Chapter 2

Vivienne moved into the room beside ours.

Within a week, the entire pack house had rearranged itself around her.

Kael assigned two guards to her door. He had the kitchen prepare separate meals for her — soft foods, herbal teas, things an omega in recovery supposedly needed.

No one had prepared anything for me when I'd miscarried last winter.

I had bled alone in the bathroom while Kael was at a council meeting. When he came home, he told me it was "probably for the best" — that we weren't ready for pups.

I never brought it up again.

Now, I watched him carry a tray to Vivienne's room, a bowl of bone broth and fresh bread arranged neatly. He knocked on her door with a gentleness that made my chest crack.

"How are you feeling?" I heard him ask.

Her voice was a whisper. "Better, now that you're here."

I turned away.

That evening, I was reviewing border patrol reports when my wolf suddenly lurched inside me.

The bond.

It flickered — weak, fraying, like a thread being pulled from both ends.

I pressed my hand to my mark. The skin was hot, inflamed.

A rejection in progress. Slow. Deliberate.

He was rejecting me — not with words, but with every touch he gave her, every moment he chose her.

The bond knew before I did.

My phone buzzed. A message from my younger sister, Mira.

"Happy anniversary, sis! One year mated to the Blood Ridge Alpha! Tell Kael I said hi. Did he do anything romantic?"

I stared at the message for a long time.

Then I typed: "He surprised me."

I wasn't lying.

Later that night, Kael came to our room. He didn't get into bed. He stood by the window, arms crossed.

"The council wants to hold a pack banquet next week," he said. "To formally welcome Vivienne."

"A banquet," I repeated.

"She's been through a lot. She deserves to feel welcomed."

I thought about my own welcome ceremony. It had been small — just Kael and two witnesses. He'd said large events were "unnecessary."

"Fine," I said.

Kael glanced at me, almost suspicious.

"You're not going to argue?"

"Would it change anything?"

For a moment, something flickered in his eyes. Confusion, maybe.

Then Vivienne's soft knock came at the door.

"Kael? I had a nightmare. Can you... stay for a while?"

He was out the door before she finished the sentence.

I lay in the dark, listening to their muffled conversation through the wall.

My wolf howled inside me — not in rage, but in grief.

I pressed my face into the pillow and made a decision.

Tomorrow, I would visit the Elder.

I needed to know how to sever a mate-bond.

Permanently.