Catherine POV:

I had to go back to the Manor for my passport and research drive, hidden in Errol's nursery floorboards.

I crept into Errol's room. He was sitting on the bed, clutching a spray bottle.

"You came back," Errol said. His voice wasn't angry; it was trembling.

"I just need something of mine, Errol."

"Anjelica says you're a monster," Errol whispered. "She says you want to hurt me."

"That's a lie."

"She gave me the holy water!" Errol shouted, raising the bottle. "She said it burns the monsters!"

"Errol, no—"

He squeezed the trigger.

Liquid sprayed across my chest and neck. It hissed.

I gasped, clawing at my skin. Wolfsbane. Diluted, but potent.

"It burns!" Errol screamed, dropping the bottle. "See? You are a monster! Mommy said it only hurts monsters!"

I fell to my knees, the chemical burn radiating down to my bones. He didn't know. He was a child holding a loaded gun he thought was a toy.

"I hate you!" he sobbed, curling into a ball. "Go away!"

I looked at him. My skin was blistering. But I saw the terror in his eyes. He wasn't evil. He was weaponized.

I stood up, using the pain as a focus. I wiped the wolfsbane off with a towel.

I pried open the floorboard, took my waterproof bag.

"Errol," I said, my voice calm.

He looked up, tear-streaked.

"One day you'll know the truth," I said. "And I hope you can forgive yourself."

I walked out.

I was scrubbing the wolfsbane from my skin in the motel shower when the door banged open.

"Get dressed," Anjelica said. She stood there with two guards. "Derek wants you at the track. He thinks a 'family outing' will clear the air."

"I'm not going anywhere with you."

"You are if you want your passport back," she held up the document I thought was safe in my bag. "I swiped it while you were bleeding in the nursery."

I had no choice.

At the track, Derek was pacing. He looked agitated.

"Why are we here?" I asked.

"Anjelica thought it would be good for us," Derek mumbled. "My wolf needs the speed. You used to love racing, Catherine."

"I was a wolf then, Derek."

"Just one lap," Anjelica tossed me the keys to a stock car. "Unless you're scared?"

I got in. I needed to get close enough to snatch the passport from her bag on the pit wall.

The flag dropped.

I drove with precision, relying on physics where I used to rely on instinct. I was winning.

Then I saw Anjelica in my mirror. Her eyes were glowing neon yellow. She wasn't racing. She was hunting.

She swerved, slamming her heavy sports car into my rear quarter panel. A PIT maneuver.

My car spun. The world turned into a blur.

Impact.

The car flipped. Metal screamed.

I hung upside down, blood dripping into my eyes.

Through the shattered windshield, I saw Anjelica get out. She checked a scratch on her bumper, then threw herself onto the grass.

"Derek!" she screamed. "My baby! She tried to kill me!"

Derek ran past my smoking wreckage. He didn't even look.

"Is the baby okay?" I heard him shout.

I let out a breath that rattled. Blackness took me.

Catherine POV:

Pain was my roommate now.

I woke up in the hospital. My arm was casted, ribs taped.

Errol stood in the doorway. He looked smaller than usual.

"Is the monster gone?" he asked a nurse.

"She's awake, sweetie," the nurse said coldly.

Derek walked in. He held a phone to his ear. "Yes, Mother. She's awake. Anjelica is shaken but fine. Catherine... she lost control of the car."

He hung up and looked at me. His eyes were empty.

"Why did you try to hit her, Catherine?"

"She PIT-maneuvered me," I rasped.

"Anjelica is carrying my heir. She wouldn't risk the baby," Derek said robotically. "I will pay for your recovery. But you cannot stay at the Manor. I'm moving you to the guest lodge on the eastern border."

The wasteland.

"Kick her out," I whispered. "She is poison."

"She is my future," he said. "And you are a liability."

He turned to leave.

"Derek," I called out. "I'm hungry."

"I'll tell a nurse," he said without turning.

He left.

I looked at the ceiling. I wasn't fighting for my marriage anymore. I was fighting to survive.

Two days later, the door burst open.

Dr. Evans, the head of the hospital, looked sweaty and nervous.

"We need you," he said.

"What?"

"Anjelica fell. She's hemorrhaging. She has a rare blood condition. You're the only match in the database."

"No," I said. "I just crashed a car. I'm anemic."

"Derek signed the consent forms," Evans said, avoiding my eyes. "General medical proxy. He said 'do whatever is necessary'."

Two orderlies grabbed me.

"Derek!" I screamed. "Let me talk to him!"

"He's sedated," Evans lied. "Anjelica's orders take precedence."

They dragged me to a procedure room.

"How much?" the nurse asked.

"Take three pints," Evans said, his voice shaking. "Miss Vance was specific."

"That will kill her," the nurse whispered.

"Just do it!"

I watched my life flow into the bag. It wasn't a donation. It was a harvest.

When I woke up, the room was spinning.

I had to leave. Now. Or I would die here.

I dragged myself out of bed. I found my bloodstained clothes.

I walked down the hallway, holding the wall. I passed Anjelica's suite.

The door was open. Derek was sitting on the bed, feeding Anjelica strawberries. He looked happy. Or high.

I reached into my pocket. My burner phone.

"Code Ghost," I whispered. "Zurich."

"Transport is at the secondary airstrip," Kaden said. "Forty minutes."

I walked out the back door.

My phone—the one Derek paid for—buzzed.

I know about the blood. Thank you. When you're better, we can send you to Hawaii.

He thought a vacation would fix exsanguination.

I dropped the phone into a trash can.

"Goodbye, Derek," I whispered. "You'll never find me."

Catherine POV:

The flight was a blur. We stopped in Italy for refueling.

I stood at the edge of a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. The wind felt like freedom.

Kaden stood beside me. He didn't smell like lies. He smelled of ozone and steel.

"I wasn't going to jump," I said.

"I know. You were just looking."

I looked at my hand. The platinum wedding band was a shackle.

I pulled it off.

"Do it," Kaden said.

I threw it. The ring arced and vanished into the whitecaps.

I fell to my knees.

"I, Catherine," I whispered, "reject the bond. I reject the past."

Thunder cracked. The rotting connection in my chest didn't snap; it dissolved like sugar in hot water.

"May we be strangers," I finished.

Kaden offered a hand. "Ready?"

"Yes."

"We have a new identity waiting in Zurich," Kaden said. "Kate Harding. Geneticist. Single."

"Perfect."

Catherine Hale was at the bottom of the ocean. Kate Harding got into the car.

Derek POV:

I was peeling an apple for Anjelica.

Suddenly, the knife slipped.

Pain exploded in my chest. A void opened up inside me, cold and absolute.

My wolf, Shadow, threw his head back and howled.

Gone, Shadow whimpered. Mate is gone.

"What?" I gasped.

I ran out of the room. I burst into Catherine's room.

Empty.

No note. No scent. Just the smell of bleach.

Dr. Evans walked by. I grabbed him by the throat.

"Where is she?"

"She left! After the donation!"

"Donation?" I froze.

"The blood," Evans stammered. "For Anjelica. We took three pints."

I let him go. Three pints? From a crash victim?

"I signed a general consent," I whispered. "I didn't order an execution."

"Anjelica said..." Evans started.

"What did she say?"

"She said you wanted her dry."

I staggered back.

I tried to Mind-Link. Catherine?

Silence. Dead air.