Chapter 4

Selene POV:

I swung my legs out of bed, the fury from my friend's message giving me a sliver of strength. Fine. Let's see how he treats his property.

When I walked downstairs, Isabella was the first to greet me, her smile sickeningly sweet.

"Selene, sister, you're awake!" she chirped. "Lycan was so worried about your stomach after all that drinking. He made you some Blood-Deer porridge with his own hands."

She gestured toward the dining table, where a single, steaming bowl sat waiting.

My friend's words echoed in my mind. "Pure Alpha rage... his property..."

This porridge wasn't an apology. It was a test. A power play. He was showing me, and her, who he was choosing to appease this morning.

I walked to the table, my heart beating a slow, hard rhythm. I looked down at the rich, dark porridge in the bowl.

And then, I froze.

The scent hit me. The metallic, gamey aroma of Blood-Deer.

The last of my foolish hope didn't just flicker and die. It was violently extinguished, leaving me cold and hollow.

I looked up, my eyes meeting Lycan's as he walked into the room. He had a faint, expectant smile on his face.

My own face was a mask of ice.

"I don't eat Blood-Deer, Lycan," I said, my voice chillingly calm. "You know this. My bloodline has a natural rejection to its energy. It makes me ill."

The silence that fell over the room was absolute. It was a fundamental fact about me, a detail so ingrained in my biology that it was like knowing the color of my eyes. A thing a mate could never, ever forget. But he hadn't forgotten. He had simply chosen not to care.

I saw the flash of pure, wicked triumph in Isabella's eyes before she hid it. I saw the annoyance on Lycan's face as his grand gesture was thrown back at him.

He hadn't cooked for me.

Blood-Deer porridge was Isabella's favorite breakfast.

"Fine," he stammered, his face flushing with irritation. "I'll have the kitchens make you something else."

"Don't bother," I said, turning on my heel. "I've lost my appetite."

I went back to our room and straight to my jewelry box. I was leaving, for good this time, and I would not leave without the one thing that truly mattered.

I rummaged through the velvet trays, pushing aside diamonds and sapphires he had bought me. They meant nothing. I was looking for the necklace my mother had given me, the one passed down through generations of Silvermoon Lunas.

It wasn't there.

My heart began to pound with a new kind of panic. I searched frantically, my hands shaking. As I looked up in desperation, my eyes caught my reflection in the full-length mirror. And behind me, standing in the doorway, was Isabella.

Her hand was unconsciously drifting to her neck, a small, guilty gesture.

I moved toward her, my eyes narrowed. "What are you hiding?"

I didn't wait for an answer. I reached out and yanked down the collar of her high-necked dress.

There, lying against her skin, was my necklace. The large, central Moonstone pulsed with its signature, ethereal silver-blue light, a light that was as unique as a fingerprint. A light that belonged to me.

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