Serve Me Cake, Set Me Free

On my fifteenth birthday, I begged my mom to teach me how to make a cream cake from scratch.

We only had cream at home. No flour. So we went out to buy some.

When we came back, we didn't walk into a birthday surprise.

We walked in on my father pressing a strange she-wolf down onto the dining table.

Cream was smeared all over her bare body.

That night ended with my parents signing the Mating Dissolution Agreement.

From that day on, cake became my nightmare, a taboo I could never touch.

The night I mated with Alpha Kaelen of the Shadow Pack, amidst the pain and pleasure of his marking bite, I whispered in his ear.

"Honey, if you ever want to end our mating, just bring me a cake."

He frowned, his eyes burning with possessiveness, and kissed the words away.

"Don't talk nonsense, Seraphina. You are my fated mate. How could I ever let you go?"

Later, on his birthday, his intern secretary Elena ordered a three-tier luxury cake.

Kaelen went into a rage, throwing both the cake and the intern out the front door.

Back then, I was moved, even telling him not to be so harsh on a low-ranking wolf for my sake.

But six months later, Elena had been promoted to Kaelen's personal assistant.

On my birthday, she walked into my laboratory, swinging her hips, holding a burnt, homemade cake.

I called Kaelen, asking him to remove the provocative item.

On the other end of the line,his tone was casual.

"Elena put her heart into making that for you. It would be cruel to throw it away. Be a good girl, don't be so sensitive. Have the grace of a Luna."

The phone slipped from my hand.

It turned out my mother wasn't wrong.

Cake really is best served with a side of rejection papers.

...

Elena left the burnt cake on my desk, along with a pregnancy report, before strutting out like a victorious queen.

I looked at the report.

Twelve weeks.

My wolf, Kira, let out a low, mournful whimper in my mind.

Three months ago, the Shadow Pack needed a new resistance elixir against the Silver Rot disease.

Kaelen told me that nurturing a pup would drain my spiritual essence, causing the potion to fail.

So, for the sake of the pack, I injected a high-concentration inhibitor into my veins.

I forcefully shut down my own ovulation cycle to ensure I wouldn't conceive.

Three months later, he had planted his seed in another woman.

Twelve weeks. The timing was a cruel joke.

While I was breathing in toxic fumes in the lab day and night to save his pack, Kaelen was bringing Elena into our bedroom.

The sofa, the balcony, even the space in front of our mating ceremony photos—everything reeked of their scent.

The bedroom that once felt safe now made me want to vomit.

I heard movement at the entryway.

Kaelen walked in, smelling of alcohol.

He frowned slightly when he saw the cake, seemingly remembering something, but quickly relaxed and hugged me from behind.

He pulled out a velvet box and held it in front of me, his voice low and magnetic.

"It's the latest diamond necklace. Do you like it?"

"It's past midnight, Kaelen. It's not my birthday anymore."

I glanced at the necklace, feeling nothing but a desolate emptiness.

I wasn't fond of jewelry, but this necklace looked incredibly familiar.

Elena had flaunted an identical one in front of me this afternoon.

Was this a wholesale deal, or just a buy-one-get-one-free afterthought?

Did it matter?

No, it didn't matter anymore.

I suppressed the nausea rising in my chest and turned to face him calmly.

"We need to talk."

Kaelen assumed I was still angry about the cake.

A flash of annoyance crossed his eyes, and he let go of me.

"The girl just wanted to give you a surprise. She didn't know about your trauma. Besides, I already scolded her verbally."

"Seraphina, stop making a scene, okay? Managing the pack is exhausting."

He rubbed his temples, looking tired, acting as if I were truly an unreasonable, crazy woman.

I wanted to say more, but his phone suddenly buzzed.

He glanced at the screen, and the exhaustion on his face instantly vanished, replaced by a look of eager anticipation.

He couldn't wait to pick up the phone and reply to the message, a smile playing on his lips as he walked straight to the bedroom.

Watching his broad back, I smiled.

But the smile didn't reach my eyes.

We had loved each other for ten years, been mated for seven.

We went from having nothing to ruling a powerful territory.

But Kaelen was no longer the boy who would stay up all night guarding me during the full moon.

The current Alpha Kaelen no longer had time for me.