I was about to speak when I looked up and saw Cassius standing behind Eloise.

Those cold, imperious eyes, unchanged in ten years. Not by a fraction. The scent of black frost and ancient stone rolled ahead of him like a warning, and the air in the chamber thickened with the weight of his presence. Every wolf in the hall had already lowered their gaze. Every wolf except me.

When I didn't respond, Eloise ground her teeth and snapped:

"I knew it! You've been playing hard to get this whole time! You say you don't want anything, you don't compete for anything, but the second I tell you to go to the Hollow Den, you won't do it! Liar!"

"Eloise."

Cassius said her name, just once, and every sharp edge on her smoothed out in an instant. She burrowed into his arms, small and pitiful, her wolf settling into the safety of his aura like a pup curling against its sire.

Even though I had given Cassius a daughter five years ago, Eloise was still the only pup who existed in his eyes.

He'd even sent my baby away the day after I gave birth, afraid that having my own pup would make me less devoted to Eloise. A pup I had nearly died delivering.

The agony of labor was nothing compared to the pain of being separated from my daughter.

But for the honor of my bloodline, for my parents stationed on the distant Unclaimed Territories, I had pulled myself together and gone back to pleasing this father and daughter.

Ten years, though.

I was done.

For the first time, I did not bare my throat or lower my gaze to Cassius. I looked him straight in the eye.

"Your wolf Seraphina Thornfield has offended the late Luna and failed in her care of the Alpha's heir. I request to be sent to the Hollow Den."

Cassius walked toward me, slow and deliberate. Those deep-set eyes betrayed nothing. His Alpha aura pressed against my skin like a hand on my chest, but I held my ground.

"Are you throwing a tantrum?"

"But you did offend the late Luna today."

I knelt and pressed my forehead to the cold stone floor. "The fault is mine. I ask the Alpha to send me to the Hollow Den."

I had called myself "your wolf," not "your bonded." The same term I'd used ten years ago, before any of this began.

Cassius's brow furrowed tight.

"Eloise spoke out of anger. Why must you hold it against her? Besides, she can't do without you."

"Apologize to her nicely, right now, and I'll pretend I never heard any of this."

He assumed I would do what I had always done: lower my head and beg their forgiveness.

I didn't move. Somewhere deep inside me, my wolf lay flat and still, her muzzle between her paws. Not in submission. In refusal.

Eloise, tired of waiting for her apology, balled her fists and charged at me, pounding blow after blow against my body.

"You're the one who wants to take my mother's place! Why won't you apologize to me!"

"You promised you'd never have pups of your own besides me! You lied! You're the one who wronged me!"

Her fists struck the exact spot where I'd been injured half a moon cycle ago, saving her when she fell during a pack run. Pain tore through me so fast my face contorted.

Cassius only looked annoyed. "She's a ten-year-old pup. How hard can she possibly hit?"

Then the blood began seeping through my shoulder, staining the fabric dark.

Only then did his expression shift. He reached out and caught Eloise's arm.

Eloise stared at the spreading red, startled, but she still lifted her chin in defiance.

"You were already hurt. Don't you dare blame me for that!"

I looked at Eloise with a bitter half-smile. "The Alpha's heir is absolutely right."

I had no desire to argue with a pup. All I wanted now was to get away from this father and daughter as fast as I could.

I had promised Cassius I would never bear a pup of my own. Every time I was called to his chambers, I drank the wolfsbane fertility suppressant without fail.

But five years ago, Cassius had accidentally been dosed with a heat-triggering tonic. That night he was relentless, and I couldn't escape him.

I didn't wake until the following evening. I took the suppressant immediately.

Two weeks later, the routine health check from the pack healer still came back carrying.

Cassius said nothing at the time, but his brow stayed knotted, and it didn't ease.

The Unclaimed Territories were in crisis then. Morale among the border wolves had plummeted.

Cassius, still seething, had been withholding supply shipments to the frontier outposts. To rally the wolves, to give my parents and brother fighting on the border something to hold on to, I had no choice.

I let word of the pregnancy spread.

Cassius had no sons. For a pack bloodline, there was no greater vulnerability.

So when news broke that I was carrying a pup, the entire realm believed the Valdoran line finally had an heir.

Morale had never been higher.

My father and brother had crushed the rogue packs that plagued the Unclaimed Territories for years, even capturing their war-chief's firstborn.

From that moment on, the two of them saw me as a woman of calculating ambition.

Even when the pup I bore turned out to be only a little girl, she was sent away from the pack den the very next day.

