"Like mother, like daughter. Your mother must have been the same—couldn't control her heat, let another male scent-mark her behind your father's back, then killed herself out of guilt when she was about to be caught."
"First you tried to pin your mother's sins on Seren's mother. Now you're pulling the same trick on Seren herself." His voice dripped with contempt. "Did you really think I'd keep falling for your manipulations?"
I stared at him, unable to process what I was hearing.
The deepest, most guarded wound in my soul—and for Seren's sake, he'd turned it into a blade without a moment's hesitation.
My hand flew up to strike him, but Alaric caught my wrist, his Alpha strength crushing, and hurled me to the floor like garbage.
"Without my indulgence, Lyra, do you really think you have the right to bare your claws at me?"
Seren rushed over, pretending to help me up. But as she leaned close, her whisper was pure venom, pitched below even wolf-hearing.
"You're just as stupid as your dead mother. Yes, I did it—but did you really think I'd hand you the evidence on a silver platter?"
"Your mother couldn't beat mine. And you'll never beat me."
Tears streamed down my face, numb and endless. Somewhere in the middle of crying, I started to laugh.
I lunged for the silver letter opener on the nearby table and drove it toward Seren.
Alaric kicked it from my hand. His expression twisted with horror and disgust.
"Have you gone completely insane?"
He swept Seren into his arms and summoned every top healer in the territory to treat her scratch. Then he moved her into my hidden estate—the den that had been my mother's sanctuary.
My condition deteriorated rapidly.
I swallowed calming herbs by the handful. My hair began falling out in clumps. My memory fractured, pieces slipping away like water through cracks.
To survive, I forced myself to stop thinking about Alaric. I locked myself in my chambers and buried myself in restoring ancient moon-scrolls, one crumbling page at a time.
I'd discovered this work by accident after the mating ceremony—a way to escape the pain. Back then, I never imagined it would become my lifeline, the very thing that would help me finally leave Alaric.
I stopped following news about Alaric and Seren.
But as Capital Territory's power couple, their stories found me anyway.