Seraphina’s POV

After the Healing Hall checked her over, I took my pup home.

Once I’d settled her in, I went upstairs to start gathering our documents.

That was when I suddenly heard a voice behind me.

“Seraphina, what are you doing?”

I paused for a heartbeat, forcing down the wave of hatred in my chest, and answered evenly, “I’m packing our papers.”

Roderick didn’t sense anything amiss.

As always, he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around me from behind.

I hadn’t expected it and couldn’t dodge in time. His embrace closed around me completely. But the moment Calla’s scent reached me, that sweet jasmine curdling over decay so distinctly hers, clinging to his skin where another wolf had no right to leave it, I nearly gagged. My own wolf recoiled inside me, lips peeling back from teeth I couldn’t show him.

He didn’t notice my stiff reaction and went on speaking as if nothing were wrong.

“Seraphina, I’m just so relieved you and our pup are safe. I never imagined something would happen at the festival grounds. If I had known, no matter how urgent pack business was, I would never have left you two behind.”

His tone carried lingering fear, his words spoken with such conviction.

But knowing the truth, I felt nothing at all.

I lifted my gaze to him. Roderick’s expression was as gentle as ever.

These arms had once been a safe harbor for me and my pup.

Now, they were the very weapon poised to destroy us.

The thought made me lower my eyes. Without a trace of emotion, I slipped his arm away from my waist.

“It’s fine. Your pack matters. My pup and I are safe.”

Roderick, long accustomed to my understanding nature, frowned slightly and put on a show of pained sincerity.

“How could the pack ever matter more than you and our pup? I honestly don’t know… If, after losing our son, I were to lose you two as well, how could I go on living?”

At the mention of our dead cub, I couldn’t stop the flash of hatred that passed through my eyes. Somewhere deep inside me, my wolf made a low, broken sound at the word son, a grief that had no bottom.

Before I could speak, his communicator chimed.

He pulled the crystal from his pocket, glanced at it, and gave me a smile.

“It’s someone from the pack. I’ll step outside to take this.”

I nodded calmly, though my claws pressed so deep into my palm that they drew blood.

When he raised the crystal, I caught the name glowing across its surface, exactly as I expected. It was Calla.

From outside came his hurried, anxious voice. For some reason, my stomach tightened with unease, and my wolf went still and watchful beneath my skin.

A moment later, he stormed back in, eyes flashing gold, and without warning, he struck me hard across the face.

“Why did you lay a hand on Calla? She’s carrying a pup right now! If anything happens to her, I’ll make you pay with your life!”

I clutched my cheek, staring at him in utter disbelief.

The moment he saw the mark blooming across my skin, he froze.

Something flickered in his eyes, something complicated. He reached out, as if to touch my face.

But before his fingers could graze my skin, the crystal chimed again.

He gave me one long, heavy look, and then he turned and walked out.

I bolted downstairs, intent on grabbing my pup and leaving this hell.

But I hadn’t even reached the front door before Roderick caught me, his grip on my arm like iron, his Alpha aura crashing down over the hall until the air itself thickened and pushed at my shoulders.

Without a word, he dragged me and Wrenna toward the carriage. No matter how hard she cried, he refused to let go.

By the time I snapped out of my daze, we had already arrived at the same festival grounds we visited on our mating anniversary.

The high coaster, still hanging midair from the earlier accident, remained unmended. In one swift motion, Roderick wrenched my pup out of my arms.

“Tell me where Calla is,” he growled, the sound rolling up from his chest, “or you’ll regret it!”

Clutching my pup tightly, he climbed into the storm-hawk. As it rose higher and higher, my heart lurched. And then, without a shred of hesitation, he placed Wrenna back into that same faulty coaster.

She had already been traumatized by it once.

Now, she wailed uncontrollably.

Her cries tore through me, each sob shredding my chest. My wolf was screaming, throwing herself against the cage of my ribs to reach the pup we could not touch. Watching the coaster sway under his hand, I could barely breathe.

“I don’t know anything, Roderick!” I screamed hoarsely. “I don’t care who took Calla. Just put my pup down now!”

Seraphina's POV

I was nearly hysterical.

But the tender, doting father from earlier was gone. In his place stood a cold, unfeeling man, his expression like stone, his scent gone all wrong, scorched cedar and cold iron now soured by that faint rot beneath, as he deliberately rocked the dangling carriage that held our pup high above the ground.

"I'll give you ten seconds," he said flatly. "And I'll shake it harder each time I count."

True to his word, he increased the force.

I stared at my daughter, her sobs breaking into hiccups, my nails digging deep into my palms until I felt the burn of skin splitting, my own wolf clawing at the inside of my chest with no way out. He showed us no mercy, none at all. My chest ached so violently I thought I might faint.

Seeing her tiny body tremble, her cries nearly turning into convulsions, my tears finally spilled over.

"Roderick, I truly don't know! I have no idea where Calla is! Please, just bring our daughter down, she can't take this anymore!"

My plea didn't move him in the slightest. He simply kept counting, voice as cold as the silver that burns.

"Eight."

Just earlier, back at the estate, he had pressed his forehead to mine and apologized for the fright on the high run, his scent warm then, almost the mate I remembered.

