3

**Chapter 3**

Caleb called me from Moon Hall ten minutes later.

I answered on speaker while tightening the bandage around my palm. In the background, I heard shouting, silver chains dragging across stone, and Alexander’s wolf growling so low that the sound vibrated through the bond.

“Scarlett,” Caleb said, his voice tense, “Alexander has entered full Blood Moon relapse. Two guards are injured. Sarah refuses to sign the emergency bill. She says you’re his mate and you have no right to charge him.”

I almost laughed.

Of course she did.

“Put her on,” I said.

A second later, Sarah’s sharp voice filled the room. “Scarlett, this is cruel even for you. Alexander is suffering. Whatever happened with Victoria, you can’t abandon your mate on a Blood Moon.”

I looked at the red moon outside the window. “He said he didn’t need me.”

“He was angry.”

“He was holding another woman.”

“He was saving her life.”

“He gave her my cure.”

Sarah breathed hard through the line. “You are his mate. Your duty is to stand beside him.”

“My duty ended when he chose to humiliate me in front of the pack.”

Before Sarah could answer, Alexander’s voice tore through the background.

“Scarlett.”

It was not spoken. It was growled, dragged from somewhere deep in his chest. The sound hit the mate bond like a fist. My knees weakened for one dangerous second.

Then his pain came through.

Heat. Silver. Hunger. Need.

The bond threw a vision at me: Alexander on his knees in the middle of Moon Hall, shirt torn open, sweat shining on his skin, black veins of wolf energy crawling up his throat. His claws scraped the floor hard enough to carve white stone. His eyes were red, and his mouth shaped my name again.

My wolf whimpered.

She wanted to go.

She remembered every Blood Moon before this one, when his hands would lock around my hips, when his face would press into my neck, when he would breathe me in like he could survive on my scent alone. She remembered how his teeth grazed my wrist before he drank, how his body shuddered against mine when the pain finally broke.

I pressed my wounded palm flat against the desk until the cut burned.

“No,” I whispered.

Caleb’s voice came back, quieter now. “He’s trying to pull you through the bond.”

“I know.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Read the treatment record.”

There was a pause. “In front of everyone?”

“Yes.”

A few seconds later, Caleb’s young voice rang through Moon Hall.

“Alexander Reed. Rogue poison entered wolf core three years ago. First Blood Moon relapse stabilized by Scarlett Hayes through blood therapy. Second relapse stabilized by Moonbane dosage and private bloodline soothing. Third relapse stabilized through direct blood feeding and scent grounding…”

The hall went quiet.

Caleb kept reading.

Each record stripped away another layer of Alexander’s pride. Every Blood Moon he had survived, every morning he had walked out looking strong, every training session where warriors praised his willpower, every council meeting where he stood like a future Alpha—my blood was behind all of it.

Someone in the hall murmured, “So he’s been alive because of Scarlett?”

Another voice answered, lower, “And he gave her cure to Victoria?”

Sarah snapped, “Enough! Those are private records!”

Caleb said, “You publicly accused Chief Healer Hayes of refusing treatment. Clinic policy allows disclosure to protect medical reputation.”

For a moment, I could almost see Sarah’s face.

Good.

Then Alexander roared.

The bond slammed open again. This time, there was no memory, only instinct. His wolf wanted me. Not Victoria. Not Sarah. Not any ordinary healer. Me.

It wanted my blood on its tongue, my scent in its lungs, my body close enough to calm the heat ripping through him.

I gripped the desk so hard my injured palm split open again.

Still, I did not move.

Twenty minutes later, the clinic door crashed open.

Alexander stood there, half-shifted and breathing hard.

His black shirt was torn down the front, exposing the hard lines of his chest and the angry marks left by silver chains around his wrists. His eyes were still red at the edges. Blood Moon heat rolled off him in waves, thick with pain, hunger, and the dangerous pull of an Alpha wolf barely under control.

The moment his scent filled the room, my body reacted.

I hated it.

The bond tightened low in my stomach, hot and humiliating. My wolf lifted her head, drawn to him even now. Alexander felt it. I saw it in the way his eyes darkened, in the way his gaze dropped to my throat before he forced it back to my face.

“You didn’t come,” he said.

“No.”

His jaw flexed. “I could have killed someone.”

“You said you could endure it.”

“Scarlett.”

There was warning in his voice, but also desperation. He stepped closer. “Don’t do this. Not tonight.”

I stayed behind my desk. “Why are you here, Alexander? Victoria should be awake by now. Doesn’t she need you?”

His expression hardened. “Don’t start.”

“She has a rogue-pack binding mark.”

“That mark could be a reaction to your cure.”

I stared at him.

Even after everything, he still reached for the excuse that protected her first.

“You think I tampered with the cure?”

“I think you’re hurt,” he said. “And when you’re hurt, you can be ruthless.”

The words landed quietly.

No shouting. No dramatic crack.

Just something final breaking in me.

I picked up the severance documents and placed them on the desk between us.

Alexander looked down. His face changed at once.

“You submitted it.”

“Yes.”

His voice dropped. “You know severance will hurt you too. Your blood has been tied to my wolf for three years. Cutting the bond will tear through both of us.”

“I know.”

“Then why?”

“Because pain with an ending is better than love that keeps eating me alive.”

He froze.

For the first time that night, he had no answer.

Blood Moon heat pulsed through the room again. His wolf pushed forward, and the air between us thickened. Alexander’s gaze fell to my lips, then to the bandage around my hand. His breathing changed.

“Your hand,” he said, quieter. “Let me see.”

He reached for me.

I stepped back.

His hand stopped in midair.

Three years ago, I would have gone to him. I would have let him touch me, let him draw me close, let his scent wrap around mine until the bond stopped aching.

Tonight, I said, “You lost that right.”

Alexander’s eyes flashed with pain.

Before he could speak, Beta Daniel arrived at the open door with two guards behind him. His gaze moved from Alexander’s half-shifted form to the documents on my desk.

“Council orders,” Daniel said. “You are both required to enter the final connection chamber tonight.”

Alexander’s face darkened. “Now?”

“Now.” Daniel’s voice hardened. “And there is another issue. Victoria woke up and refused the rogue mark examination.”

Alexander immediately turned toward the door.

I watched him.

Even after the mark. Even after the stolen cure. Even after crawling to my clinic because his wolf could not survive without me.

Victoria cried, and he still moved first.

Daniel blocked him. “The Council will handle her.”

Alexander’s fists clenched.

I closed the severance file and walked past him.

“Let them,” I said. “For once, let someone examine the woman you keep choosing over me.”

At the end of the corridor, the Blood Moon burned red over the Council building.

And somewhere behind us, Victoria screamed.