Chapter 2

The villa door closed softly behind me.

In the living room, the massive oil painting still hung in the center of the wall.

In it, we were holding each other tightly. Rhydian was nuzzling my forehead, his eyes full of devotion.

That was when we were most in love.

I stood before the painting, feeling like I was looking at the story of two strangers.

I was eighteen. My pack’s elders shoved me in front of some old Alpha who stank of stale whiskey.

"This marriage will get us the resources we desperately need, Calista," an elder said, his voice cold. "This is your duty."

The old Alpha reached out a rough hand to touch my face. I recoiled.

"I refuse."

"You don't have a choice," the elder sneered. "For the daughter of a minor pack, marrying an Alpha is a blessing."

At the engagement party, I was trapped in a restrictive white dress.

Everyone was celebrating. Except me.

"Run."

A voice whispered in my ear. It was Rhydian.

He grabbed my hand, his eyes burning with a young Alpha’s fury.

"Come with me."

The elder roared from behind us. "Rhydian! If you take her, you better protect her for life!"

He looked back, his gray-blue eyes blazing with an Alpha's absolute possessiveness.

"Then I'll protect her for life!"

We ran from the party. We ran from the family that treated me like a commodity.

He used all the prize money he’d ever won to rent the cheapest apartment in the city.

A tiny room, not even a hundred square feet, where the hot water was rationed.

He joined the pack's security force, taking the most dangerous jobs, coming home late at night covered in blood.

All to earn enough merit to let me stay by his side, officially.

At our lowest, we couldn't scrape together twenty dollars.

On New Year's Eve, we split a cheap pizza.

"When I become Alpha," he whispered, holding me, "I'm going to give you the world."

Back then, he only had eyes for me.

And he did it.

He became the Alpha, leader of the pack.

And my skill with numbers grew our pack’s treasury into an empire.

We moved into the Alpha's estate. I was carrying our first pup.

But that's when everything shattered.

At an Alpha Alliance summit, a rival drugged him. He ended up in bed with a strange Omega. Isla.

I pushed open the door to his suite... and saw the unthinkable.

When he sobered up, he fell to his knees in front of me. His eyes were wild with a panic and regret I'd never seen.

He gripped my hands, insisting he'd been set up. He swore he loved me. He loved our unborn pup.

"Calista, please. Just one more chance." He pressed his forehead to the back of my hand, his voice a raw whisper. "I swear, I'll never see her again. I'll fix this. I'll fix everything."

I saw his agony. I felt the raw regret pulsing through our mate bond. So I chose to believe him.

We had a pup on the way.

But just when I was at my most vulnerable, Isla clawed her way back into our lives through an act of self-harm.

Late one night, a sharp pain ripped through my abdomen. Rhydian took one phone call, and then he was gone.

A knot of dread tightened in my gut. I reached out through our bond, searching for him.

And found him. At a private clinic on the edge of town.

When I got there, I found him at her bedside. Isla, her wrists wrapped in thick gauze, was weeping softly in his arms.

"Rhydian, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you," she sobbed. "But I was all alone... I was so scared... I couldn't stop myself..."

And my Alpha, my mate, whispered back, "Shhh, don't be afraid. I'm here."

In that instant, a vicious cramp seized my stomach, and my vision swam with black spots. I gripped the doorframe for support, my eyes locked on him in disbelief.

"Rhydian," my voice trembled. "What about your promise?"

The color drained from his face when he saw me. He started toward me, but Isla clutched his shirt, refusing to let go.

The world tilted. The pain, the betrayal... it was too much. Everything went black as I collapsed.

Blood bloomed across my dress.

I lost our pup.

And in that moment, I shattered.

Back home, I dragged what was left of me into our bedroom and locked the door. Then I took out the silver ritual dagger.

My target wasn't an artery, but the mate mark on the back of my neck—the symbol of our eternal bond.

I wanted to destroy it, to forcibly tear us apart in the most painful way possible.

Silver poison flooded my veins. A burning agony washed over me, and I could feel our bond being tainted, shredded.

Through my fading consciousness, I heard the door being kicked open.

"Calista!"

Rhydian's voice was a raw, broken scream.

He was trembling, his face pale from the backlash of pain through our bond.

He rushed me to the pack's private hospital.

"Are you out of your mind?!" he roared from outside the emergency room. "She threatens to kill herself for attention, so you pull the same pathetic stunt? Calista, have you gone insane?! Stop making a scene! This isn't you! God, I am so disappointed in you!"

He grabbed my shoulders, his eyes bloodshot, and made a promise. "We can fix this. I swear, from now on, it will only be you!"

That was the day everything changed. The same day the Alpha Council found me, handing me a dusty file.

"Calista, the Council has re-examined the casualty list from the 'Blood Moon War' twenty years ago… Two of the legendary heroes on that list appear to have been your biological parents."

I held the file, my fingertips cold as ice.

After hanging up with Jaxon, I found myself drawn to the window.

Down in the garden, Rhydian was holding Isla's hand. Tears streamed down her face as she pleaded with him about something.

I couldn't hear the words, but I saw it all: the flash of impatience in his eyes, quickly smoothed over as he softened his tone, cooing at her like she was a temperamental pup.

His voice was low, but I read his lips as clearly as if he'd shouted the words at me:

"Calista's not well. I have to be with her. Isla, just be good for me. Go home. I'll come to you the second I'm free."

He gave her a soothing pat on the back, and she finally left, her sobs trailing behind her.

No kiss. No embrace. But that gentle, patient gesture sent a chill through me that was colder than any open act of passion.

In that moment, I finally understood.

Caring for me—his grieving, shattered mate—was a duty.

Comforting Isla was a desire.

Lying in that hospital bed, on the seventh day, it finally became clear.

I had to leave Rhydian. I had to sever this bond myself.