Caelum’s POV


    Aurora and I returned to the hotel suite.


    Finished


    Since leaving the banquet hall, I hadn’t said a word. Silence clung to me like a second skin, and with every step I took, my chest grew heavier.


    Aurora noticed. Of course she did. Her voice broke the air, sharp with a note of frustration.


    “Caelum, Freya Thorne is outrageous. Barely divorced, and already unting herself beside Ss Whitmor. Jocelyn told me she’s been clinging to him ever since she set foot in Ashbourne. And these past few days–they’ve been inseparable, as if she’s desperate for the entire realm to know she has ties with the Irond Coalition.”


    Her words hit me, though not in the way she expected.


    I bowed my head, staring at the floor, letting her tirade wash over me. My chest burned, but I kept my tongue still.


    “Caelum?” Aurora’s voice rose, impatient now.


    I startled. “Ah? What… what did you say?”


    She bit her lip. Her pale blue eyes narrowed on me. “What’s wrong with you? You’ve been distant ever since the banquet /ended. You’re not even listening.”


    “Nothing,” I said quickly. “I’m just… tired.”


    But even as I spoke, the words rang hollow. The truth pressed against the back of my throat, threatening to w its way out.


    Her next questionnded like a de.


    “You’re thinking about Freya, aren’t you?”


    I didn’t answer. Couldn’t.


    Aurora pressed on, relentless. “Of course you are. You shared three years of a bond with her, even if it ended in the Lunar Severance Phase. I just never thought she’d fall into another Alpha’s arms so quickly. I honestly believed she cared about you -at least a little. When I returned, I didn’t want to intrude on your marriage. But clearly, I was wrong about her. She’s shameless.<b>” </b>


    As she spoke, Aurora lifted her hands, cupping my face gently, forcing me to look into her eyes. “Caelum, if it were me… if I truly loved someone, I would never stray. My heart would belong to him alone. For life.”


    Her gaze softened, and her eyelids fluttered closed. Slowly, deliberately, she leaned closer, her lips parting, drifting toward


    mine.


    My body tensed. A wolf’s instinct surged inside me, warning and urging in equal measure. I knew what she was offering. If I epted–if I let the kiss happen–our fates would be sealed. It would be the unspoken promise that we belonged to one another, that I was finally ready to let Freya go.


    And once, before the bond… before Freya became my Luna, perhaps I would have kissed Aurora without hesitation. She had been a figure from my youth, a dream I never dared to im. Back then, her attention would have felt like a gift from the Moon Goddess herself.


    But now…


    Now her face blurred, and all I could see in my mind was Freya. Her eyes<b>–</b>storm–gray, unflinching even when the world turned its back on her. Her voice, low and steady when she challenged me in the council chamber. Her scent, the one my wolf still recognized as home, even after the bond was severed.


    My chest ached.


    I turned away. “It’ste, Aurora. You should rest.”


    Her eyes flew open, shock shing like lightning. “What?”


    6.06 AM P


    Finished


    “I” My throat tightened. I forced the words out. “You’re important to me. More than you know. But tonight–we’re both exhausted. Go, get some sleep.”


    Aurora froze. For a heartbeat, the mask slipped, and I saw the hurt in her expression. Then, just as quickly, she gathered herself. A brittle smile curved her lips.


    “You’re right,” she whispered. “It iste. We’re both tired.”


    She left with measured steps, her gown swishing against the carpet. But the faint tremor in her voice betrayed her.


    The door shut softly behind her.


    Alone, I let out a ragged breath and pressed a hand over my face. My heart hammered like a war drum in my chest. What was wrong with me?


    Aurora had opened her heart, given me a chance to take what she’d long wanted to offer. She was the daughter of the Bluemoon Beta, a skilled pilot of their Airborne Wing, respected and fearless. Any Alpha in the realm would have considered it an honor to stand at her side.


    And yet… I had refused her.


    Because of Freya


    Because even now–after our bond was dissolved, after she chose Ss Whitmor, after she looked at me as though I were nothing–I still couldn’t forget her.


    I remembered how she had walked beside me during our three years as mates, silent but steadfast, never demanding, neverining. And tonight, when I saw her with Ss, something inside me snapped. For the first time, I felt the pang of true regret.


    If I hadn’t let her go…


    If I hadn’t agreed to the severance…


    If I had fought harder….


    Would it be me standing at her side tonight? Would it be me she leaned on instead of Ss Whitmor?


    The thought burned. I shook my head violently, as if I could scatter it into ashes.


    “No,” I muttered under my breath. “I can’t think like that. I can’t regret.”


    Aurora had saved my life once. I owed her more than gratitude. She deserved loyalty, devotion, rpense for what she had risked. She was the one I should give my heart to now, not Freya–the woman who had left me.


    Yes. That was what I needed <i>to </i>remember.


    Still, even as I whispered the words, a hollow ache lingered in my chest.


    The truth I didn’t want to admit whispered back to me, a voice I couldn’t silence:


    Caelum, you are lying to yourself.


    I clenched my fists.


    “Freya, I don’t regret,” I said aloud, the words spilling into the quiet of the room, meant for no ears but my own.


    But even as I spoke them, my wolf stirred uneasily within me.


    Because deep down, I knew it wasn’t true.