He kicked the rogue wolf aside in a single motion. Everyone around them froze.

So did I.

But Kieran barely glanced in my direction. He turned his Alpha dominance on the auction hall manager instead. "I thought this event was restricted to Alphas. How is a rogue wolf getting in?"

The manager nearly dropped to his knees apologizing.

But Kieran had already turned back to Melody, his voice gentle. "I know seeing rogues unsettles you. It's handled. Don't let it ruin your evening — find something you like and I'll get it for you."

Melody looked up at him, her eyes bright. "Anything I want?"

"Anything." His voice was quiet and indulgent.

Melody smiled like a child who'd been given the world. She rose on her toes and kissed his cheek. "You're so good to me."

I stood there watching, and suddenly felt like laughing.

This man who was protecting his true love — and still, a second ago, had moved to protect me.

What exactly did he think he was doing?

I turned and pushed through the doors to the terrace.

I leaned against the railing. My phone buzzed — an Instagram notification.

I opened it.

Melody had posted. Nine photos. Kieran had spent fifty million dollars on a massive diamond ring for her.

The second photo: Kieran holding her hand, sliding the ring on.

The third: the two of them in profile.

Kieran looking down at her — with a tenderness I had never seen from him. Had never received from him.

The last photo: the two of them together.

Melody nestled in his arms, glowing like the happiest she-wolf alive.

Her caption: "#Proposal. My Alpha, my everything."

The likes were already in the tens of thousands. The comments section was flooded with congratulations.

"Oh my god, she's so lucky!"

"I can't believe she got the Frost Pack Alpha!"

My grip on the phone tightened until my nails nearly cracked the screen.

In two years with Kieran, even at his most intimate, he had never given me a ring. Had never offered anything that looked like a promise.

I breathed in slowly. Then I went back inside. Kieran was gone. Only Melody remained.

The auctioneer was presenting the next lot. "An ancient alchemical formula manuscript — said to be the life's work of a renowned alchemist from twenty years ago—"

I was on my feet before I realized it.

That was my mother's handwriting. Years of her research and her heart, bound into those pages.

It should have been locked permanently in her laboratory. How was it here?

I looked at Melody.

She was sipping champagne, utterly at ease. She raised her glass in my direction, her smile curling with a challenge.

"Opening bid: one million dollars."

The price climbed. I kept my paddle raised, teeth clenched, driving the price to five times its market value.

The auctioneer raised his hammer. "Fifteen million — going twice—"

"My apologies, everyone." Melody rose gracefully, her smile sweet as honey. "This manuscript is a personal keepsake of mine — I'm afraid it's not actually for sale. A staff member made a mistake including it."

She walked up to the stage, took the manuscript back from the auctioneer, and as she turned away, winked at me.

I followed her backstage and cut her off.

"Melody." I kept my voice level. "Give me back the manuscript."

"Why?" She tilted her head. Perfectly innocent. "It's mine."

"It was my mother's."

"Oh." She nodded, almost thoughtfully. "But your mother is dead. It's in my hands now. Doesn't that make it mine?"

I curled my fingers into my palms, nails cutting into skin. "What do you want for it?"

"I'll trade it for anything — the estate inheritance, a bank account, even your title as the Alpha's daughter. Name it."

Melody smiled, that exquisitely sweet smile. "Look at you being so humble. That's not like you at all."

She paused, then pointed toward the industrial furnace burning nearby. "But I'll give you a chance."

"I hear you're very proud of your Alpha bloodline. The furnace runs hot. But an Alpha should be able to take a few seconds, right?"

"If you can go in there and pull the manuscript out before it's ash, it's yours."

I lunged to stop her, but she had already thrown the manuscript into the flames.

I didn't think. I shifted into my white wolf and threw myself into the fire.

The heat hit me like a wall. It scorched through my fur.

The stench of burning filled my lungs. I bit down and held on, and pulled the manuscript from the fire just before it turned to nothing.

I stumbled back out and shifted to human form, sinking to my knees.

My beautiful dress was in tatters. My hair was singed and curling. My hands were raw and bloody.

But I held the manuscript against my chest. Like I was holding my mother.

Melody had already drifted back into the main hall.

At that moment, Kieran's car pulled into the car park.

He stepped out — and the first thing he saw was me, on my knees on the ground, looking like wreckage.

Kieran paused.

In two years, every time I had appeared before him I'd been vivid and striking and completely put-together.

He had never seen me like this.

He frowned and stepped toward me quickly, reaching out as if to help me up. "What happened? How are you this injured?"

"Don't touch me." I stepped back and nearly fell.

Kieran's expression hardened. His Alpha dominance radiated off him. "Seraphina. What are you doing? Over a few burned pages?"

He looked at the charred manuscript in my arms, uncomprehending. "You didn't even flinch when you donated things worth a fortune. But now you're risking your life for scorched paper?"

I laughed. It came out loud, and then the tears followed — one after another, dropping onto the blackened parchment.

I raised my head and looked straight into his eyes.

"Brother-in-law." I said it slowly, watching the color drain from his face. "You don't understand. You'll never understand. Stay out of my business from now on."

Kieran went rigid. His eyes narrowed and turned a dangerous shade of red.

"Seraphina—" His voice dropped to something close to a threat.

A scream cut him off. It came from the hall entrance — Melody's voice.

We both turned. Flames were erupting from the entrance to the charity hall.

"Help!" Melody stumbled out of the fire, her dress scorched through in several places. She ran, sobbing, and threw herself at Kieran.

Kieran caught her instantly, pulling off his suit jacket to drape around her.

