Annis POV:

The penthouse was cold. It smelled of him-cedar and rain-a scent that used to be home, now just a trigger for nausea.

"Ten minutes," Dominick said. "The cleaners are coming to sanitize the room before Chastity moves in."

I went to the closet. Empty.

"I threw them out," Chastity said from the doorway, filing her nails. "Hideous rags."

"Where is my lockbox?" I demanded. "It was under the floorboard."

"Oh, that?" She pointed to the fireplace.

My blood froze.

A fire crackled in the hearth. In the center, my metal lockbox glowed red hot.

"My passport!" I screamed, lunging.

"Ah-ah," Chastity tutted, kicking a heavy chair in my path. I stumbled.

"Why?" I cried. "I saved your life!"

"Because," she whispered, stepping closer while Dominick was in the other room. "You're a loose end. As long as you're breathing, he might remember what the bond felt like. I can't have that."

She grabbed a heavy brass candle holder from the mantle. Infused with Wolfsbane oil.

"Time to finish this," she hissed.

She swung.

I ducked. The brass hit the wall.

Something inside me snapped.

The blood loss had flushed the suppressants. The White Wolf woke up.

Enough!

Power surged. I grabbed her wrist.

"You took everything," I snarled, my voice layering with the wolf's. "My husband. My dignity. My blood."

I shoved her.

She flew backward, crashing into the table with the lit Wolfsbane candles.

The candles toppled. The oil spilled onto the rug.

Whoosh.

Flames erupted. Thick, purple smoke filled the air.

I coughed, lungs seizing. Wolfsbane smoke is paralyzing to wolves. My legs gave out.

Chastity screamed. "Dom! Help! She's trying to kill me!"

Dominick burst in.

The room was an inferno. I was on the floor, paralyzed. Chastity was near the door, feigning a faint.

Dominick looked at me. Our eyes met.

"Dom..." I reached out. "Please..."

He looked at the fire. He looked at me. Then he looked at Chastity's stomach.

"My heir," he muttered.

He turned his back on me.

He scooped Chastity up and ran.

He left me to burn.

The betrayal hurt more than the fire. It seared my soul. The bond, the thin thread that still connected us, turned to ash.

Get up, my wolf commanded. We do not die for him.

With a scream of rage, I forced my paralyzed body to move. I crawled. The heat blistered my skin.

I reached the service elevator. I smashed the button.

As the doors closed, blocking out the flames, I made a vow.

Annis the weakling died in that fire. The White Wolf was born.

Dominick POV:

The ambulance sirens were loud, but the silence in my head was louder.

I sat on the bumper of the firetruck. Chastity was sobbing into my shirt.

"She went crazy, Dom," she wailed. "She attacked me. She set the fire."

I nodded, but my eyes were fixed on the smoking penthouse.

Why didn't she follow?

"Did you see her come out?" I asked a firefighter.

"No, sir. Top floor is gutted. If anyone was in there... they're gone."

A hollow ache opened up in my chest.

I closed my eyes and reached for the bond. Usually, it was a dull thrum I ignored.

Now, just static.

"No," I whispered.

"Dom?" Chastity looked up. "It's for the best, baby. She was dangerous."

Days passed. No body found. Police assumed incineration or escape.

I tried to move on. I had Chastity. I had the heir.

But the new mansion felt wrong.

I found myself walking through the rooms, sniffing. Searching for snowdrops and honey. Annis's scent.

Now, everything smelled of Chastity's roses. Overpowering. Sickening.

I went to my study. I unlocked my phone.

I scrolled back to the old messages.

Annis: Dinner is ready.

Annis: Happy Birthday, Dom.

I had never replied.

I opened a new message.

To: Annis

Where are you? Come back. That is an order.

I hit send.

Message Delivery Failed.

She had destroyed her SIM card.

Panic, cold and sharp, pricked at my skin.

I called my Private Investigator.

"Find her," I barked. "And find out what happened that night. I want the security footage from the hallway. I want Chastity's medical records cross-referenced. Everything."

"She'll be back," I told the empty room. "She has nowhere else to go."

I didn't know she was already four thousand miles away, in London.

And I didn't know that the silence in my head wasn't just distance. It was death.