Chapter 4

Ironwood Pack’s evaluation notice arrived on the fourth morning.

Their border healer station had reviewed my herb records, wound reports, and work restoring old remedy notes.

The last line read:

If the Moon Council approves the pack transfer, Ironwood will accept Lyra Rowan as a temporary healer apprentice.

I stared at that line for a long time.

What I had wanted most was never really Cassian’s love. I wanted a place I did not have to earn by pleasing someone else.

That afternoon, I sorted the herbs still usable in the border cabin and prepared to deliver the final documents to the Council contact. I had barely reached the forest path when Cassian forced the mate link open again.

“Return to the Alpha House.”

I pressed my fingers to my temple.

“I’m busy.”

“My parents are back. They want to see you.”

Alistair and Eleanor.

Those names silenced me for a moment. They were not my blood, but they had brought me into Raven Hollow when I had no one. In my previous life, they had failed to save me. At least they had tried.

“I will come back to see them,” I said. “Not because you ordered it.”

Cassian cut the link without answering.

By evening, I returned to the Alpha House.

Four people sat in the dining room. Former Alpha Alistair, former Luna Eleanor, Cassian, and Seraphina.

Eleanor’s face changed as soon as she saw the bandage around my wrist.

“Lyra, you’re hurt?”

“It’s minor.”

Cassian looked away. Seraphina sat beside him with her own wrist wrapped in clean gauze, somehow looking more wounded than I did.

Alistair’s voice was low. “Reed said you were barred from the inheritance ceremony and moved to the border cabin. Cassian, what happened?”

Cassian set down his glass.

“She wanted attention.”

Eleanor’s gaze sharpened.

“She is your fated mate.”

“I did not choose that.”

Silence fell over the table.

I had heard that sentence too many times in my last life. Back then, each time had cut through the mate bond like a blade. It still hurt, but it no longer stopped me.

I looked at Alistair and Eleanor.

“I came back to tell you something in person.”

Eleanor’s fingers tightened.

“Lyra…”

“I am applying to the Moon Council for a Moon Rejection Rite.” I did not look at Cassian. “I am willing to endure the rejection pain and accept every consequence of leaving Raven Hollow.”

Alistair frowned.

“A formal rejection is not only a sentence. Cassian must accept it, or the bond will remain torn. Both of you will suffer.”

“I know.”

“And you still want this?”

“Yes.”

Eleanor’s eyes reddened, but she did not tell me to endure. She looked at the bandage on my wrist, then at Cassian and Seraphina.

“You have decided?”

“I have.”

Cassian finally looked at me. Cold amusement touched his mouth, as if he had heard something absurd.

“You think this will force me to acknowledge you?”

“I am informing you that I no longer want you.”

His expression shifted.

Seraphina touched his arm.

“Cassian, do not be angry. Lyra is still upset. Once she calms down, she will realize she cannot leave Raven Hollow.”

I did not answer her.

I had not come here to win an argument over dinner. I had come for the last herbal journal my mother left me. After that, I would submit the transfer materials to the Council contact.

“I’m going to collect something,” I told Eleanor. “Then I’ll leave.”

Eleanor started to rise, but I shook my head.

“I’ll be quick.”

My old room upstairs remained as I had left it. Half the herb shelves were empty, and the closet held only a few clothes that no longer fit. My mother’s journal was hidden beneath a loose floorboard under the bed. The cover was worn, and her notes still marked the corners.

I placed the journal in my medicine box. When I turned, Seraphina stood in the doorway.

She closed the door, and the softness left her face.

“You are really leaving?”

“Yes.”

“You think Cassian will chase you after you leave?”

I watched her in silence.

She stepped closer and lowered her voice.

“What if the Moon Goddess gave you the bond? Cassian does not want you. The whole pack knows he only wants me.”

“Then you should be pleased.”

Her eyes cooled.

“I am. But as long as the bond exists, you remain the stain in front of me.”

She drew a short blade from her sleeve.

It was a ritual silver blade, its edge smeared with black curse residue. It was not meant to kill, not immediately. It would make the wound look corrupted and leave every wolf smelling silver mixed with cursework.

I stepped back at once.

“Seraphina, stop playing this game.”

She caught my wrist, forced the hilt into my palm, and dragged the blade across her own arm.

Blood spilled, and she screamed.

“Help! Lyra is trying to kill me!”

Footsteps rushed down the hall.

Cassian entered first. He saw the silver blade in my hand, the blackened blood on Seraphina’s arm, and Seraphina shaking on the floor.

He did not ask what happened.

Alpha power burst through the small room. His palm struck my face before I could speak.

Pain flashed through my cheek, and blood filled my mouth. My medicine box fell, and my mother’s journal slid across the floor.

Eleanor’s voice came from the doorway.

“Cassian!”

Alistair arrived behind her, his face grim.

Seraphina leaned against the wall, crying hard.

“I only wanted to convince her to stay. Then she pulled out that blade…”

Cassian stood between us. He looked at me as if I were a rogue that had slipped into his home.

“How many times are you going to hurt her?”

I wiped blood from my mouth.

Nera roared in my mind, her strength striking my ribs with every breath. In my previous life, I would have explained. I would have begged them to check the scent on the hilt and begged Cassian to believe me once.

This time, I bent down, picked up my mother’s journal, and placed it back into the medicine box.

Cassian’s voice sharpened.

“You are still pretending?”

I looked at him and slapped him.

The sound was not loud, but it silenced the room.

Cassian froze. Seraphina forgot to keep crying.

My hand stung. I held Cassian’s gaze.

“From today on, I will no longer stand between you and Seraphina.”

His face darkened.

I continued, “I, Lyra Rowan, under the witness of the Moon Goddess, reject you, Cassian Draven, as my fated mate.”

The mate bond tore open in my chest.

Pain nearly took my knees, but I did not look away.

“You can accept it, or you can keep dragging this bond until it rots.”

I tightened my grip on the medicine box.

“But I will never belong to you again.”