"If you're willing to offer more coins..."

My voice cracked, barely a whisper.

"I'll submit however you want."

Their laughter only swelled, echoing off the stone walls of the den.

At last, the wolf who had stayed silent spoke. He lounged across the leather seating, exhaling a slow breath that carried the sharp bite of smoke.

"Get out."

"Even if you dropped to your belly and showed throat a hundred times, we wouldn't lift a claw for you."

Because Alaric had given them their orders long before any of this began.

Penance was penance.

For three full years, they were forbidden to show me even a shred of mercy or offer me the smallest kindness.

Only then could they properly avenge his precious Omega Liaison, Lily Ashgrove.

So how did I scrape together those five hundred silver marks?

I walked into a territory infirmary and let them drain my blood.

Later, I carried that payment to the pack holding cells, only to be told Alaric had already been released under a healer's dispensation.

The coins passed through hand after hand until they finally reached one of Alaric's packmates.

I was so desperate I nearly dropped to my knees and bared my throat.

"Please—please make sure this reaches Alaric. He cannot fall into more trouble with the Council."

But at that very moment, Alaric was with his little Omega at the harvest festival grounds, posing for memory-captures like they hadn't a worry beneath the moon.

He tossed those five hundred silver marks at a festival worker like they were scraps from a kill.

"Filthy coin from the goddess knows where. Disgusting."

Just like my heart—crushed beneath his heel without a second thought.

And now, here was Alaric, personally overseeing every detail of Lily's birth-moon gala. A moonstone vessel worth more than most wolves earned in a lifetime sat on display as mere decoration.

Every detail had been arranged with meticulous care.

But I could not bear to watch any longer.

I nearly lost control more than once. I wanted to storm across the gathering hall, to rake my claws across his face until the marks never healed.

I wanted to demand answers. Why did you deceive me for three years? Just because I made Lily serve as a household attendant for three days?

I wanted to tear away my clothing and show him every scar, every wound I had collected over these three years.

But in the end, I did nothing.