbye.

As the wheels turned, students gathered at the academy fence, I didn’t want to listen, but their voices echoed.

“…she lost the baby on purpose…

“…so fat and now useless…

“…a baby killer…

The last word kept ringing in my ears till we drove past the gate.

I did not cry, I pressed my palm to the scarred skin of my stomach and made a promise to the empty air.

They think they buried me, they don’t know I’m the one who won’t die.

The journey to the border took three days.

My uncle’s pack was called Blackthorn. It was smaller and looked poorer. The forest was thick and the air smelled of pine and smoke. No golden chandeliers here, No nobles.

Uncle Rowan met us outside his house, he was broad, gray at the temples, with eyes that didn’t soften but didn’t mock either.

He looked at me. At my bruised skin and the hollows under my eyes.

“You’re thin,” was all he said. “Come in.”

He didn’t ask about the baby. He didn’t ask about Kaelen . He led me to a small stone house at the edge of the territory. One room. One bed. One window with iron bars.

“You’ll work in the infirmary,” he said.

“Herbs. Washing . If you’re strong enough later, you’ll learn.”

I nodded.

That night, for the first time in years, no one came to slap me or call me a disgrace before I slept. The silence was so loud it hurt. I lay on the narrow bed and stared at the bars.

No one was here to tell me I was too fat to exist. No one was here to tell me I didn’t matter.

It should have felt like peace, it felt like a grave.

I curled on my side and put both hands over my heart, under my skin my wolf was still asleep. Cursed, silent. I had never shifted.

Not once.

“From now on, I whispered to the dark. “Ill heal myself.”

Weeks became months.

Uncle Rowan kept his word. He worked me hard.

I ground herbs until my hands bled. I cleaned wounds that smelled like rot.

I watched the packs healer, an old woman named Maera, set bones and stitch skin.

At first , I was clumsy. Grief made my hands shake, but grief also made me stubborn and hard working. I would not fail. I would not be useless again.

Maera noticed.

“You have good hands.” She said one evening, after I stayed late to rebandage a hunter’s leg without being told, “still hands. Not shaky ones.”

I didn’t answer, praise felt foreign.

“Go get some food to eat and rest for tonight.” Maera said.

The bed was hard, but I remembered I was no longer fat like I used to be.

For the first time in years, I slept without bracing.

The next morning I woke up early to fetch some water to wash the herbs and prepare them before Maera wakes.

I was about fetching the the second bucket when they came. Three girls wearing fur cloaks with beaded braids. They looked rich, Silvermoon rich.

“Well,” the tallest one said. “It’s the king’s whore.”

“Mischievous whore” the second one said.

I was about carrying my bucket but the words struck me, and I put it down.

“What did you just say?” I charged at her, “ Repeat it,” I ordered her, my voice didn’t shake.

The second girl stepped closer, Her name was Lisa .

“Or what? You don’t even have a wolf, you’re cursed,”

She reached out to hit me.

“Lisa.”

Maera’s voice cut through the yard. “Leave her alone, she works under me.”

Lisa turned to the other girls and they left, kicking my bucket.

“Are you hurt?”

Maera asked. “They spilled my water.”

“It’s fine, you can get more.”

At night time, just after I cleared and washed up the bowls and packed the medicine tray. Maera came to me and placed a book in my hands, “curses and counter curses,”

“Read. Your wolf is asleep, but your mind doesn’t have to be.” She said and walked away.

I looked at it, it was old and moldy.

I opened it.

Under my skin, something shifted. Not my wolf. My heart. Cold but sharp now.

Hours later

The Infirmary was dark, everyone had gone to sleep.

I was still reading by candle light when I Heard noises.

Footsteps.

Not uncle Rowan’s heavy boots, Not Maera’s shuffle. Lighter, quicker, hesitant.

They stopped outside the back room door.

The handle turned.

It was locked.

A pause, then a whisper, so low I almost missed it:

“…this is her room, isn’t it?”

A second voice answered, he sounded angry. “If Maera finds out we’re here, we’re dead. But we have to see her,

Tonight.”

My blood went cold.

I didn’t know them, I didn’t know what they wanted.

And I had no where to run.

The door rattled again.