The memory of that tiny face, glimpsed for barely a second, sent a dull ache through my chest.

I had done what I knew I shouldn't have. I had wanted too much.

I met Cassius's dark, unreadable gaze and spoke with all the sincerity I possessed:

"If the Alpha still holds any regard for our past and cannot bring himself to banish me to the Hollow Den, then send me beyond the territory walls to be with Rosalind. Tell the pack I left of my own will, to offer prayers to the Moon Goddess for the pack's prosperity."

A crease of anger had already settled between Cassius's brows:

"I've already shown you more kindness than you deserve. I even sent for Rosalind to be brought into the den. What more do you want?"

"Even if Eloise went too far today, you raised her for ten years. That she turned out this way is your failure. What right do you have to be dissatisfied?"

My voice remained steady, earnest:

"I have no dissatisfaction. I only ask for the Alpha's grace."

Cassius was silent for a long moment before his voice turned cold:

"No bonded Omega has ever left the pack den. Since you've begged to be thrown into the Hollow Den, I'll grant your wish."

His tone shifted: "If you regret it, I can still revoke the order. The command hasn't been announced to the other quarters yet."

I pressed my forehead to the ground, baring the back of my neck in full submission, and accepted. "I thank the Alpha for his grace."

"Seraphina!"

Cassius ground out my name through clenched teeth, then turned and swept from the room. The scent of black frost and iron trailed behind him, sharp enough to cut.

The Hollow Den was bleak and desolate, yet I felt lighter than I had in years.

If I hadn't come here, Eloise would only have grown more furious seeing me close to Rosalind.

She didn't love me, but she was fiercely possessive of me.

To embroider the perfect blessing charm for her, I had stitched a hundred and seventy-seven before she finally picked the one she liked.

The rest she burned in a single fire.

At the time, Eloise had said:

"I know you wanted to save one for Rosalind. But she doesn't deserve to have the same things as me."

Her smile was innocent. Her eyes were as cold and deep as her father's.

A plate of coarse bread and half-raw greens was set before me.

The den attendant who brought it looked vaguely familiar. She smiled and said:

"You're no Luna-Designate now. You should count yourself lucky to get even this."

"If you hadn't served the Alpha all those years, you probably wouldn't get anything at all."

When I gave no reaction, she let out a theatrical sigh:

"Really, all you'd have to do is bow your head to the Alpha, and you could have any delicacy you wanted. You were a pampered young lady in the Thornfield bloodline. Why ruin yourself over a moment of stubbornness?"

Behind the crumbling door, a sliver of the Alpha's ceremonial gold peeked into view.

I understood. This was Cassius's clumsy way of offering me a way out.

He had always used other people's mouths to remind me that I was nothing without him.

And I had always followed meekly behind him and his daughter, without a word of complaint.

Ten years of being hollow. I was done.

I fixed my gaze on that sliver of gold fabric and spoke:

"No feast in the world compares to this simple meal. These days in the Hollow Den have given me more peace than I ever knew before."

Here, I didn't need to please anyone. I didn't need to carry the weight of my bloodline's honor.

And no one stood over me every waking moment to remind me I was a replacement, a cuckoo in another wolf's nest.

The door slammed shut. The flash of gold vanished.

I had no interest in chasing after him. I turned back to my meal.

But a small figure came darting out from behind the door.

She had her hair tied in two little buns, and the moment she saw me, she called out for her mother, over and over.

We had never met before. Yet I knew her at a single glance. Something deep inside me went very still, then ached with a recognition that had nothing to do with sight. This was my flesh and blood, separated from me for five long years.

"Mama... Daddy..."

Rosalind kept pointing in the direction the man had gone.

The she-wolf who'd been bringing my meals raised her brows, looking at me as though I were the most ungrateful creature alive.

"The Alpha brought Pup Rosalind here the moment she arrived at the den, all so you'd agree to leave this place. And you threw his kindness back in his face!"

I finally recognized her. She was the Alpha's personal den attendant, Margery Ashveil.

Ten years ago, she'd come to the Valdoran Pack as part of the late Luna Isabelle Ravencrest's bonding retinue. She bore a faint resemblance to the Luna in both her human and wolf form, and Eloise used to cling to her as a small pup, calling her "Mother."

Margery claimed she stayed by the Alpha's side to care for the wolves the late Luna couldn't bear to leave behind. But her real feelings slipped through the cracks often enough. There was something faintly cloying about her presence, like dried lilac left too long in a sealed room, and it carried the same quality as her devotion: sweetness just beginning to turn.

