Chapter 4

Kael did not ask to see the page again.

He only glanced at the closed notebook in my hands and said, almost lazily, “Ninety-nine already. You really do remember everything.”

Then he picked up the moonstone bracelet Liora had dropped earlier and slipped it into his pocket.

“Tomorrow you’re coming with us to choose Liora’s ceremony gown.”

“You’ve done it before. You’ll know what suits her.”

I almost laughed.

Months ago, when I asked him to come choose mine, he found excuse after excuse not to.

Now he wanted me there for hers.

I only nodded.

The gown house was full of warmth, silk, and perfume.

The attendants began whispering the moment we entered.

“I thought Mira was going to be Luna.”

“Look at Alpha Kael now. Clearly Liora is the one he wants.”

“Then why is Mira still here? If I were her, I’d be too ashamed to follow them around.”

Kael’s face went cold.

“Enough.”

“You’re all dismissed. Leave before I decide your families should leave this territory with you.”

They went pale and hurried out.

Then Kael turned to me, his voice lower.

“The Luna’s place has always been yours.”

“This is only a ceremony for her. Don’t overthink it.”

I looked at him and said nothing.

Liora tried on gown after gown while Kael praised every turn, every smile, every breath.

Then, when she grew bored, she turned to me and said sweetly, “Mira, you try one on.”

Before Kael could speak, I took the gown from her and went into the dressing room.

He looked startled.

When I stepped out, the whole room fell silent.

Bruises.

Silver scars.

Arrow wounds that had never properly healed.

The torn flesh at my shoulder.

The long hard mark across my side.

Liora shrieked and staggered back.

“Kael, what is that? It’s disgusting!”

He looked at me, and irritation rose in his face at once.

“Enough.”

“Put it back on properly.”

“Do not do this here.”

His gaze moved across the wounds and hardened further.

“Your wolf was never this weak before. If those marks are still there, then it is because you chose to show them.”

“If you think limping out like this will frighten her and win you sympathy, it won’t.”

He think that I was making a display of my wounds to ruin Liora’s fitting.

I pulled the gown off in silence.

Liora rejected every gown in the room. Kael bought them all anyway.

While they argued over silk and beadwork, I found a pale blue dress hanging in the back.

Nia would have liked it.

At least, that was what I thought until Liora snatched it from my hands and laughed.

“What is this for?You still think your sister will have a chance to wear pretty things?”

“What did you say?”

Liora smiled and unlocked her phone.

The photo showed Nia lying in a pool of blood, her small face pale, her eyes closed, her body covered in bandages.

“She’s dead, Mira.”

“She died calling for you.”

Then something inside me snapped.

I slammed Liora into the wall and closed my hands around her throat.

She screamed at once.

“Kael! Help me!”

The next moment, Kael struck me hard enough to throw me across the room.

By the time I looked up, he was already standing in front of Liora with a dagger in hand, the point aimed between my brows.

“Mira.Have you lost your mind?”

Behind him, Liora clung to his sleeve and sobbed.

“She tried to kill me…”

Kael’s eyes turned colder.

“If you touch her again, I’ll end you myself.”

Then I reached up, grabbed his wrist, and pushed the blade harder against my own forehead.

Blood slid down between my brows.

“Then do it.Kill me.”

Kael froze.

The anger on his face cracked for the first time.

He looked at the blood on my forehead, then at my eyes, and something stiff and unnatural crossed his expression.

But only for a second.

Then he lowered the dagger.

“You’re too emotional right now.Take her to the lower cellar.Let her cool down.”

He had me locked in the lower cellar.

According to the guards outside, Kael spent the next two days preparing a human-style wedding for Liora.

Not a public claim.

Not a mark.

Just flowers, silk, witnesses, and the illusion of devotion.

I sat on the floor with the broken moonstone cuff in my lap until there were no tears left.

Kael.

I should have left much sooner.

I should have regretted being saved by you the moment it happened.

Maybe then Nia would not have suffered so cruelly.

The cellar door burst open.

Kael stepped in and tossed a frost-steel dagger at my feet.

“There’s a trade run tomorrow. You’re taking my place.”

“Liora doesn’t want status. She only wanted a ceremony to make up for what she never had. Tomorrow is a favorable moon. I won’t miss it.”

One of the guards actually dared to speak.

“Alpha, her wounds still aren’t closed. Her wolf is failing. If she goes out in this condition, she may die on that road.”

Kael did not even look at him.

“She knows exactly how much to show when she wants pity.”

“If she were truly at death’s edge, she would not still be standing.”

Then he looked at me.

I bent, picked up the blade, and rose.

This run would either take me out of his hands forever, or it would kill me.

Either way, I would not come back to him the same.

“I’ll go.”

Then he smiled, relieved.

He came closer, almost gentle now.

“When you return, we’ll complete the mark ceremony.”

“You’ve been by my side all these years. The Luna’s place will always be yours.”

I only looked at him.

The next day, Kael walked Liora down a flower-lined aisle in the main hall.

And I led his men out through the gates with steel in hand and no intention of coming back.

Kael, whether I lived or died on that run, you and I were finished.

⸻