And now, because of Calla, he had become the executioner, his Alpha aura pressing down on me like a cold weight, personally threatening his own.

I broke into a scream. "Roderick! Go check! Look at the watcher-crystals! I didn't take Calla! Please, let Wrenna go! She's your pup too! She's about to collapse! I'm begging you, please!"

I even dropped to my knees in the dirt, my throat closing over the howl that wanted to tear loose.

But he didn't so much as glance at me. The cold, relentless countdown continued.

I couldn't take it anymore. I scrambled toward the suspended carriage, trying to climb up to her.

He watched me with icy detachment, the gold in his eyes flat and dead.

Just as the countdown neared its end, my fingers brushed the edge of Wrenna's carriage. My heart leapt. I reached out without a thought for my own safety, desperate to pull her free.

But in the next instant, Roderick yanked me back onto the deck of the storm-hawk, and, with a sharp crack, he slapped me hard across the face.

"Are you insane? Climbing that high, what if you fell?"

For a brief moment, his eyes betrayed a flicker of worry, his wolf surfacing against his will.

But I could no longer believe in him.

Gripping his sleeve, I choked out, "I'm begging you, Roderick. Do whatever you want to me. Blame me for taking Calla if you must. Just let her go, I'll take Wrenna's place in that carriage if that's what you want."

He gripped my sleeve tightly, the words tearing out of him in a roar that shook the deck. "For the sake of that bastard cub you whelped with Caspian, you'd even throw away your life? Then why did you mate me?!"

With that, he shoved me toward one of his pack warriors.

"I won't let that bastard live. You'd better tell me where Calla is, or else, I'll make that bastard pay with her life!"

I thrashed against their hold, tears streaming freely, my wolf snarling and lunging beneath my skin with nowhere to go.

"I really don't know! After we came down from the high run, we went straight back to the estate! I never had the chance to take Calla! Wrenna's your daughter, Roderick! You can run a bloodline trace if you don't believe me! But please, let her go now!"

I wailed, throwing my dignity into the dirt for him to trample.

And still… he refused to believe me.

Seraphina's POV

Roderick heard my words. But instead of calming, the fury rolling off him only thickened, his Alpha aura pressing down on the high wooden platform until the very air felt like it might crack. With a sudden and violent shove, he slammed his weight against the suspended car.

Wrenna had already lost consciousness completely. Her small body began sliding toward the edge.

Beneath her was nothing but a thousand-meter drop into the dark of the ravine. One fall, and there would be nothing left of her.

A madness took hold of me. Somewhere beneath my skin my wolf threw herself against the silver-laced restraints, howling, and I struggled like someone possessed, desperate to pull Wrenna back. But the warriors' hands clamped on me refused to loosen.

Roderick merely stood there, watching my frantic struggle with cold detachment, as though he were watching some circus performance.

At that moment, I understood. He had never once truly cared about me or our pup.

"I've already done the bloodline test, Seraphina," he said, his voice cruel and unyielding. "Your words mean nothing now."

He announced that false result with merciless finality.

I couldn't understand why the bloodline test, false as it was, had turned his attitude so vicious. His scent reached me through the wind, scorched cedar and cold iron, and beneath it that faint rot I had never been able to name. But I was certain, beyond all doubt, that my daughter was his flesh and blood.

Before I could speak, his communicator chimed again. His Omega liaison.

A flash of urgency crossed Roderick's face. He answered quickly, and because he stood so close, I could hear every word with a wolf's ears.

"Alpha, we've located Calla. She was being held in an abandoned mill on the old hunting grounds. Luckily, we reached her in time. If we hadn't, I'm afraid her pup wouldn't have made it. She's been carried to the Healing Hall now."

The moment he heard the pup was safe, the tension in Roderick's face eased.

But when his gaze swung back to me, it turned cold again. Cold and full of rage, his eyes flashing a hard amber.

"I never imagined you could be so vicious, Seraphina. You'll pay for this."

"No! It wasn't me! You can investigate if you want! It wasn't me!"

Panic surged through me. I clutched at the leg of his trousers, desperate for him to believe me, my wolf keening low in my chest.

But he kicked me away without hesitation. And then, before my horrified eyes, he struck the final blow to my daughter, who was barely clinging to the car.

"No!"

I watched her slip away, falling from the platform into the dark.

With the last of my strength, I tore free from the grip holding me and hurled myself forward, ready to follow her, ready to leave this world with her.

But a hand shot out from behind me, seizing me in a crushing grip.

I turned my head to see Roderick, the veins in his arm bulging as he dragged me back. Remembering how mercilessly he'd just treated our pup, I bit down hard on his arm, my canines lengthening into the bite.

But he didn't let go. Even through the pain, he pulled me all the way back into his arms.

He held me tightly, his tears falling hot against my neck, against the spot where his mating mark had long gone cold.

"It's fine," he whispered harshly. "That little brat is dead, and that's how it should be. Only with her gone can we start over. This... This is the price you had to pay."

I thrashed and fought with everything I had, but his strength was overwhelming.

As darkness closed in on me, my unwilling eyes searched the ground below, desperately, hopelessly, trying to catch even the faintest glimpse of my daughter.