I wasn't jealous. I wasn't even irritated.

I only said, quietly:

"Since you care so much about the Alpha, why don't you go comfort him on behalf of me and your beloved Luna?"

She glared at me, furious.

"I just can't stand the way you act, taking his affection for granted. You know perfectly well that the Alpha cares for you, yet you insist on playing these games!"

She stamped her foot and stormed out.

She called herself a sworn wolf to my face, but there wasn't an ounce of respect behind it. Not a lowered gaze, not a tilted chin. Nothing.

It didn't matter. I'd already stopped caring about Cassius himself. The opinions of the wolves around him mattered even less.

I gathered Rosalind into my arms and held her close, savoring every second of this brief, borrowed time together.

The dark circles under her eyes were impossible to miss. She'd clearly been struggling to sleep for a long while. She smelled of honeyed milk and crushed rose petals and the clean warmth of sunlit wool, but beneath that sweetness there was something thin, something worn, like a pup whose body had been running on fear instead of rest.

My heart ached. I found the softest fabric I had and sewed a small scent-sachet filled with calming herbs for her, tucking a thread of my own scent into the lining so she could carry it against her skin.

I'd just started to rock her to sleep when the rotting doors of the Hollow Den were kicked open with a crash.

The moment Eloise saw Rosalind cradled in my arms, something wild flared in her eyes. Her scent spiked, frost-touched violets sharpening into something electric, and she rushed forward, reaching to tear Rosalind away.

I frowned and raised my hand to block her. Her eyes rimmed red instantly.

"You haven't held me like that in so long. Why are you holding her?"

"I knew it. You only care about your own pup. You never really loved me!"

Like a small, starving animal denied the one thing it craved, Eloise's tears fell in fat, heavy drops.

But I could only furrow my brow in confusion.

"Eloise, have you forgotten what you said to me?"

From the time Eloise was still in swaddling furs, I'd held her in my arms every night and rocked her to sleep.

Then one day, when she was four and old enough to form memories, she suddenly burst into tears and accused me of pinching her.

She said she was afraid I'd pinch her to death in her sleep.

Someone had clearly whispered those words into her ear. But Cassius never investigated. He dismissed it as the fragile outburst of a pup mourning her birth mother.

Worse, he blamed me for failing to raise Eloise well enough, claiming my negligence had made her so insecure.

After that, Eloise was no longer just a pup to me. She was also my Alpha's daughter.

I never dared overstep again. Holding her was out of the question.

Eloise seemed to remember all of this too, but she doubled down regardless.

"Then you still can't hold her!"

Rosalind, startled awake by the noise, didn't cry. She just burrowed deeper into my arms, trembling. Her small fingers curled into my tunic, and I felt her heartbeat hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.

The sight only enraged Eloise further. She lunged forward and grabbed at us.

I didn't see it coming. She shoved me, and I fell.

Rosalind screamed. I wrapped myself around her, shielding her with everything I had.

My arm struck the stone floor and I heard the crack before I felt it. The color drained from my face.

But Eloise acted as though she'd seized on some unforgivable offense. She ripped the scent-sachet I'd sewn for Rosalind right off her clothes and held it up.

"Why does she get the same sachet as me?!"

I looked into Eloise's eyes, brimming with hatred, and let out a weary sigh.

"The sachet I made for you? You threw it into the fire pit a long time ago."

"Besides, she's my daughter. Is it so wrong for me to make something for her?"

If Eloise cared to remember, she would know that what I'd done for her went far beyond a single scent-sachet.

Sewing her winter pelts through the bitter cold. Making ice for her in the sweltering heat.

I taught her music, strategy, calligraphy, painting, every craft of needle and thread. Every last skill I had, I poured into that child without reservation.

Yet she still glared at me with those hateful eyes. "I knew it. You only ever cared about your own daughter!"

She hurled the scent-sachet to the ground and stamped on it, grinding it into the dirt until it was filthy and ruined. Only then did she whip around and storm off.

That rigid, retreating back was identical to her father's.

Rosalind had gone white with shock, but she still blinked back tears and helped me to my feet.

Then, with careful fingers, she wiped the scent-sachet clean and tucked it against her chest.

"Don't cry, Mama..."

My heart ached so badly I pulled her into my arms. Before I could say a single word, the Alpha's wolves came and took her away.

As they led her off, Rosalind turned and waved, smiling.

"I'll come see you again tomorrow, Mama!"

Tomorrow never came. Wailing tore through the pack den and ripped me from sleep.

My chest seized. I ran out without shoes, without wrappings, without stopping.