Chapter 2

I left Alpha Hall under the eyes of half the pack.

The drums continued behind me. Cassian would receive Raven Hollow’s Alpha authority tonight, and Seraphina would sit close enough for everyone to understand what place she held in his life.

In my previous life, I had stood outside those doors and made excuses for him.

This time, I did not stop, and I did not look back.

I had planned to make the first declaration of the Moon Rejection Rite during the ceremony and reject Cassian before the whole pack. Since he would not even let me enter the hall, I needed another way.

When I returned to the Alpha House, I took off the dress I had prepared for the ceremony and pulled out every protective thread I had stitched into the cuffs.

They had been meant for Cassian.

For years, I had noticed everything that concerned him before anyone asked. When patrol rotations changed, I organized his border maps. When he complained that his new Alpha duties kept him awake, I brewed calming herbs and left them outside his study. When he said the old record room smelled of damp paper, I spent three nights sorting mildew-stained pack files until my hands were raw.

I once believed that if I stayed quiet enough and useful enough, he would eventually see me.

My last life had already given me the answer.

He did see me. He simply did not care.

I placed my birth mother’s herbal notebook, several jars of salve, and a few changes of clothes into an old leather case. Then I took the pack transfer form from my drawer. Ironwood Pack’s border healer station needed an assistant who knew old remedies. I had already filled out the application. I only needed to deliver it to the Moon Council contact.

The door opened without a knock.

Cassian walked in wearing the formal coat from the ceremony. The collar sat crooked against his throat, and the scent of wine and burning pine resin followed him into the room.

His gaze dropped to my case.

“What scene are you staging now?”

I closed the clasp on my medicine box and did not answer at once.

Cassian stepped closer. Alpha pressure rolled through the room. The lock on my case snapped open, and clothes, papers, and small medicine jars spilled across the floor. A jar of burn salve rolled to the toe of his polished boot.

He looked down at it without a trace of apology.

“How old are you, Lyra?” he asked. “You get turned away from one ceremony, so you pack a bag? Do you think threatening to leave will force me to claim you as my mate?”

I crouched to collect the jars.

“I am not threatening you.”

“You have done this for years.” His voice hardened. “You stop eating, hide in corners, act injured, and wait for someone to tell me you are falling apart. Are you not tired of it?”

My fingers paused over the broken clasp.

So that was what he believed. Every fever, every wound, every night I spent alone had been another performance to him.

I placed the last jar back into the medicine box and looked up.

“I am packing because I am moving to the healer cabin near the border. I am also submitting my transfer request to the Moon Council.”

Cassian laughed once.

“You want to leave Raven Hollow?”

“Yes.”

“An Omega who can barely hold a steady shift wants to live at the border?”

His eyes moved over me as if he were judging how long something weak could last without shelter.

“Do not dress a tantrum up as a plan. There are rogues at the border. There are wolves who do not care about pack law. You would not survive three days.”

I did not argue.

In my previous life, I had wasted too much breath trying to prove that I was not what he thought I was. I explained that I had never cursed Seraphina. I explained that I had never tried to use the mate bond to trap him. I explained that I only wanted him to hear me once.

None of it mattered.

Cassian believed whatever made it easiest for him to hate me.

Soft footsteps sounded in the corridor.

Seraphina appeared in the doorway. She had removed her ceremonial cloak and now wore a pale dress with the Voss family moonstone resting at her throat. Her gaze touched the open case, the spilled clothes, and the medicine jars. For one brief second, satisfaction flickered in her eyes before concern replaced it.

“Cassian,” she said gently, touching his arm, “do not speak to her like that. Lyra must be hurt after what happened tonight. She always wanted to attend your inheritance ceremony.”

Cassian’s expression darkened.

Seraphina turned to me. Her voice softened into something that would sound kind to anyone who did not know her.

“Lyra, if you truly wanted to come inside, you could have spoken to Cassian properly. The mate bond is still there. He would never completely abandon you.”

She let her eyes fall to my open case.

“But running away once can be grief. Doing it again and again starts to look like a way to make him bow his head.”

I watched her.

Seraphina had always worked this way. She rarely raised her voice and almost never struck first in front of others. She only needed a few careful words to turn my pain into manipulation and my fear into guilt.

Cassian would do the rest for her.

His gaze became colder.

“Do you hear that?” he said. “Even Seraphina is trying to defend you. How long do you plan to keep pretending?”

I slid the transfer form into the inner pocket of the medicine box.

“I told you. I am not pretending.”

Seraphina sighed and stepped toward me.

“The border really is dangerous. You have no family behind you, and your wolf is not strong. What happens if rogues find you?”

“That will be my problem.”

She reached for my wrist as if she meant to stop me from leaving.

Cassian stood behind her. From where he was, he could not see her hand.

A needle slipped from the ring on her finger and pierced my skin. The scent of wolfsbane hit me at once, bitter and sharp enough to make my vision flash.

Nera snarled in my mind.

Pain burst through my wrist, and instinct took over. I tore my arm away from Seraphina.

She moved with the pull, stepped back against the chair, and dropped to the floor. Her moonstone pendant slid from her dress, and her eyes filled with tears before the first breath of silence passed.

“Lyra…”

Her voice trembled as she looked up at me.

“I was only worried about you.”