Chapter 2

My father snorted.

"Banish us? She wouldn't dare!" he snarled. His voice dripped with an arrogant confidence. "We're her parents! Isolde is dying. What's a small sacrifice for her sister to make? How can she be so petty over a single ceremony!"

I floated at the ceiling, watching them. Expressionless.

A bitter laugh echoed in my soul.

Cold-blooded?

It's almost funny. I was almost glad I was dead.

If I were alive, hearing my own father say that… how much would that have hurt?

Now, they just looked pathetic.

Two weeks later, the vacation was over.

The family returned to the Silver Creek Pack lands.

Isolde, of course, moved in with Kian. Right into the Alpha's wing of the Pack House.

She didn't just take my place. She'd even dug out my favorite silk lounge set and was wearing it like she owned the place.

Kian walked through the door.

He tore at his tie, his eyes scanning the hall.

My slippers weren't by the door. The air didn't have my scent.

He walked all the way to the back garden. To my sunroom. And just… stared. His eyes were empty.

That garden was my sanctuary. I grew rare wolfsbane antidotes there. I was the Pack Healer. It took me three years to cultivate them.

"Kian, what are you looking at?"

Isolde padded over, barefoot. She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind.

She followed his gaze to the garden and wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"This whole place smells like Freya. It’s disgusting." She looked up, her eyes instantly wet with fake tears. Her voice was a whiny, cloying mess. "Kian, I'm your Luna now, right? Can't you tear this down? Build me a private spa instead?"

Kian's jaw tightened. He pushed her off without a second thought.

"No. Freya is still my Mate. This is her life's work. No one touches it."

"But she didn't even come to our ceremony! She doesn't respect you!"

Isolde clutched her chest, gasping for air. Tears streamed down her face.

"How many days do I have left with this broken body? The doctor said the soil from these herbs could make my infection worse… Do you still love her? Are you just waiting for me to die?"

Looking at her fragile, swaying act, the resistance in Kian's eyes faded into weary defeat.

"Stop crying." He closed his eyes, his voice strained. "I'll have the workers move the herbs to the greenhouse. They won't be damaged."

But less than a day later, Isolde used the "risk of infection" as an excuse. She ordered the workers to destroy the entire sunroom.

My precious herbs, my hard work, were ripped out by the roots and thrown in the mud like trash.

The space that held my pride was gone. Erased.

Kian stood in the wreckage. His face was a thundercloud. His fists were clenched so tight his knuckles were white. But he didn't say a word to the "weak" Isolde.

Just as a worker was about to toss my shelving unit, Kian lunged forward.

He snatched a small, obsidian wolf carving from the shelf. He shoved it deep into his coat pocket.

It was the gift I carved for him when we first confirmed our bond.

I watched his sneaky, self-deceiving little act. It was pathetic.

The next day, top floor of Pack HQ. The conference room.

The tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. No one dared to breathe.

"Alpha, the northern border treaty is falling apart," the Beta said, wiping sweat from his brow. His voice shook. "They're insisting on working with Freya, but she's been missing for two weeks. She's missed key meetings. They think we're not serious. They're about to pull out."

Kian's face went white with rage.

CRACK!

He slammed his fist on the conference table. Wood splintered. A deep crack shot across the surface.

"How long is she going to hide?!"

Kian gritted his teeth. His Alpha power flared, not from anger, but from pure, unadulterated panic.

"She wants to use work to force my hand? Fine. She's got it."

He yanked a laptop towards him. Logged into the Pack's internal network. His fingers hammered the keyboard.

Kian hit 'Send'. The all-pack message flashed on the screen.

Freya is stripped of her titles. She is no longer our Healer. She has nothing until she crawls back and apologizes.

He leaned back heavily in his chair, covering his face with his hands.

He thought this would break me.

He thought cutting off my power, my status, would force me to come crawling back to him.

He thought in a few days, I'd storm into his office, screaming at him. And he could finally pull me into his arms.

I slowly lowered my head. I brought my transparent hand to my flat stomach.

A life was once growing here. Barely a month old.

The purest Alpha bloodline.

I was going to put the pregnancy test on his pillow that night. The world's greatest surprise.

Now… there would be no more surprises.