Chapter 5

Elowen's POV

Seraphina's voice followed us through the entrance.

"I'll be watching you, Elowen!"

I did not turn around.

I had spent too many years caring about what these people thought of me. That part of my life was over.

Beta Aldrin followed us inside.

"I am sorry about what happened."

I glanced at him.

"You do not need to apologize for her."

His expression became uncomfortable.

"I should have protected you better when you were here."

I stopped walking.

For a moment, I did not know what to say.

Then I gave him a small nod.

"Thank you."

We reached Calden's office.

Aldrin handed me the divorce documents.

I looked down at the papers.

Three years of marriage reduced to a few official pages.

I held them carefully.

"So this is really over."

"Yes."

I nodded.

"Good."

Aldrin looked at me.

"Do you want me to have your belongings packed?"

I shook my head.

"No."

He frowned.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. There is nothing here I want."

I looked around the office.

"Whatever I left behind can stay. Burn it, throw it away, I do not care."

Aldrin seemed surprised.

"You may regret losing some of those things."

"I will not."

I had already lost something much more valuable than clothes and jewelry.

I had lost three years of my life.

Nothing in this house could give those years back.

As we walked toward the door, Aldrin glanced at me.

"You and Miss Sterling seem close."

"We are."

"I did not know you knew someone from the Lightning Pack."

I smiled faintly.

"You would be surprised how much people can hide when nobody bothers to ask questions."

He looked thoughtful.

"True."

We continued down the hall.

Then Arabella suddenly stopped.

"Wait."

She looked down.

Seraphina's hand was still lying on the floor near the bottom of the stairs.

Arabella stepped over it, then deliberately placed her heel beside it.

Seraphina screamed.

"Oh!"

Arabella looked down innocently.

"Sorry. I didn't see your hand."

I covered my mouth to stop myself from laughing.

Aldrin looked away.

Arabella whispered, "Let's go."

We walked out together.

---

Calden's POV

I was in the middle of a meeting with the financial advisers when the mind link suddenly opened.

Beta Aldrin's voice came through.

"Alpha, there is a problem."

I immediately sat straighter.

"What happened?"

"Elowen returned to the territory with Arabella Sterling. There was an incident involving your mother."

My hand tightened around my coffee cup.

"What?"

The cup cracked.

I barely noticed.

I stood.

"Meeting adjourned."

One of the advisers tried to speak.

"Alpha, we still have..."

"Later."

I walked out.

As I moved through the corridors, I told myself that my urgency had nothing to do with Elowen.

She was my ex-wife.

The divorce had been her decision.

There was no reason for me to care what she did.

Yet my wolf reacted violently at the thought of her being in danger.

When I reached the main hall, I found my mother sitting on a chair, holding her hand.

Tears covered her face.

"Calden!"

I crouched beside her.

"What happened?"

She pointed toward the entrance.

"Elowen attacked me!"

I stared at her.

"She attacked you?"

"She pushed me down the stairs. That friend of hers stepped on my hand. They humiliated me in front of everyone."

I frowned.

"Why would she do that?"

"Because she has become arrogant. She thinks she is important now because she has some rich friend from the Lightning Pack."

My mother's voice became bitter.

"You need to punish them. And you should take back the money Elowen received from this family. She has no right to walk away with it."

I stood slowly.

Before I could respond, Aldrin's voice came through the mind link.

"Alpha, you need to hear what actually happened."

I closed my eyes briefly.

"Tell me."

"Your mother grabbed Elowen and tried to push her down the stairs. Elowen defended herself. Your mother lost her balance."

My eyes opened.

I looked at my mother.

"Is that true?"

She looked away.

"She provoked me."

"And Arabella?"

"Miss Sterling stepped on your mother's hand after the fall. It appeared intentional, but it happened after the attack."

I looked at my mother again.

She had stopped crying.

"Mother, did you try to hurt Elowen?"

"I was teaching her a lesson."

My voice became quieter.

"What lesson?"

She looked at me with disbelief.

"She needed to learn her place."

My stomach tightened.

"What did you mean?"

She hesitated.

Then she said, "During your marriage, I corrected her whenever she misbehaved."

"Corrected her?"

"She was disrespectful."

"What did you do?"

She looked away again.

"I disciplined her."

My voice dropped.

"How?"

Silence.

"Mother."

She finally answered.

"Sometimes I beat her."

The room seemed to go completely silent.

"You beat Elowen?"

"It was necessary."

I stared at her.

For the first time, memories began to rearrange themselves in my mind.

The long sleeves Elowen wore.

The way she avoided certain parts of the house.

The times she had looked frightened when my mother entered a room.

I had seen those things.

I had simply never cared enough to ask why.

"How many times?"

My mother lifted her chin.

"I don't remember."

I felt something cold settle in my chest.

"You hurt my wife."

"Your ex-wife," she corrected.

I looked at her.

"That does not make what you did acceptable."

She stared at me in shock.

I turned away.

Elowen had asked me for a divorce, and I had signed the papers without hesitation.

I had thought she was leaving because she no longer wanted the arrangement.

But now I wondered how much of her silence had come from fear.

How many times had she needed help while I was too busy protecting Thessaly?

How much had I failed to notice?

My wolf growled inside me.

For the first time, I understood that Elowen's disappearance was not simply an inconvenience.

She had escaped.

And perhaps she had every reason to never come back.

I looked toward the doors through which she had left.

"Where is she now?"

Aldrin answered through the mind link.

"She has already left the building."

My chest tightened.

I wanted to follow her.

I wanted to ask her why she had never told me.

But another voice inside me whispered the truth.

She had tried to tell me in a hundred different ways.

I simply had never listened.

I stood alone in the hall, staring at the empty doorway.

Three years ago, I had believed Elowen needed me.

Now she was gone.

And for the first time, I was the one left behind, wondering whether she would ever look back.