I didn't want to hear another hollow promise. "Hadeon, I don't want any of it. I'll give up everything. Just grant me the Bond Severance and set yourself free."

"If you're worried I'll expose the massacre, you can have my life too."

"All I'm asking is that you save Rowan!"

I thought the weight of hundreds of dead pack wolves on his conscience would be enough to buy one life. I still underestimated how shameless he was.

"Perenna, stop. I can't help you this time."

"Cressida's been through a trauma. She's always been sensitive and stubborn. If Rowan doesn't die, Cressida won't be able to sleep."

And then I finally understood. In Hadeon's heart, the lives of ordinary wolves weren't worth as much as one good night's rest for Cressida Thornwood.

I shoved him away and dragged my broken body across the floor toward the courtyard. The mating mark on my neck throbbed with each movement, a dull sick pulse that no longer felt like connection but like a wound that refused to close. I collapsed at Cressida's feet, clutching the hem of her gown. "My lady, please spare Rowan. It was all my fault."

Cressida looked down at me with a satisfied smirk. The scent of crushed foxglove and honeyed amber rolled off her, so sweet it made my stomach turn.

"Your fault how?"

"I'm lowborn. I should never have troubled the Alpha King's healer."

"I should never have displeased you, my lady."

"Enough. The sight of you covered in blood is revolting."

Cressida kicked me away in disgust and turned to Hadeon. "Hadeon, I'm tired. Walk me back?"

Hadeon looked at me sprawled on the ground. He hesitated for a moment. But in the end, he chose Cressida.

I reached for Rowan beside me, her breath barely there, and called after him one last time. "My lord, could you at least send for Soren Ashwick?"

Hadeon opened his mouth to give the order, but Cressida cut him off. "No one calls for any healer. I've already spared her life. Whether she survives is her own fate."

Hadeon looked back at me, something unreadable churning behind his eyes. Then he clenched his jaw and walked away.

Everything I had held together shattered in that moment. My wolf collapsed inside me, not howling, not whimpering, just a silence so total it felt like the creature had been scraped out of my chest and there was nothing left where it had been. I screamed at his retreating back, "Hadeon Ravencrest, I want a Bond Severance!"