The first showed me tending to him when we were stranded on a desert hunt, his leg broken, and I had stayed with him for days and nights.
The third showed him scaling a cliff in the middle of a snowstorm to bring me a rare mountain herb, panting, bleeding, just so I’d see he’d come for me.
Another showed him bringing an entire pack of wolves from the northern clans just to perform for me under the full moon, because I loved the moonlit dances of our kind. One of the last portraits even showed the glass house he’d designed, warm and safe, made for a blind mate, everything perfect for me.
And in every one, his eyes glowed with something I wanted once. Something I had believed in. Something I now hated.
He knelt in one painting, whispering, “Mate, from now on, I’ll be your eyes. You will be the only one in my heart. Only you, Chloe.”
I stared at them all, the lies, the fakes, the love poisoned by secrets, by Chiara, by his lies. My hands shook, and I forced a smile that felt bitter in my chest.
One by one, I set the portraits on fire, the smoke curling up and turning the glass house’s spring air into ash. I threw them all onto the bed, watching the flames roar and consume everything.
‘Drake, your love is twisted. Your alpha’s protection is tainted. I don’t want it. I don’t want you. I won’t be caged in your lies anymore.’
The fire alarm blared, shrill and unrelenting, echoing through the halls like my heartbeat.
Why did I ever let him own me? Why did I let myself believe in an alpha who could lie like this?
After that, I ran out into the chaos, coughing, my chest tight, and found a battered phone booth at the roadside. My hands shook when I dialed the number I’d been holding onto for years.
“Alaric… do you still mean it?” I whispered, my voice trembling. “That I can come back to the pack anytime within five years?”
There was a pause, and then that deep, low, cello-like voice rolled through the receiver. “Of course, my beloved Arianne. Every northern wolf in the pack has been waiting for you. They’re all asking when their favorite she-wolf is coming home.”
I pressed the receiver harder to my ear, trying to steady my voice. “But my… my identity. The paperwork. It takes three days to sort. And I can’t exactly cross state lines quietly. Drake… he won’t let me leave, I know him.”