Seraphina POV

"Jax," I breathed, taking a trembling step toward the heavy metal gates. For a fraction of a second, the feral hardness in his eyes softened.

Before he could speak, the screech of tires shattered the bleak morning silence. A cherry-red sports car swerved into the desolate parking lot, reeking of expensive perfume and burning rubber. A woman stepped out, draped in designer clothes and an aura of absolute entitlement. Anjelica Carney. The pampered daughter of the Carney Pack Alpha.

She didn't even glance at me. She marched straight to Jax, her manicured hands sliding possessively around his neck. "Finally," she purred, pressing her lips to his jaw. "My father is waiting. We have an engagement party to finalize, and I need you out of this filthy Rogue stench."

I froze, the fragile warmth in my chest turning to ice. Engagement party?

"Well, well. If it isn't the traitor."

Two massive, scarred men stepped out from the shadows of the detention center wall. Rogues. They recognized Jax, their eyes flashing with violent intent as they lunged forward.

Everything happened in a blur. Jax's combat instincts flared. But instead of standing his ground, he violently shoved Anjelica behind him to shield her. The sheer force of his movement sent his elbow crashing into my shoulder.

I was thrown backward, hitting the unforgiving asphalt with a sickening thud. A sharp crack echoed from my ankle, sending a blinding spike of agony up my leg. But that was nothing compared to the Terminal Soul Wither. Triggered by the physical shock and the crushing heartbreak, the magical illness erupted in my chest. It felt like jagged, freezing claws were shredding my lungs, freezing my blood. I gasped, curling into myself as the world spun.

The Rogues, seeing Jax bare his teeth and flash his newly acquired Carney Pack medallion, backed off with a string of curses.

"Jax, who is this wolfless trash?" Anjelica demanded, looking down at me with utter disgust as I struggled to breathe on the dirty ground.

Jax turned. For one agonizing second, his eyes met mine. I saw the flicker of panic, the memory of our shared childhood. But then, the cold, calculating ambition of a man desperate for power swallowed it whole.

"Just someone I used to know from the orphanage," Jax said, his voice devoid of any emotion.

The words were a silver blade to my heart. He had made his choice. Power over family. I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted copper, forcing myself to stand on my good leg. Without a word, I turned my back on the only brother I had ever known and limped toward my car.

Once inside, I locked the doors and collapsed against the steering wheel, dry-heaving as the freezing agony of the Wither ravaged my body. I was entirely alone.

Suddenly, my phone buzzed. The caller ID flashed: Blackwood Enterprises HQ.

I answered with trembling fingers.

"Seraphina," Talia's voice clipped through the speaker, dripping with her usual contempt. As Damien's executive administrator, she made no secret of her disdain for a wolfless Omega. "The Alpha requires your presence at headquarters immediately. He has urgent business for you."

My breath hitched. Urgent business.

He must have received the courier package. He had read the Rejection petition. A verbal Rejection required both mates to be present to finalize the severance. He wanted to end it today.

The thought brought a fresh wave of agonizing pain from my severed bond, but beneath it, a fierce, hollow resolve took root. "I'll be there," I whispered, hanging up.

Thirty minutes later, I limped into the towering glass-and-steel lobby of Blackwood Enterprises. The air conditioning was freezing, and the massive black wolf crest behind the reception desk seemed to glare down at me.

I headed for the private elevator that led to the Alpha's penthouse office, but Talia stepped into my path, a triumphant smirk playing on her lips.

"You aren't going up," she stated, crossing her arms.

I frowned, leaning heavily on my good foot. "Damien called for me."

"The Alpha gave me a direct order to relay to you," Talia corrected, her eyes gleaming with malicious joy. "The rumors regarding his devotion to Isabelle are causing a stir among the allied Packs. He requires you to use your Gray family knowledge of ancient Pack law to draft a formal petition to the Alpha Council."

