Chapter Forty: Matthias Crowe

Showing up with Nerissa was a mistake—I can admit that now. I acted out of anger, plain and simple. She said she wanted to come, and I let her. Meanwhile, Aurielle had locked herself in her room for three days, refusing food, refusing to speak. According to the staff, she hadn’t made a sound since the night she called me a wife beater.

That word… it hit harder than I expected. She said it to wound me, and it worked. Aurielle always knew how to twist things, how to cast herself as the victim and paint everyone else as villains in her melodrama. Still, I shouldn’t have retaliated by parading someone else in front of the entire pack before the ink on our divorce was even dry. That was shortsighted. It looked bad—really bad. The judgment was thick in the air, and no one was more obvious than Alpha Aldric.

The man had everything—respect, position, the approval of the entire council—and he still had the nerve to look down on me like I was some reckless pup. Worse, I swear he looked pleased.