Chapter 4

Seraphina POV:

The next few days were a blur of suffocating silence. Kaelan didn't come home. He didn't even send a mind-link. The sprawling Alpha's manor, which had always felt like a gilded cage, now felt like a tomb.

Livia, however, made her presence known. She broadcasted her happiness across the pack's mental network-a constant stream of smug, joyful images. Livia and Kaelan laughing at a cafe. Kaelan helping her move boxes into the lakeside villa. Kaelan's hand resting possessively on her waist. She made sure to direct the most intimate flashes towards me, a deliberate, psychological torture.

The pain, once a sharp, stabbing agony, slowly dulled into a cold, heavy numbness. I stopped waiting. I stopped hoping. I started to clean.

I walked into the grand living room and my eyes fell on the large tapestry hanging over the fireplace. It depicted the Moon Goddess, her silver light shining down on two wolves. It was the only object in the entire house that symbolized our "relationship." With methodical calm, I climbed onto a chair, unhooked the heavy fabric, and folded it away.

Next, I went through my room, gathering the few "gifts" Kaelan had given me over the years. They were always compensation for some cruelty Livia had inflicted, or for a holiday he had spent with her instead of me. A bracelet, a silk scarf, a book of poetry. Meaningless trinkets. I packed them all into a cardboard box.

As I pushed the box into the back of my closet, my hand brushed against a loose panel in the wall. I frowned, pressing on it. It clicked open, revealing a dark, dusty space I never knew existed. A secret room.

My breath hitched.

The room was filled with my offerings. For seven years, on every full moon, I had performed a private ritual. I would craft a small token-a carved piece of wood, a woven charm of herbs, a painted stone-and pour my energy, my hope, my love into it, praying to the Moon Goddess for Kaelan's health, his happiness, his success. I had always left them on the altar in the manor's prayer garden, assuming the servants cleared them away.

But they were all here. Every single one. Thrown into this dark, forgotten closet, piled in a corner like garbage. They hadn't even been unwrapped. Seven years of devotion, of pouring my soul into these little tokens of love, had been dismissed and discarded without a single glance.

My heart didn't break. It simply turned to ice. There were no tears left to cry. The numbness was absolute.

I stood there in the dark, surrounded by the proof of my own foolishness, when his voice suddenly broke into my mind. It was no longer apologetic or soft. It was the voice of the Alpha.

"Livia is having a housewarming party at her new villa tonight. You will attend."

There was a pause, as if he felt the need to justify the command.

"She... insisted you be invited. The pack car is waiting for you outside."

He was just the messenger for her cruelty. He was ordering me to go celebrate the woman who had taken my place, in the home that should have been ours.

A bitter, humorless smile touched my lips. I closed the door to the secret room, leaving my dead dreams in the dark.

"Of course, Alpha," I sent back, my mental voice as cold and empty as my heart. "I'll be right down."