Chapter 3

That night, Kael stayed.

He sat on the edge of my bed in the healing suite, pressing a damp cloth to my swollen cheek with the same hands that had ordered my beating hours earlier.

He brought me water. Adjusted the furs. Even murmured — voice low, almost tender — that he'd arrange healers for my mother regardless of whether the paralysis was "real or not."

I watched him through half-closed eyes and understood exactly what this was.

Performance. Not for me — for his wolf.

An Alpha's instinct to protect his mate runs bone-deep, wired into the marrow. Kael couldn't override it completely — not even for Selene. So he soothed the guilt the only way he knew how: by rearranging the scene into something his wolf could tolerate. A misunderstanding. A rough night. An Alpha tending his Luna after things got out of hand.

I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep.

It took him less than five minutes to drift to the other bed. Selene's bed.

Through the thin veil of faked sleep, I heard everything. The rustle of sheets. Her whispered laugh. His voice dropping into a register he never used with me — low, teasing, intimate. The kind of voice a wolf saves for the one he considers his.

They murmured back and forth like chosen mates who'd forgotten anyone else was in the room. Or maybe they just didn't care.

I lay still. Breathed evenly. Counted the hours until my transport.

The next morning, I went to the healing ward.

My mother was awake. The breathing enchantment had been removed, but she still couldn't move anything below her neck. Her eyes — sharp, dark, untouched by the catastrophe of her body — found me the instant I stepped through the door.

Then they locked onto my face.

The bruises. The stitches. The swelling no amount of healing salve could mask.

Her voice was barely a rasp. "Rowan... who did this? Was it Kael?"

I took her hand — the hand that couldn't squeeze back — and forced a smile.

"It's nothing, Mama. A misunderstanding. Looks worse than it feels."

She didn't believe me. But she was trapped in a body that could no longer fight for me, and the helplessness swimming in her eyes cut deeper than any blow.

"Listen," I said, leaning close. "Tonight, I'm getting you out of here. I've arranged transport to the Silverpeak sanctuary — their healers specialize in nerve restoration. It'll take time, but you're going to walk again."

For the first time in days, something resembling hope surfaced in her face.

Then the door crashed open.

Kael strode in flanked by two enforcers. Selene was right behind him, her bruised jaw now hidden beneath a silk scarf — a wounded queen on a righteous mission.

My stomach dropped.

Selene spoke first, one manicured finger aimed at me like a claw.

"The pack ledger is missing. The one tracking every tribute payment and alliance fund from the last eighteen moons."

She turned to Kael, her voice cracking with rehearsed distress. "I found the vault open this morning. The only wolf with partial access besides you and me — is her."

I stared at her. "What ledger? I've never touched your books."

"Rowan." Kael's voice was a blade. "That ledger holds information that could bring down every alliance we've built. If it reaches the Council, this pack is finished."

"I didn't take it. I don't even know the vault wards —"

"Then you won't mind if we search."

It wasn't a question. He jerked his chin at the enforcers.

They swept through the healing ward like wolves clearing a den — systematic, indifferent. Every cabinet opened. Every shelf checked. My mother's personal bag rifled through without ceremony.

My mother lay frozen, eyes wide, unable to turn her head from the men dismantling her space.

"Stop it," I said. "She can't move. How could she possibly hide anything?"

Selene hovered near the bed. Her gaze swept the room with theatrical urgency — then stopped.

She pointed at the pillow beneath my mother's head.

"There. Something's under there."

"Don't you dare —"

The enforcer moved before I could intercept. He seized the pillow and wrenched it sideways in one brutal motion.

A leather folio tumbled onto the mattress.

But the pillow wasn't the only thing that moved.

My mother's healing line — the enchanted catheter threaded into the vein at her neck, channeling restorative magic directly into her damaged nerves — snagged on the enforcer's sleeve. The tube ripped free with a wet, sucking sound.

Blood — dark, arterial, immediate — began streaming down her neck, pooling in the hollow of her collarbone.

"Mama!"

I lunged for her, pressing both hands against the wound, feeling the warm pulse of her life slipping between my fingers.

Behind me, Selene lifted the folio like evidence at a tribunal. "Right where I said it would be."

Kael looked at the folio. Then at me — crouched over my bleeding mother, hands slick with red.

"Rowan. Explain."

I couldn't speak. I was pressing a bedsheet to my mother's neck, screaming for a healer, watching color drain from her face.

"I'm talking to you." He grabbed my arm and hauled me upright.

Something detonated.

My palm connected with his face before I knew I'd moved. The crack ricocheted off the stone walls like a thunderclap.

Kael's head snapped sideways. The room went dead silent. Even the enforcers froze — because a Luna striking her Alpha was not defiance.

It was a declaration of war.

"Get out." My voice was raw, shredded, barely human. "Take your enforcers and your Beta and get the hell out of this room before my mother bleeds to death."

Kael touched his cheek. His eyes were wide — not with rage, but genuine, uncomprehending shock. His wolf flickered behind his irises, amber bleeding through brown, confused by the scent of his mate's fury mixed with her mother's blood.

In three years, I had never raised a hand to him. Never raised my voice. Never once deviated from the role of the quiet, obedient Luna.

He was staring at a stranger.

I didn't wait for him to recover. I shoved past him and ran into the corridor, screaming for a healer.