Chapter 4

Gavin POV

"Just sign the damn papers, Alpha Blackwood."

Her hollow words hung in the freezing air. My inner wolf thrashed against my ribs, howling in absolute, bleeding terror. But my Alpha ego-the arrogant shield that ruled the Blackwood Pack-refused to yield.

*She's bluffing,* I convinced myself. This was a Thorne Pack political play, a calculated extortion disguised as grief.

"Fifty million in offshore assets," I countered, my voice dropping into a cold, business-like sneer. "Take the money, Elara. Stop this pathetic tantrum."

She didn't blink. She looked at me as if I were a rotting corpse. "The Pack treaty strictly forbids land or asset division upon a severed bond. I don't want your money, Gavin. I want my soul back."

I snatched the heavy fountain pen and slashed my name across the bottom line, expecting her to finally crack, to beg for my forgiveness. But as I shoved the papers back, my blood ran cold. Her signature was already there. Perfect. Unwavering.

"That ambush took more than my pup," she murmured, her eyes dead. "And I am going to find out exactly who pulled the strings."

Before I could process the threat, a sharp, frantic spike of energy pierced my skull.

*Gavin! The news-what is happening?!*

Piper Holloway's mind-link felt like a parasite in my brain. I gritted my teeth and marched up the grand staircase, desperate to distance myself and hide my mental conversation.

*Did you leak the hotel recording, Piper?* I snarled through the link.

Her panicked, stuttering denials only cemented my disgust. She was a foolish, vain liability. I glanced over the banister. Elara stood in the foyer, watching my silent, furious retreat. She couldn't hear Piper, but the absolute contempt in her eyes told me she knew exactly who I was talking to.

The next morning, the Sunstone Clearing was suffocatingly cold. The ancient white stones felt like an executioner's block. Elara stood before the Pack Elders, her bags already packed.

My wolf was clawing at my throat, begging me to submit to her, but the Alpha could not show weakness before his Pack.

"I, Gavin Blackwood, accept your rejection," I choked out.

The agony was instantaneous. It felt as though a silver blade had been dragged down my spine, violently ripping my soul in half. I stumbled, gasping for air as the Mate-bond withered into ash. Elara's shoulders trembled for a fraction of a second, but her face remained a mask of ice.

"Leave my territory," I growled, my voice ragged with pain.

"Gladly," she whispered. "I left a parting gift for you on the dining table."

I didn't watch her walk away. A sickening, primal dread propelled me back to the manor. I burst into the cavernous dining hall. Resting on the mahogany table, right where the Rejection papers had been, was a single folded letter and a photograph of a blood-stained receipt pulled from a dead Rogue.

My hands shook violently as I unfolded the parchment.

*The Rogues who killed your heir were paid in Holloway Pack gold.*

The words hit me like a physical blow. The receipt confirmed it. I hadn't just broken my mate's heart. I had climbed into bed with the murderer of my own child.

The paper slipped from my numb fingers, fluttering to the floor.

"ELARA, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" I roared.