Chapter 4

LYRA'S POV:

For a heartbeat, Kaelen hesitates. His gaze flickers between the open doors where Seraphina fled and my face. I keep my expression perfectly blank, offering him no help, no forgiveness.

"No," he says, his voice firm. "Tonight is for Lyra. I will not leave my mate's side."

A small, bitter part of me is surprised. He stays. He leads me back to the head table and completes the ceremony. For the rest of the night, he is the perfect Alpha mate, attentive and charming. He even arranged for a magical firework display over the manor, explosions of silver and gold light that spell out my name in the sky. It's a grand, empty gesture.

On the ride home, the silence in the car is heavy. He reaches for my hand, but I keep it in my lap.

Suddenly, he jerks, his eyes losing focus for a second. A Mind-Link.

"There's... an urgent matter at the northern border," he says, his tone strained. "A patrol was ambushed." He steers the car abruptly, turning off the main road and onto a dark, wooded path.

He's a terrible liar.

Just moments before, I had received an accidental Mind-Link from the Beta, a frantic message meant for Kaelen. "Alpha, we found her by the river. She's safe, just shaken. I'm bringing her back now."

Seraphina has been found. This is not pack business. This is her.

"Let me out here," I say calmly.

"Lyra, it's not safe-"

"I want to walk," I insist. "The air will do me good."

He hesitates, then pulls the car over. "I'll be back as soon as I can."

I don't watch him drive away. The moment the car is out of sight, I step into the forest. My werewolf senses, sharpened by the night, easily pick up his scent trail. He didn't go toward the northern border. He went deeper into the woods. I follow.

I find them in a small, moonlit clearing. Seraphina is wrapped in his arms, her face buried in his chest.

"You scared me," Kaelen murmurs, his voice a low, intimate rumble I know so well. "Don't you ever run off like that again."

"She hates me," Seraphina sobs. "She wants me gone."

"She doesn't understand," he soothes, stroking her hair. "But I am your Alpha. I will protect you." He tilts her chin up. "Who else would you want to be Marked by, hmm? Is there any other wolf you would allow to claim you?"

The Mark. The bite an Alpha gives his Luna, a permanent claim of ownership on her neck, bonding them for life. He's talking about Marking her.

"No," she whispers. "Only you, my Alpha."

He kisses her then, a deep, possessive kiss under the light of the Moon Goddess who is supposed to be my protector. Every loving word, every tender touch, is a fresh betrayal. My heart, which I thought was already shattered, somehow finds new ways to break.

I turn and walk away, silent as a shadow.

Back at the manor, I go to our room and pull out a suitcase. I start to pack, my movements numb and mechanical. But as I grab my pack documents and identification, I remember the elder's words. My identity has been nullified. I am legally dead. I have no money, no status, no place to go. I am a ghost in my own home.

The bedroom door bursts open. It's Caelus. In his hands, he holds a bucket. The acrid smell of paint and something else... something metallic and sharp, hits me.

Silver.

His eyes are wide with a frantic fear I don't understand. "Seraphina said you're sick," he says, his voice trembling. "She said a monster put a bad spell on you and if I don't wash it off, you'll go away again! She said this would make you better!"

"You ruined everything!" he screams, his small face contorted with a rage that is terrifying in a child. "I hate you! I wish you had stayed dead!"

Before I can react, he throws the contents of the bucket at me. A thick, grey paint mixed with silver dust splatters across my chest and arms. The silver immediately begins to burn, searing my skin with an agony that makes me cry out. It's a pain unique to our kind, a venom that sizzles and destroys.

As I stagger back, clutching my burning arms, he grabs the small, hand-sewn wolf doll from my bedside table. The one I made for him when he was just a pup.

With a furious roar, he rips its head off.

"Get out!" he shrieks, tears streaming down his face. "Get out of our house!"

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