Chapter 2

My husband’s voice kept resounding in my head as the warriors pulled me through the halls of the packhouse. The same voice that had once spoken vows to me in front of the entire WinterMoon pack now ordered men to seize me like I was a Rogue who had broken the law. 

I turned my head again and again searching for his face, waiting for him to step forward and say that this had gone too far, that he would listen to me the way he used to listen when we still trusted each other. 

He stood at the end of the corridor and watched them take me. He did not move.

They forced me down the steps into the dungeon and locked the door behind me. The cell was dark and cold. I dropped myself onto the floor with my back against the wall and tried to make sense of what had just happened. My mind kept returning to the balcony. I saw Lady Lilibet’s face. I heard the way she screamed that I was pushing her. I felt the cloth of her dress under my fingers for that single second before her body went over the railing. And I saw the smile she gave me right before she fell.

That smile was the most confusing of them all. 

I sat in the dark and tried to find the words I would use when Gavriel finally came. I needed him to know that I never pushed his mother. I needed him to know that I reached for her to stop her from falling. I needed him to understand that the woman he believed was helpless had looked me in the eyes and smiled as she threw herself backward. All these years he had carried the belief that I hated her. I never hated her. I only ever tried to keep peace in the house for his sake and for the sake of our children. Now I did not know how to make him see the truth.

My thoughts kept drifting to my children, wondering if anyone had told them what happened. I wondered if they were crying somewhere in the packhouse asking for me and if Gavriel was protecting them from the full story or if the whispers had already reached their ears. The idea of my daughter hearing that her mother tried to kill her grandmother made my chest tighten until it became hard to breathe.

Time went fast inside the cell. I had no food and no water. My mouth had grown dry and my lips cracked, my body grew weaker with every hour that passed. I drifted in and out of half-sleep, sometimes waking with my cheek pressed to the cold stone, sometimes with my arms wrapped around my knees. I no longer knew how many days had gone by. I only knew that my body had become weaker and slow and that the darkness felt worse than before.

When the door finally opened, the light hurt my eyes. Hands grabbed my arms and pulled me to my feet. My legs would not hold me properly. They had to support most of my weight as they led me up the stairs and into the courtyard. I saw the wooden post and the whip and still I called Gavriel’s name. Even when they stretched my arms above my head and tied my wrists, I called for him. I believed he would hear me. I believed he would come and stop them and give me the chance to speak. I believed the man who had once stood beside me through every difficulty would remember who I was.

But he never came to my rescue.

The first lash opened the skin on my back. The pain spread through my body in waves, but I kept calling his name until my voice broke. After that I could only make shattered sounds as the whip continued to fall. I stopped knowing how many times it landed. I only knew that blood ran down my back and that my legs no longer supported me when they finally cut the ropes.

They dragged me into the main hall where the elders had already gathered, and forced me to my bruised knees. Gavriel stood at the front, looking at me as if I were someone he had never known. I tried to speak, but the words came out clouded because of the pain and the dryness in my mouth.

 “I didn't push your mother.” My lips quivered as tears gushed down my cheeks. “I will never hurt anyone, especially an old woman.” I told him she planned it. I saw her smile while falling off. I begged him to listen.

He did not let me finish, and groaned, “You are a big disappointment, Sparrow.” My husband said my name for the first time in nine years. “As of this day, I, Alpha Gabriel Hendry, reject you, Sparrow Wren, as my mate and dissolve our marital vows.”

Those words. Those words hit me harder than the whips and the fact he didn't believe me. They ripped my heart harder than the lies his mother has made everyone believe.

Gavriel went ahead to strip me of the Luna title in front of every elder who had once acknowledged me. He declared that our children now belonged only to him. Then he called Suvi, his ex mate, the woman who abandoned him during his worst moment. He called her forward and placed her at his side as the new Luna. I watched it happen while blood continued to run down my back and drip onto the floorboards.

When I tried once more to tell him the truth, his anger rose stronger, and the entire hall fell silent. He said if it weren’t for the nine years we had shared and the two children I had given him, he would have ordered my death in that moment. Then he turned to the warriors and gave the final order. I was to be banished permanently from WinterMoon territory. If I ever returned, I was to be killed on sight.

They dragged me out of the hall while I was still looking at him. I kept waiting for something in his expression to change. 

But nothing did.

By the time the warriors reached the boundary that bordered the enemy pack, night had fallen and rain poured without pause. They threw me onto the wet ground and left me there. I lay soaked in the mud as the rain washed blood down my arms and into the grass. My body trembled so hard that my teeth clicked together. Every breath yanked at the open wounds across my back.

I thought of the coloring books Zella had left on the kitchen table the last time I saw my girl. I thought of the small toy cars Zola pushed across the floor. I thought of the way Gavriel used to fall asleep with his hand resting on my waist. I thought of the smile on Lady Lilibet’s face as she went over the railing. And how life could change in a flick of fingers.

The rain kept falling and my body would not stop shaking.

Then a coat settled over my shoulders, the fabric heavy and warm. Strong hands gripped my upper arms and gently lifted me from the mud. I was trembling too hard to stand on my own, and those hands held me steady by the shoulders, keeping me upright against the force of the rain.

I lifted my head.

Rain ran down my face and into my eyes, but I could still see who it was clearly.

It was Felix, my husband’s younger brother, and biggest rival.

Felix stood in front of me without speaking, rain dripping from his hair. His eyes steady as he pulled me into his chest, wrapping his arms around me in the storm.