She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a venomous whisper. "You are to legally articulate why a powerful, Alpha-selected Chosen Mate brings more glory and stability to the Pack than a barren, useless Fated Mate."

The lobby seemed to tilt. The freezing claws of the Wither dug deeper into my soul. He didn't call me here to set me free. He called me here to force me to legally invalidate my own existence, to build the throne for the woman replacing me.-

Seraphina POV

The lobby seemed to tilt. The freezing claws of the Terminal Soul Wither dug deeper into my chest, shredding my lungs until every breath tasted like blood and ice. He didn't call me here to set me free. He wanted me to build the throne for Isabelle.

"No," I whispered, my voice trembling but laced with a hollow, unbreakable resolve.

Talia blinked, her triumphant smirk faltering. "Excuse me?"

I reached into my coat pocket, my numb fingers brushing against the heavy brass key to the Blackwood estate. The only home I had known for the past three years. I pulled it out and dropped it onto the polished black marble counter. It landed with a heavy, final clink that echoed in the cavernous reception area.

"Tell your Alpha I won't be writing his petition," I said, staring dead into Talia's shocked eyes. "I am done with this Pack. I am done with him."

Without waiting for her response, I turned on my good heel. The fractured bone in my ankle screamed in agony, but I forced myself to walk, limping heavily toward the revolving glass doors.

"You're making a mistake, Omega!" Talia called out behind me, her voice dripping with venomous disbelief. "You'll come crawling back! You always do!"

I didn't look back. I just needed to get to my car. I needed to disappear.

Damien POV

I severed the mind-link with the Crescent Pack Alpha, rubbing my temples to ward off an impending headache. The scent of sterile office air and cheap vanilla perfume announced Talia's arrival as she stepped out of the private elevator into my penthouse office.

"Is the petition handled?" I demanded, not looking up from the alliance contracts on my ebony desk.

"She refused, Alpha," Talia said, her voice tight. She stepped forward and placed a familiar brass key on my desk. "She left this. She said she is done with the Pack. And... security logs show she actually left the estate yesterday morning. It's the first time she's stepped off the grounds in three years."

Left?

A sudden, violent tremor shook my chest.

Mine! Our mate is leaving! Kael, my inner wolf, snarled viciously, thrashing against my ribs in a blind, suffocating panic. You fool! You are driving her away!

I gritted my teeth, my hands gripping the edge of the desk until the wood groaned. I forced the beast down, suffocating his pathetic whimpers. It wasn't panic. It was fury. How dare a useless, wolfless Omega challenge my authority? How dare she think she could just walk away without my permission?

"She doesn't get to leave until I say so," I growled. My Alpha aura leaked into the room, heavy and suffocating, forcing Talia to lower her head and bare her neck in submission. "Call her right now. Tell her she has two choices. She finishes that document for Isabelle, or I will officially declare her grandmother and uncle as enemies of the Pack. No territory will harbor them. They will be hunted as Rogues."

Talia swallowed hard, clearly confused by my refusal to just let the trash walk away, but she nodded quickly. "Yes, Alpha. I will call her immediately."

She turned toward the elevator but hesitated. "There is one more thing. A human courier dropped off a thick envelope from her this morning, addressed to Beta Liam."

I waved a dismissive hand, already reaching out to re-open the mind-link with my allies. "File it with the rest of her garbage. I don't have time for her desperate attempts for attention."

"Understood."

Talia walked over to the bottom drawer of my desk-the one dedicated to the useless trinkets Seraphina used to send me. I didn't even glance up as Talia tossed the heavy, unopened envelope inside. It landed softly atop a pile of dust-covered star charts and pressed bookmarks.

The drawer clicked shut, burying whatever pathetic plea she had sent in the dark.

Seraphina POV

The confined space of my sedan felt like a tomb. Outside the windshield, the towering glass facade of Blackwood Enterprises loomed like a jagged tombstone against the gray sky. I gripped the steering wheel, my knuckles white, trying to breathe through the agonizing, icy claws of the Terminal Soul Wither tearing at my chest.

