At the hallway outside my room, Gareth stood like a shadow. He was watching, waiting. Normally, a slap to the Alpha of the Grey Wind Pack would make him furious. But after what I said yesterday, even he knew he had crossed a line. He took that slap without a word.
His eyes narrowed as he took in the boxes, the folded clothes, the empty perfume stands. When he noticed my old painted portraits thrown into the trash beside torn journals, his voice dropped into low frustration.
“Lady Freya, you could have at least told me you were leaving. Now I have to pack everything in a rush.”
I didn’t respond.
“You always do this,” he muttered under his breath. “No warning, no plan. Just running away like the sky is falling. What’s going on, Freya?”
I folded my last scarf and placed it inside the trunk. Then I turned to face him fully.
“I am leaving for a vacation,” I said in a flat voice.
“You don’t have to follow me anymore.”
His brows pulled together, disbelief sharp in his tone.
“What are you talking about?”
He knew about my weak body, my panic attacks, the health issues the healers always warned him about. He knew I was never left alone.
“We have a contract, Freya. It is my duty to stay with you day and night and protect you-”
“And yet you failed,” I said.
“I don’t trust you to protect me anymore. The least you can do is obey my orders.”
Then I handed him a small velvet box tied with a navy ribbon.
“Bring this to Gwyneth,” I said.
He opened the box. His whole body froze like I had struck him again. Inside was the key to the Silverfang Luna’s jewelry chest, the one given to the heiress when she was a pup.
“This chest?” Gareth’s voice cracked with disbelief.
“I remember when we were kids—you said you’d rather die than give it up. You cried when Lady Gwyneth tried to touch it… and now you’re handing it away?”
“I was foolish to think it held any value,” I whispered.
“If Gwyneth likes it so much, she can have it.”
Gareth stared at my bare face, my simple black dress that covered every inch of my skin. No jewels. No red lipstick. Nothing like the confident, fiery woman I used to be.
For a second, just a second, his mask broke. Something uneasy flickered in his eyes, like a warning he didn’t understand.
His gaze dragged over me as if he were staring at a ghost… or watching someone slip out of his hands while standing right in front of him.