1

My mate secretly gave the morphing inhibitor I had prepared for our daughter to his first love's daughter. Without the morphing inhibitor, our pup died.

At ten in the evening, I heard Liam's footsteps at the door. My enhanced wolf senses picked up his scent—a mix of the healing center's sterile smell and something distinctly feminine that made my stomach turn.

My wolf Bella bristled inside me, no longer recognizing the mate she had once adored.

I sat quietly in the dark living room, holding Isla's white porcelain urn close to my chest. The moonlight streaming through the windows cast long shadows across the floor. I must have been sitting there for hours, but the pain in my heart far outweighed any physical discomfort.

The key turned in the lock. I heard him humming—actually humming—as he entered.

When he closed the door and changed his shoes, I remained motionless in the darkness. Let him feel a fraction of the uncertainty I'd felt these past weeks.

"Olivia!" His sharp voice cut through the darkness as he flipped the switch. The sudden brightness made my head throb—another reminder of the tumor growing inside me. "Have you lost your mind? Sitting here in the dark trying to scare people?"

The authoritative tone he used with junior healers grated on my nerves. My wolf whimpered at the stranger our mate had become.

Even at this late hour, Liam's appearance was impeccable. Not a hair out of place, his healer's uniform crisp and neat. The silver emblem of Thornpack's healing center gleamed on his chest like a mockery of everything he was supposed to represent.

It was clear how important that mother and daughter were to him—important enough to drug his own mate and steal our daughter's inhibitor. Important enough to dress up and stay late at the healing center, while our own daughter...

I pushed the thought away before it could break me.

"Still sulking?" he asked, lip curling in that new way he had, so different from the gentle smile I'd fallen in love with. "By the Moon Goddess, when will you let this go?"

My hands tightened around the urn. Isla's ashes shifted inside, the sound nearly breaking my heart again. He didn't even know what was inside—hadn't bothered to ask why I clutched it so desperately.

"Haven't I explained?" His voice took on that reasonable tone that made me want to tear his throat out. "The inhibitor worked perfectly for Anna! Her transformation was flawless—just look at the results!"

His voice grew louder with each word, as if volume could make his betrayal acceptable. "As head healer, I had to consider what was best. Anna was at the perfect stage, the inhibitor had the best effect on her! You should have seen how beautifully she shifted!"

I remained silent, remembering how Isla had screamed during her transformation. How I'd begged the healers at the public center to help her, only to be turned away because we couldn't afford their fees.

My silence only fueled his anger. He began pacing, gesturing wildly.

"I know you spent money on it, but there will be more inhibitors in six months! What's a little wait? Isla was my daughter too, of course I would have taken care of her..."

But that little bit of time made all the difference.

After losing the inhibitor, Isla's condition had rapidly worsened. The transformation tore through her small body like wildfire. We couldn't even afford to keep her in the healing center.

She never opened her eyes again.

My baby girl was so young. Before she died at home, she gripped my hand tightly, her little claws drawing blood as she asked why Daddy hadn't come, if Daddy didn't love her anymore.

I could only keep kissing her cheeks, telling her Mommy was here, Mommy would always be with her. My wolf howled in agony as we watched our pup slip away.

Until she closed her eyes for the last time, Isla never got to see her father one final time.

But Natalie's daughter Anna survived because she got my inhibitor—the one I'd saved for years to buy.

Seemingly finished with his lecture, Liam pulled off his uniform jacket. The scent of another she-wolf clung to it so heavily that my eyes watered.

"Take this and wash it until it's white as snow, like you always do." He tossed it at me carelessly. "And why isn't dinner ready? Have you just been sitting here all day like some statue?"

When I didn't move to catch the uniform, letting it fall to the floor, his eyes flashed with anger. His wolf stirred beneath his skin, showing in patches of fur that rippled across his neck.

"What's wrong with you? Get up and do your duties!" His gaze fell on the urn in my hands, and his lip curled. "And put that ugly thing away—it's morbid to keep it out like this. What kind of decoration is that anyway?"

He strode over, reaching for the urn. "I said, put it away!"

My heart stopped as his hands closed around the porcelain. I lunged forward, but my weakened body betrayed me. The tumor made even simple movements difficult now.

"Don't you dare—" I started to say, but my voice cracked.

Something in my expression must have warned him. He paused, still holding the urn, his eyes narrowing as he really looked at me for the first time tonight.

"What's so special about this thing?" he asked, his tone suspicious. "You've been acting strange ever since—"

I looked up, meeting his eyes, and spoke with deadly certainty:

"I want to dissolve our mate bond."

Liam froze, his face showing shock. The urn trembled in his hands for a moment before he set it down, as if suddenly afraid of breaking it.

"What did you say?" His voice had lost its arrogant edge.

I forced a slight smile, though it felt more like baring my teeth:

"I said, Liam, I want to break our mate bond. Completely and irrevocably."

I slid the prepared statement of severance across the table. In the harsh electric light, I watched him stand without moving a muscle.

"This is my written statement. I relinquish any pack assets or territorial rights in your name. The Joint Council opens at nine tomorrow morning. Don't forget to bring your Clan identification."

For a moment, the air in the living room seemed to freeze. Even our wolves fell silent.

Liam's face darkened with rage, his wolf pushing to the surface as his eyes glowed golden. The change rippled across his features, distorting them into something monstrous.

"Enough!" He snarled, fangs lengthening. "You're really going to make this into a big deal? Isla is a Thornpack pup, and she'll stay that way. Don't even think about taking her back to Stormpack!"

His posture became threatening, trying to force me into submission like he'd done so many times before.

I remained unmoved, my voice cold and clear:

"Liam, I'm dissolving our mate bond—this isn't a negotiation."

His face instantly turned cold, followed by a mocking laugh:

"So you're trying to threaten me now, are you?"

He retrieved his uniform from the floor and put it back on, his face tight with anger as he turned toward the door.

Clearly, Liam had decided to avoid the confrontation. He wouldn't be spending the night in our home.

At the doorway, he turned back with a cold warning:

"Olivia, let me tell you something—even if we do dissolve the mate bond, Isla's guardianship will definitely be mine. Don't make me take this to the Pack Court. You'd better not regret this!"

With those words, Liam slammed the door behind him, the sound echoing through the empty home.

The living room returned to its suffocating silence.

I stroked the white porcelain urn, as if soothing a frightened pup.

From his entrance to his departure, Liam hadn't once asked if his daughter was in pain today, if she was sleeping well this late at night.

He hadn't even bothered to control his volume, the door slam loud enough to wake any sleeping pup.

From start to finish, he didn't ask what the white porcelain urn I was holding in my hand was, and I couldn't believe he hadn't seen it at the treatment center.