"You're safe. I'm here." His voice went warm and soft in a way that had been completely absent when he spoke to me.

Melody cried beautifully. "I only went back in to get the necklace — the first thing you ever gave me. I couldn't stand the thought of it burning... I had no idea there'd be a fire..."

She looked up at him, all helpless devotion.

The hall staff came running, faces white with panic. "Alpha! The fire started near the furnace area — there's no way that furnace should have spread like this — and the suppression system malfunctioned—"

Kieran's expression changed. He turned slowly, and his gaze landed on me.

His Alpha dominance crashed down over me like a wave. "Did you start this fire?"

I stared at him. "What?"

"Were you jealous of Melody?" He walked toward me, each step deliberate. "Jealous enough to try to kill her?"

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.

"Pull the security footage. Now." Kieran's voice was ice.

Staff scrambled back. Minutes later, a tablet was placed in Kieran's hands.

On the screen, my silver wolf form was clearly visible near the furnace, and then the fire spreading out of control.

Every gaze in the crowd swung toward me. Condemnation, all of it.

Melody was still tucked against Kieran, her shoulders shaking — but I caught her eyes, darting up to check my reaction. The triumph in them was unmistakable.

"I didn't—" My voice came out barely above a whisper.

"The evidence is right there." He cut me off. "What are you trying to argue?"

His voice was without feeling. "Enforcement team. Take Seraphina to the silver holding cell to await Alpha Council judgment."

The enforcers came for me immediately. Cold silver cuffs locked around my wrists, burning through to the bone.

Kieran watched without moving.

As they turned me away, I saw Melody lean back into his arms. Smiling at me.

The Alpha Council sentenced me to ten days in the silver holding cell.

I sat in the corner, every wound suppressed by the silver, unable to close. My wolf was completely neutralized — I couldn't even attempt a shift.

On the third day, the guard rotation changed. The new guard arrived with a smile.

"Miss Seraphina. Someone sent you a gift." He pressed play on a recording.

"Melody..." Kieran's quickened breath made my whole body go still.

"Do you love me?" A woman's voice, soft and coy.

"I love you." His voice was different — a tenderness I had never once heard from him. "There's only you. Forever."

"What about my sister?" Melody pressed, playful. "Don't think I don't know you spent two years with her. She's so beautiful. You couldn't have fallen for her, could you?"

"Just someone to warm my bed." Then the sound of fabric, and shallow, muffled breathing. "You're the only one I've ever loved. Forever."

Just someone to warm my bed.

My heart was punctured a thousand times over.

I covered my ears. But the sound bled through anyway.

Those tender whispers. Those intimate words. All the things he had never once said to me.

The recording played on loop. Twenty-four hours without stopping.

I curled in the corner and listened to that man speak the most gentle words in his gentlest voice, saying the cruelest things.

On the seventh day, I started bleeding from my nose.

Silver poisoning symptoms. The guard saw it and smiled. "Three more days. Hang in there, Miss Seraphina."

I closed my eyes and thought of the message on my phone. The exit permit had been approved. The potion that severed the pack bond had fully taken effect. I was a free rogue now.

That thought kept me alive.

On the tenth day, the cell door opened.

"You're free to go." The enforcer's voice was flat.

I stood. My legs barely held me. But I held myself up and walked out of that cell, one step at a time.

Sunlight hit my skin. It had no warmth.

Emily was waiting outside, and she wrapped her arms around me the moment she saw me.

She had been in Europe for years. The moment she heard about the silver cell, she had come straight back.

She looked at me, and her eyes went red.

I had once been vivid and brilliant — the most beautiful, most sought-after she-wolf in the entire southern territory.

Now I was covered in wounds and my clothes were rags.

"I'm sorry. This is all my fault." Her voice cracked.

"At the full moon gathering, I made that bet because I knew Kieran had just been left by his ex, and I wanted him to forget her completely." Emily was crying now. "I never thought... that she'd turn out to be Melody."

I patted her on the back. "It's not your fault. I'm leaving. I'm leaving this territory for good."

Emily looked like she wanted to say something. But she didn't. She just nodded, and drove me home to pick up my things.

My bag was light. I didn't want to take anything. A few changes of clothes, my passport, and the plane ticket to the northern territory.

I carried the bag downstairs and stopped at the front door.

I reached into my bag and pulled out a small box.

Inside was a timed explosive.

Emily drew a sharp breath. "Sera?"

I set the timer. Ten minutes — more than enough time to get clear. I hit the trigger and placed the device on the entry table.

"Let's go."

Five minutes down the road, I heard the explosion behind us.

The estate came down in a burst of fire and smoke, the dust and rubble swallowing everything from the past.

Emily gripped the steering wheel, her knuckles white. "Sera... I'm sorry. I really am so sorry."

I leaned against the window, watching the scenery blur past, and forced my mouth into a smile. "Don't be. I'm this beautiful — every Alpha I meet from now on is only going to be stronger and love me more."

Emily cried harder.

The car reached the airport.

I lifted my hand in a small wave, turned, and walked toward the security line without looking back.

Emily watched me disappear into the crowd. Then she sank to the ground and sobbed.

For a long time.

Finally, she couldn't hold it in any longer. She drove straight to the Frost Pack council hall.

Emily's eyes were swollen and raw. She looked at Kieran, and the tears fell again.

"You finally drove her out." Her voice was shaking. "Are you satisfied now?"

The council hall went quiet. Kieran was silent for several seconds.

Then he spoke. His voice came out as if something had rusted in his throat.

"Who did you say left?"