Chapter 4

Before I could answer, Lydia laughed softly beside him.

"Evelyn loves you too much to leave. She only wants you to pay more attention to her. Once you go home and hold her, she'll withdraw the application."

Caden accepted her explanation, and his voice hardened.

"Threatening to leave the pack only disappoints me. Keep this up, and tomorrow's mating ceremony is canceled for good. Blackridge is where you were born. Without your family or me, where would you even go?"

"All right. Cancel it."

He had been waiting for an apology. My agreement left him silent instead. Lydia began coughing again, and he only managed to say that he would contact me later before ending the link.

I submitted the dissolution of my mate contract, my application to leave the pack, and a declaration severing my blood ties to the Moon Council. I also accepted the chief investigator position that had opened in Frost River Pack. They had first invited me three years earlier, but I had stayed for Caden and my family. The offer was still waiting.

The Council officer reviewing my case asked whether every decision was voluntary. She warned me that once the bloodline declaration took effect, my parents and Noah would lose the right to summon me. Caden would also lose any power to demand my return through the pup's blood.

I signed each confirmation and waived the temporary period for withdrawal.

My pregnancy report went into the final file. I was twelve weeks pregnant. I asked the Council to remove Caden's and the Hart family's right to track the child, and I refused to disclose my route north.

A Council medical investigator stopped me: Lydia's healer had confessed to taking payment for a false terminal diagnosis, and the Council wanted to summon her.

"Then summon her," I said. "I have a border to cross."

Before leaving, I delivered the moonstone reconstruction records from Lydia's ceremony to Pack Security.

I left the key to the Alpha residence and the Hart family crest at the old house. I packed none of the gifts Caden had given me. I took only my work files and a few changes of clothes, then closed every private link.

The Council would serve the documents once I crossed the territorial border.

That evening, Caden waited at the open-air moon circle for our mating ceremony. He had kept every arrangement, certain I would return and apologize. My parents received the elders, Noah watched the entrance, and Lydia sat beside the altar wearing Caden's ring.

After Caden's summons went unanswered, my mother called me selfish and unreasonable. Father ordered the registrar to delay the vows, while Noah insisted I would arrive before the candles burned out.

For some reason, unease stirred in Caden's chest.

Perhaps it was because of Lydia's illness.

The wolfsbane poisoning was terminal.

Whenever he thought of that kind girl slowly withering away, a suffocating ache seized his chest.

Noah had said it more than once.

"Why does a girl as good as Lydia have to suffer like this? If only that vicious Evelyn could die in her place!"

Caden let out a deep sigh at the memory.

"The mating ceremony is about to begin, and Evelyn still isn't here. She really thinks she can do whatever she wants!" My parents took turns calling me, only to discover that they had been blocked.

Noah tried my number next. Blocked, too.

"That crazy she-wolf!"

Muttering under his breath, Noah began calling everyone he knew who might have contact with me.

Caden tried as well. Nothing.

Before the unease in his chest could grow into panic, the doors opened and a Moon Council envoy walked in.

"Which one of you is Caden? And which is Noah?"

Caden stepped forward. The envoy handed him a stack of documents.

"Evelyn Hart asked that these be served after she crossed the northern border."

Caden glanced down.

My mate-contract dissolution.

My pack-withdrawal certificate.

My bloodline severance declaration.

Assuming I was throwing another tantrum, Caden tossed the papers aside.

Then he saw the document underneath them. His gaze froze.

[Pregnancy Report]

The envoy's expression remained impassive.

"Attached is an order revoking all your claims over Evelyn Hart's pup."

Caden stared at the report, his fingers beginning to tremble.

"No. This can't be…"