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.

Seraphina's POV

When I woke again, my gaze met the stark white ceiling of the Healing Hall above me. Ignoring the weakness that still clung to my limbs, the kind of weakness that came when a wolf's body had nothing left to draw on, I tried to push myself upright.

But before I could, a long and strong hand reached out from beside me and pressed me firmly back down.

It was Roderick. The faint crescent-shaped bite mark I'd left earlier was still etched into his wrist, raw against his scent of scorched cedar and cold iron, that something faintly rotten threading underneath it the way it always did now.

His brows furrowed as he forced me back against the pillow, and then he reached for a glass of juice.

"Drink some juice first," he said.

I pushed his hand aside without a second thought, my voice urgent. "Where's my pup? Where is she?!"

He answered as though I hadn't even asked. "Not a fan of cranberry? I'll have someone bring another."

My patience snapped. I knocked the glass from his hand, sending the dark red liquid splattering across the floor.

"You murderer!" I screamed. Somewhere beneath my ribs my wolf lunged at the bars of her own ruined body and got nowhere. "Where is my pup?!"

His expression darkened instantly. Rage flashed in his eyes, gold bleeding into the brown, and his Alpha aura cracked through the room like a dropped temperature as he slammed a fist into the wall.

"Pup, pup, she's all you ever think about! Let me tell you, because of you, Calla was frightened and lost so much blood she's on the verge of collapse! Until you make amends, I will never let you see that bastard again!"

My heart twisted like a blade was buried inside.

"She's not a bastard," I rasped, my throat raw. "She's your child!"

But Roderick's gaze was as cold as iron, unmoved by my pain.

"That brat is in the emergency room right now," he said flatly. "If you don't apologize to Calla, I'll order the healers to stop trying to save her."

The words knocked the air out of me. I slumped back onto the bed, my voice trembling.

"Fine… I'll apologize to her."

For a moment his expression faltered, surprise flickering in his eyes, but just as quickly it was gone, replaced by that familiar, impenetrable mask.

In silence, I let him drag me toward Calla's room.

We hadn't even stepped inside when chaos erupted from within. Roderick's Omega liaison burst out, panic written across his face, the dry-paper-and-weak-tea scent of him soured with fear.

"Alpha, the healer says Ms. Thornwood has lost too much blood, she needs an immediate transfusion!"

Roderick froze, then whipped around as if a thought had just struck him. Without warning, he yanked me into the room.

"Healer! Use her blood!"

The healer frowned, glancing from me to my thin hospital gown. His eyes widened.

"Alpha, this Luna is already weak from blood loss. Drawing more could put her in serious danger. We can easily call for compatible blood from the pack stores—"

Roderick's voice cut like ice.

"I'm not asking for your opinion. Just do as I say."

Under his unyielding demand, the thick needle pierced my arm.

I shut my eyes tight, forcing myself to endure the dizziness. I only wanted this over with. The sooner it was done, the sooner I could see my pup.

Roderick reached as if to smooth the deep furrow in my brow, but I turned my head sharply away. His scent came with the hand, cedar and iron and that faint rot, and my wolf shrank from it as though from silver.

"Seraphina," he murmured, voice low and falsely gentle, "I know you're in pain, but this is you paying for what you've done. Bear with it. It will be over soon."

I didn't so much as glance at him.

When it was finally over, my body gave out. I collapsed weakly onto the floor. The room had gone the kind of quiet where I could hear my own thinning heartbeat, and somewhere under it, my wolf had stopped making any sound at all.

As he moved toward the ward door, ready to rush to Calla, I forced my voice out, hoarse and faint.

"Now… can I see my pup?"

Even then, seeing me like this, he only scowled.

"You care so much for that brat," he said coldly, "but you still haven't apologized to Calla. Until you do, you won't see Wrenna."

I no longer had the strength, or the will, to remind him that my pup was his own blood, born of his own bloodline.

Four more days. Just four more days, and I could take her away for good.

When that day came, Roderick would never again be her father!