The Elder pair closed in on me, their hostility thick as smoke in the air. I could smell the aggression rolling off them in waves—sharp, metallic, unmistakable.
The Pack Patriarch yanked open the heavy oak doors of the longhouse. Bitter winter wind howled through the entryway, carrying ice and the scent of frozen pines.
The Matriarch didn't hesitate. "Out you go. You have no place in this den."
"Matriarch Rowena, that fur-lined cloak you're wearing—I traded three moon-cycles of restoration work for it. Premium winter pelts from the northern territories."
Her gaze dropped for just a heartbeat before she shot back, "That was purchased with my son's hunting grounds and resources."
Raven's voice drifted from behind her, soft and deliberate, her scent curling through the air like honeyed poison. "Don't worry. I'll provide for you too. Finer things. More valuable."
The old she-wolf's face split into a triumphant smile, her teeth glinting in the firelight.
"You heard her. Now get out. I have a daughter by bond—a true one—and she's about to give me a grandpup."
When I didn't move, she shoved me. Hard.
Wolves who've worked the land have strong hands. And hers held nothing back.
I couldn't brace against the force. My feet skidded toward the doorway, one stumbling step after another across the stone floor.
Five years of mating bond. And this was how it ended—on Midwinter Turning Night.
My eyes found Ronan over his mother's shoulder. His scent had gone cold, distant, like a stranger's.
"Ronan. Tell me. When did you fall for her?"
Raven answered instead, her voice dripping with gentle venom. "I'll admit, I gave him a hard time back then. But do you know why?"
I held my breath, my wolf pressing against my ribs, desperate to break free.
"Because he sent me ninety-nine scent-marked courtship tokens. Kept sending them, one after another, each one drenched in his longing. I just wasn't ready to accept a claim yet."
The past I thought I knew crumbled to ash.
My body began to shake. For ten, maybe fifteen heartbeats, my mind went completely blank. My wolf howled somewhere deep inside me, wounded and raw.
So that was it. He'd been sending courtship tokens to Raven.
While I comforted him through his supposed rejection. While I let him mark me, bond with me, build a life with me.
What a fool I'd been.
While I stood there reeling, the old she-wolf shoved me again—harder this time.