Chapter 1

Kalev Talbot scoffed when he heard me refuse.

"Are you seriously going to throw a tantrum right now, Ariel Whiteclaw?" he asked impatiently, unfastening the ornate clasp on his collar. Then, he tossed the black cloak onto the couch. It still carried the chill of the outside air along with the cloying scent of Freya Redstone's pheromones.

I sat at the other end of the couch, suppressing my wolf's restlessness and agitation as I spoke in a low voice, "I'm not throwing a tantrum."

Kalev stopped unbuttoning his shirt, and his gaze darkened as he turned to glare at me.

"Are you threatening to break up with me just because I interrupted the mating ceremony?" he said darkly. "You know that Freya lost her parents when she was young, and her wolf is extremely unstable because of that.

"Her heat made her wolf lose control. If I hadn't rushed over to soothe her with my pheromones, she would have suffered a mental breakdown. I was only helping her out of a sense of brotherly duty."

His gaze swept over the obsidian urn on the mantelpiece. The name carved into its surface made him flinch for a second, but he quickly dismissed it as a mere ploy on my part to force him to back down.

"Is it really necessary to drag your mother's illness into this and even lie about her death just to garner sympathy from me?"

I remained silent and just looked at the urn on the mantelpiece.

Just yesterday, he had stood before the Moon Altar with me, but Freya suddenly sent him a text message. He immediately stopped our mating ceremony halfway through without a moment's hesitation, even though the ceremony was already on the verge of completion.

I had grabbed his arm, practically begging him, "Kalev, it's our mating ceremony today. The whole pack is watching."

Yet, he had pried off my fingers, one by one, and said icily, "We can hold the ceremony again anytime, but Freya needs to be soothed right now."

Then, he left for Freya's home without even a backward glance at me or Mom, who had slid to the floor in a dead faint.

And now, he was standing right before me, looking down his nose as he accused me of being immature and inconsiderate.

However, I didn't argue back with teary eyes like I used to. I simply nodded and said, "Fine."

Kalev's furrowed brow finally relaxed. He thought that he had won again.

He walked up to me and reached out to stroke my hair like he used to, but I turned my head to the side, coldly dodging his touch.

His hand froze midair. Moments later, he sighed.

"Alright, alright. Stop acting like this. Tomorrow I'll make time to go with you to visit your mother and apologize, then we can put this whole thing behind us."

With that, he walked into the bathroom.

I remained sitting in the living room, slowly packing the old letters and personal jewelry that Mom had left behind.

I didn't need Kalev anymore.

…

Later that morning, I had just finished wiping down the urn when the front door swung open, and Freya walked in behind Kalev with a box of fresh pastries from the bakery in town.

She was wearing a white dress with a sweet smile on her face.

"Hey, Ari," she said. "Sorry for borrowing Kai for the day yesterday."

Before she was done speaking, her gaze fell upon the fireplace mantel. A split second later, she let out a piercing scream and recoiled sharply into Kalev's arms.

"I'm sorry! I just… I didn't know that you kept such a terrifying thing in the house…"

Kalev immediately wrapped his arms around her and released soothing pheromones to calm her down. But the moment he looked at me, his eyes were as cold as frost.

"Ariel! What the hell do you think you're doing?" he yelled at me sharply. "Why do you still have that urn sitting out in the living room? Don't you know that Freya is easily startled? You did this on purpose to scare her, didn't you?"

He stormed over to the mantelpiece, grabbed the urn angrily, and shoved it into the cabinet underneath.

"Put this damn thing away and stop it with all this morbid nonsense!"

The urn struck the wooden cabinet shelves with a dull thud, and my heart sank into a frozen abyss along with it.

I walked over and calmly cradled the urn back in my arms.

"Fine. I'll take it back to the bedroom."

I didn't raise my voice at him. It remained flat, as if I were simply speaking to a stranger.

Kalev was taken aback for a bit. He probably never thought that I would be so compliant.

I clutched the urn in my arms and brought it into the master bedroom with me. Freya's saccharinely sweet voice then drifted in from behind me.

"Is Ari still mad at me, Kai?"

Kalev replied to her in an indulgent tone. "Don't mind her. She's just trying to salvage her bruised ego. She'll eventually get over it once she cools down."

I closed the door behind me, shutting out the sounds from outside. Then, I took out my phone and sent a text message to the real estate agent, Randy Greene.

"Have the buyer settle the full payment in one lump sum. We'll sign the property transfer deed tomorrow as planned."