Freya’s POV


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    +8 Pearls


    Two dayster, I boarded the ferry with Ss. The sea wind was sharp, carrying the brine of the waves and the weight of something inevitable. We were bound for the ind where the Halston Dominion had organized the groundbreaking ceremony–a show of unity between packs, humans, and industries.


    I should have been focused on the event itself, on the politics that would thread through every smile and every handshake. But instead, my thoughts snagged on Ss.


    “You’re sure you don’t need to see a healer for… that condition?” I asked quietly, leaning closer as the ferry rocked.


    I meant the way he had lost himself in the forbidden chamber, as though dragged into a nightmare he could not wake from.


    “I’ve already taken my medicine,” he replied, calm as stone. “Don’t trouble yourself. It hasn’t surfaced in years. I thought it had been buried for good.”


    But his jaw tightened, betraying the ghost of memory. I could sense the storm beneath his words. His wolf red briefly, bitter and wounded. I knew, even without asking, that Jocelyn Thorne’s meddling had triggered something–digging at scars best left sealed.


    His lips pressed thin, his gaze hardening with a dangerous gleam.


    The ferry moored before <b>I </b>could press further. We disembarked, our boots striking the dock, and the salt wind carried voices ahead of us. There, waiting with smiles sharp as knives, stood Jocelyn alongside several of my n’s elders.


    Jocelyn’s smile was sweet poison. “Alpha Ss, you’ve finally arrived. We’ve been waiting such a long time.”


    She said it as though he hadn’t once wrapped his hand around her throat. As if that night of fury and fear had never scarred the air between them.


    Ss gave her nothing–just a fleeting nce, cold as steel, before dismissing her entirely.


    But Jocelyn wasn’t deterred. Her gaze flicked to me, the curve of her lips deepening. “Oh, Freya, did you know? Your ex–mate is here today. He has something he wishes to tell you.”


    A chill crept into my spine. I followed her look, and there he was–Caelum. He stood with Aurora, daughter of the Bluemoon. Pack’s Beta, her uniform crisp, her emerald ring gleaming in the sun.


    Jocelyn lifted her chin, voice bright and cruel. “Caelum, Freya is here. Didn’t you say you wanted to make a clean break with her? What better time than now?”


    <b>I </b><b>saw </b>him falter. His shoulders stiffened, his jaw clenched. His eyes flicked between Jocelyn and me, caught in a vise of his own making.


    Aurora leaned closer, her voice a silkensh. “You wouldn’t back down, would you, Caelum? If you refuse, I won’t force you. But understand this–if you keep wearing those rings you once shared with her, people will talk. I might not doubt you<b>, </b>but others will. And their whispers will drag us both into the mud.”


    His gaze locked with hers, and I saw the decision settle in his bones. He straightened, mask of resolve sliding into ce.


    “I am not unwilling,” he said, voice carrying over the gathering. He reached into his coat, withdrawing two silver bands. Then he stepped forward, each pace deliberate, until he stood before me.


    “Freya,” he said, his voice low but steady, “I want us to end this–truly, once and for all.”


    I let my eyes meet his, cold and sharp. “There was nothing left between us to end.”


    He opened his palm. Two cheap rings rested there, dull metal catching the sunlight like mockery. The sight of them wed something raw inside me.


    “You left these behind in the nightstand when the Lunar Severance Phase ended,” he continued. “I thought it best we dispose of them now.”


    I stared at those worthless rings, the kind you’d find tossed on a vendor’s nket in the back alleys of The Capital. Back then,


    +8 Pearls


    I had been so blind, so willing to believe. It doesn’t matter if they’re worthless, Freya. If his heart is true, then the metal doesn’t matter.


    I could still hear his voice, the promises whispered in the dark: When I earn more, I’ll buy you something finer. These are only the beginning.


    But the truth? When a man chooses to mark you with trinkets no better than scraps, it means you were never in his heart.


    Because when his fortunes grew, when wealth poured into his coffers, the ring he bought was not for me. It was for Aurora.


    My gaze drifted past the silver scraps in his hand, settling instead on the emerald ring gleaming proudly on Aurora’s finger. The stone was radiant, its green fire impossible to miss.


    “Why are you staring at Aurora’s ring, Freya?” Jocelyn’s voiceshed out, cruel satisfaction in every word. “It doesn’t matter how fine her jewels are–they’ll never be yours.”


    Before I could speak, Ss’s voice cut through the air like a de. “You talk too much.”


    Jocelyn flinched as though struck, color draining from her face. I knew she felt it–the phantom memory of his grip at her throat, the pain that had once silenced her. She swallowed, her bravado faltering.


    I drew a breath, forcing my voice calm. “Ss, this is my affair. Let me deal with it.“.


    Then I turned to Jocelyn, my wolf rising hot within me. “And how do you know Aurora’s ring isn’t mine? That emerald was purchased during my marriage to Caelum. He bought it in secret–behind my back, while I still wore his mate’s bond. So yes, I have every right to reim it. That ring was bought with betrayal, and it belongs to me.”


    Jocelyn froze, her mask cracking. Around us, I felt the shift–the ripple of judgment through the crowd. The elders‘ eyes darkened. The whispers began.


    I held Caelum’s gaze, my wolf baring its fangs in silence.


    And for the first time, he looked as though the ground beneath him might give way.


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