Before I could even turn the key in the ignition, my phone buzzed. Talia's name flashed on the screen.

I answered, pressing the phone to my ear.

"Alpha gives you two choices," Talia's voice clipped through the speaker, colder and sharper than it had been in the lobby. "One, you finish that document for Isabelle, and then you can leave. Two, if you refuse, the Blackwood Pack will officially declare your grandmother and uncle as enemies of our allies. I guarantee you, Omega, no Pack on this continent will dare harbor them. They will be hunted down as Rogues."

My heart plummeted into my stomach. The phone trembled against my cheek as a sickening mix of terror and pure, unadulterated rage boiled in my veins. Damien knew exactly where to strike. He was using the only family I had left to chain me to his cruelty.

I closed my eyes, swallowing the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. "Tell your Alpha I am sick," I replied, my voice eerily hollow. "I need a leave of absence."

I hung up before she could utter another word. It wasn't a lie-my soul was literally dying-but to Damien, it would just sound like a pathetic, cowardly excuse.

A sharp rap on my window made me jump.

A messenger stood on the sidewalk, wearing the new, bastardized livery of the Gray family. He didn't wait for me to roll down the window; he simply slipped a heavy parchment envelope under my windshield wiper and walked away.

I stepped out on my throbbing ankle, snatching the envelope. It was a formal summons from my father, Marcus Thorne. He was "notifying" me that I was required to attend a dinner tonight at Gray Manor to celebrate Jaxon's official alliance with Anjelica Carney.

There was no warmth in the elegant calligraphy, only cold exploitation. He despised me for being a wolfless disappointment, but the title of "Blackwood Alpha's Fated Mate" still held enough weight to decorate his vanity.

I stared at the wax seal-my mother's sacred white wolf crest, now tainted by Thorne's name. A freezing fire ignited in my gut. I wouldn't let these usurpers celebrate their stolen victories in my mother's sanctuary while I hid like a coward.

By the time I arrived at Gray Manor that evening, the air was already thick with the scent of expensive champagne and suffocating arrogance. I walked through the familiar grand doors, ignoring the blatant, sneering glares of the servants who used to bow to me.

"Thick skin," a shrill voice echoed from the grand staircase.

My half-sister, Zara Thorne, leaned against the mahogany banister in a lavish crimson gown, a malicious fake smile plastered on her face. "I thought a wolfless dumped by her Alpha would know to keep her tail tucked between her legs. I can't believe you actually had the nerve to show your face here."

I didn't flinch. I slowly looked around the foyer, my eyes settling on the massive oil portrait of my mother, Elara Gray, hanging above the mantel.

"My mother's power protects this manor," I said, my voice dead calm, cutting through the ambient noise of the party. "And you are just a parasite living inside it. You have no right to act high and mighty in front of me."

Zara's smug expression faltered, her face twisting in ugly, speechless fury. But a second later, her eyes darted toward the drawing room doors, and a wicked, knowing smirk returned to her lips.

The heavy oak doors opened.

Jaxon walked out, his arm wrapped intimately around the waist of Anjelica Carney. He looked powerful, polished, and entirely foreign to the boy who used to protect me. His eyes met mine, but there was absolutely no warmth in them. No recognition of the girl who had endured years of abuse just to keep him safe.

"Darling," Jax said smoothly to Anjelica, gesturing lazily toward Zara and me. "This is Zara, and Seraphina... my two sisters."

The casual grouping erased everything we had ever been to each other.

Anjelica offered a polite, diplomatic smile, opening her mouth to introduce herself.

"Don't," Jax interrupted her. His gaze locked onto mine, sharp and merciless like a blade. He spoke with the absolute, freezing authority of a warrior addressing a subordinate. "Seraphina. This is Anjelica, the future Luna of the Carney Pack. Call her 'Sister-in-law'."