Chapter Six

Serena’s pov

Belinda gripped my arm like I had just committed a huge crime. At that moment, I could no longer recognize my mother-in-law. She was gone, replaced by a jailer. 

Every step down the sterile hospital hallway felt like a march toward my own execution and the clinical scent of antiseptic kept clashing with the lingering, flowery perfume Belinda always wore, a scent I had once associated with wisdom and kindness. Now I knew it was nothing more than the smell of a beautiful lie.

"Stop dragging me, Belinda," I hissed, my voice low, vibrating with a resentment that had finally curdled into something cold and sharp. "I know how to walk."

She didn't let go, instead she tightened her hold, digging her nails into my skin. "You need to learn your place, Serena. If you had spent more time learning grace and less time playing martyr with pack ledgers, perhaps my son wouldn’t have had to look elsewhere for comfort."

The audacity of her words struck me harder than a physical blow. I halted, forcing her to stumble slightly. I yanked my arm back sharply, making her blink in shock. "My 'martyrdom' is the only reason this pack still has a roof over its head while your son played soldier. Don’t even lecture me on grace, Belinda, not when you’ve spent three years smiling at me while holding the knife behind your back".

She opened her mouth, ready to lash out at me with something sharp enough to sting, but we had already reached the door. She smoothed her dress, changing her expression immediately from a cruel matron to a concerned mother. She was so good that I almost believed her myself.

She pushed open the door like a drama queen.

The scene inside the room immediately made my stomach churn. Caden was seated on the edge of the bed with his back to us casually stroking Liliana’s hair in a suffocatingly intimate gesture. This was the exact same thing he was doing the night my world ended and he wasn't even bothered.

"Caden, darling," Belinda cooed, stepping inside. "I’ve brought her. She’s finally ready to apologize for her outburst at the cabin."

Caden turned and the sight of the man I had waited for, the same man who had promised me the world and went ahead to fill our bed with another made my heart spasm with a familiar, agonizing thud. But today I didn't cry. I was slowly beginning to realize that he wasn't worth it, and I was done wasting my tears on someone who doesn't deserve it.

"Serena," Caden said, dropping his voice to that familiar, authoritative growl. He didn't look at me with malice, he looked at me with a detached annoyance one might reserve for a disobedient dog. "Liliana has been through enough. The stress of your... presence... is dangerous for the baby. Apologize to her. Now."

I looked past him to the bed. Liliana was propped up against the pillows, her eyes wide, watery, and shimmering with a practiced innocence that made my stomach turn. She looked like a fragile doll, and I, in my disheveled state, felt like the monster in her fairytale.

"Apologize?" I repeated, the word tasting like ash. I walked slowly toward the bed, my heels clicking against the linoleum with rhythmic precision. "And what exactly am I apologizing for, Caden? Being the woman who kept your pack from collapsing? Or perhaps I should apologize for being the placeholder you were too cowardly to replace until you found a prettier, younger toy?"

Liliana gasped, a tiny, high-pitched sound that made Caden surge to his feet. He stepped between us, shielding her. "That is enough! You are bitter and irrational. I told you, she is my fated mate. Your inability to accept that doesn't give you the right to abuse her."

"Abuse?" I laughed, a harsh, jagged sound. "You have stripped me of my home, my dignity, and my heirlooms, and you talk to me about abuse? Caden, you have no idea what abuse looks like. But you’re about to learn what a woman with nothing left to lose looks like."

Caden’s eyes narrowed, his alpha aura flaring, pressing down on the room like a physical weight. It was meant to make me submissive, to force my wolf to bow. But my wolf had gone silent, pulling back into the shadows of my mind, watching with a cold, detached curiosity.

"I don't have time for this," Caden snapped, turning toward the doctor who had hovered in the corner, looking uncomfortable. "Doctor, I trust her vitals are stabilizing?"

"They are, Alpha," the doctor replied, checking a chart. "However, the emotional strain…"

"It won't be an issue," Caden interrupted, his gaze locking onto mine with a terrifying, absolute finality. He reached out and took Liliana’s hand, lifting it to his lips. "I’ve made my decision. There is no need for a transition period. There is no need for 'training' or 'waiting for the pup.'"

He turned back to me, a smug, satisfied smile playing on his lips. A smile that used to make me feel safe, but now only made my skin crawl.

"Starting this moment," Caden announced, his voice echoing off the sterile walls, "Liliana is to be treated as the Luna of Thornblood. Effective immediately. Serena is no longer to be addressed as such, and any 'responsibilities' she held are now forfeited. She is nothing more than a guest here and one that is fast wearing out her welcome."

The silence that followed was deafening. 

I thought that it would break me all over again. I thought that leaving him would send my world crashing down but it didn't. 

I had already been broken, betrayed, and I would not be broken a second time. My world solidified into a burning and single purpose. I looked at the man I had loved for three years, and for the first time, I felt absolutely nothing.

"Fine," I whispered, my voice steady so he wouldn't see the fire raging behind my ribs. "If you want a Luna, Caden... you’re going to get exactly what you deserve."