Chapter 3

Cassian’s Alpha presence slammed down on me.

“Lyra, how far are you planning to take this?”

His anger struck my chest, and my back hit the medicine cabinet hard enough to send several glass bottles crashing down. One shard sliced my forearm, and blood slipped down my skin.

Seraphina remained on the floor with one hand pressed to her chest, breathing as if I had frightened her beyond words.

“Cassian, I’m fine,” she whispered. “I don’t think she meant to do it.”

Cassian bent to help her up, but his eyes stayed on me.

“She just came from the ceremony and felt unwell, and you still put your hands on her.”

I pressed my palm over the cut. The place where Seraphina’s wolfsbane needle had pierced my wrist had already gone numb. Nera growled inside my mind, desperate to tear through Seraphina’s innocent expression, but I stayed still.

“She stabbed me.”

Cassian’s eyes did not change.

“You expect me to believe that excuse again?”

Seraphina leaned against him, her voice trembling.

“Do not fight with her because of me. Tonight is your inheritance ceremony. Everyone is still waiting for you.”

Cassian’s jaw tightened. He looked at me as if I were a problem he had finally grown tired of tolerating.

“I do not care where you claim you are moving, and I do not care what application you think will threaten me. If you truly want to leave, then leave tonight.”

In my previous life, those words would have hurt enough to make me lose balance. This time, relief moved through my chest.

“All right.”

Cassian stared at me, clearly unprepared for agreement. His anger paused before a cold smile covered it.

“Do not make someone else come begging me to take you back.”

“I won’t.”

I bent to collect my medicine box. Broken glass cut into my fingertips, and I wiped the blood against my skirt without looking at him again.

Cassian lifted Seraphina into his arms and carried her out. As they passed me, she tilted her head slightly to look down at me.

After the door closed, I wrapped my forearm with torn cloth and gathered the salves that had not broken. The wolfsbane sting climbed from my wrist toward my elbow, and Nera’s growl weakened.

When I opened the door, two omega servants stood in the corridor. A younger girl stepped forward when she saw the blood on my arm.

“Lyra, do you need a healer?”

The older woman beside her caught her wrist.

“Don’t. Alpha Cassian was just sworn in tonight. Who would risk angering him for her?”

The younger girl stopped, her face paling. I shook my head and went to the pack infirmary myself.

In Raven Hollow, Cassian’s mood shaped everyone else’s courage. If he despised me, others ignored me. If he believed Seraphina, every explanation sounded like another lie.

The healer on duty frowned when he saw my arm and wrist. He smelled the wolfsbane and recognized the aftershock of Alpha pressure, yet he asked no questions. He cleaned the cut, pressed antidote herbs over the puncture mark, and placed a small bottle of pain tincture in my hand.

“Do not force a shift for the next two days. The poison in your wrist is not heavy, but if you leave it untreated, it will affect your wolf.”

“Thank you.”

His gaze flicked to the door before his voice dropped.

“The border healer cabin is old. Do not leave the windows open at night. It sits close to a rogue trail.”

When I returned to the Alpha House, the ceremony had not ended. Cheers still shook through the walls, and Cassian was likely receiving the pack oath.

I changed the broken leather case for a canvas bag and packed my mother’s herbal notebook, a few clothes, and the transfer form. Everything else could stay behind.

Before dawn, I left for the healer cabin near the northern border.

The cabin had been abandoned for years. The roof leaked, and dust coated the herb shelves. There were no servants nearby, and no pack girls whispering behind my back. The place was uncomfortable and far from respectable, but Cassian was not there.

For the next three days, I patched the roof, cleared the shelves, and sorted the herbs that could still be used. Ironwood Pack’s reply arrived on the third afternoon. They were willing to evaluate me as a temporary herbal assistant. Once the Moon Council approved my transfer, I could leave Raven Hollow for good.

That night, while I was nailing the last board over a gap in the roof, the mate link was forced open. Cassian’s voice hit my mind, rough with alcohol and anger.

“Lyra, where are you?”

My hand stilled around the hammer.

That voice had once made my heart race. If he had called my name through the bond in my previous life, I would have dropped everything and gone to him. Now it only irritated me.

“Alpha Cassian, what do you want?”

Silence followed. He had not expected me to call him by his title.

When he spoke again, his voice was colder.

“You moved out?”

“You told me not to let you see me again. I obeyed.”

“Do not use that tone with me.”

I set the hammer on the roof beside me and looked toward the dark line of trees.

“I do not have time to argue.”

Cassian gave a short laugh.

“Now you are obedient. You used to act like you were dying if you spent one day without seeing me. Since you want to disappear so badly, make sure you do it properly.”

“I’m working on it.”

His breathing grew heavier.

“Seraphina’s wrist still hurts. The healer said she was frightened and cannot sleep. Make her a calming draught and bring it to the Alpha House.”

For several seconds, I said nothing.

He had forced the mate link open, not because he had noticed I was injured and not because he cared where I had gone. He had reached for me because he needed me to clean up Seraphina’s trouble again.

“Alpha Cassian.”

“What?”

“Raven Hollow has three trained healers. Seraphina has her family physician. You also command an entire pack. Stop treating me like a medicine box you can summon whenever you want.”

Anger pressed against the mate link.

“Lyra, do not forget that you have not left Raven Hollow yet. As long as you belong to this pack, I am your Alpha.”

“Not for much longer.”

“You think Ironwood will take you? An Omega rejected by her own Alpha?”

“That is my problem.”

His voice dropped.

“If you ever want to come back, do not make this final.”

I looked down at the bruising around my wrist. The puncture from Seraphina’s needle still marked my skin.

In my previous life, I had always been afraid of making things final. I stepped back again and again until they locked me beneath the pack house, and even my death became only a footnote in their love story.

This time, I would not leave them another path back to me.

I built a wall inside my mind. Nera lifted her head and pressed her strength into mine for the first time. Together, we pushed the mate link away until Cassian’s voice struck the wall and failed to enter.

Before I sealed him out completely, I gave him my last answer.

“Do not worry. I will disappear properly.”

The night wind moved through the broken roof and stirred the paper packets of herbs beside me. My wrist still hurt, and my chest ached from forcing the mate link closed, but I could no longer hear Cassian’s voice.