003

DECLAN.

"You had better tell Alina you will never marry Sabine."

Miles slammed the documents nto my desk. The paper rattled against the silver inkwell, but I didn't look up.

"Why explain something that will never happen?" I asked.

"Because the entire pack thinks it is happening!" Miles leaned across the table , his knuckles white. His dark-blonde hair was a mess, and his hazel eyes were full of anger. "The guards are talking about it. The cooks in the kitchen are taking bets on the wedding date. If you don't stop this now, everyone will think it is true."

I set my pen down and leaned back in my leather chair, folded my hands together and looked up at my Beta.

"Sabine Wycliff is here for business," I said slowly. "She is here to fix the southern trade routes and sign a treaty against the Rogues. She is smart. She has power. She is a good ally. That is all."

"I know that! You know that!" Miles shouted, waving his hand toward the door. "Just because you have no feelings for Sabine does not mean Alina knows that!"

A small knot tied itself in my jaw. "Alina knows me. We have laid in the same bed for three years, Miles. She knows I do not let Elder Victor make my choices. She knows I do not care about Sabine like that."

"Alina is a woman, Declan, not a ghost inside your head!" Miles slammed his hand on the desk again. "You ended your marriage yesterday. Less than twelve hours later, the richest heiress in the province walks in, sits in Alina's chair at dinner, and Victor raises a glass to a new bride! What is Alina supposed to think?"

"She is supposed to trust me," I said coldly. My voice dropped low, "I ended the treaty to give her freedom. I want her to choose me because she wants to stay, not because a piece of war paper forces her to. I am giving her a choice."

Miles stared at me. The anger on his face turned into a strange laugh.

"You really are that arrogant," Miles whispered, shaking his head. "You think because your own heart is clear inside your own head, you don't have to say a single word to your wife. 'She should know.' That is your plan?"

"That is enough, Beta," I warned.

"I hope you are right, Alpha," Miles said softly. He stepped back toward the door, all the fight leaving his body. "Because if you stay quiet just to prove how smart you are, you are going to wake up in an empty house."

He turned and walked out, shutting the door behind him.

I sat alone in the room.

picked up the marriage paper Victor had placed on my desk earlier. The ink was fresh, offering me Sabine Wycliff’s hand and five hundred armored horses. I didn't care about the horses.

I didn't even care about Sabine.

I took the paper in both hands, tore it right down the middle, and threw the pieces into the fireplace. The flames swallowed the white pages in seconds.

I didn't need to run around shouting to the pack. I didn't need to make a big speech.

The matter was done. Alina was my mate. She had been my wife for three years. She knew the shape of my hands, the sound of my steps, and the way I held her when the full moon made her wolf restless.

She just needed time to see that the door was wide open and that I was waiting for her outside of it.

The next morning, I walked out into the main courtyard with Sabine, carrying a leather map of the pack.

"We need three more guard posts along the river," Sabine said, stepping beside me as we moved. "If the Rogues push past the ridge, my father's men will not be able to hold the road alone."

"I will send twenty men from the squad," I said, pointing to a high ridge on her map. "They know the terrain better."

Sabine nodded, her blue eyes scanning the drawing. "Good. That works."

She was easy to work with. She was fast, direct, and did not waste words. But as we walked together across the yard, I could feel dozens of eyes watching us from the windows and balconies.

I glanced up toward the high gallery near the doctor's wing.

Alina was standing there.

. Her chestnut hair was tied back, and her light green eyes were fixed straight on me. Even from down in the courtyard, I could feel the distance between us.

I wanted to stop. I wanted to tell Sabine to wait, walk up those stairs, take the heavy box from Alina's hands, and pull her into my chest until she remembered how warm I was.

But Victor was watching from the archway. The councilmen were watching. If I ran up to her like an anxious boy, it would make her look weak. It would make our dissolved marriage look like a mess.

She knows me, I told myself, tearing my eyes away from her green gaze and looking back at the map. She knows why I am doing this.

"Is there a problem, Alpha?" Sabine asked, noticing my pause.

"No," I said. "Let us check the armory."

I spent four hours in the council room arguing with Victor. The old man kept talking about bloodlines, trade routes, and the strength of a Rivenhall-Wycliff heir. I shut him down at every turn, refusing to give him a single inch of ground. By the time I walked back to my study, my head was aching from his endless chatter.

I sat at my desk, staring at the cold fireplace.

I expected a knock on the door. I expected Alina to walk in, demand answers, or slam her fists on my desk the way Miles had. I almost wanted her to.

I wanted her to yell at me so I could grab her shoulders, look her in the eye, and tell her that no other woman would ever wear the Luna ring.

But she didn't knock.

At midnight, Miles walked into my study without knocking. He didn't look angry anymore. He just looked pale.

"What is it?" I asked, looking up from my papers.

Miles didn't speak. He walked over to my desk and dropped a white piece of paper n front of me. It had an official red wax seal at the bottom—the shape of a silver-root leaf.

"What is this?" I asked, picking up the paper.

"It came from the main dispatch box twenty minutes ago," Miles said, his voice completely flat. "The Medical Board processed it. Since Alina is the head of the board, she signed it herself."

My eyes scanned the black ink on the page:

Name: Alina Westmere.

Assignment: Northern Territories Medical Exchange.

Duration: Three Months (Initial Term).

Departure: Friday Dawn.

My breath caught in my throat. The cold air left my lungs all at once.

"The Northern Territories?" I stood up so fast my chair crashed backward onto the floor. "The northern border is overrun with Rogues! The packs up there are starving and cold! I told her six months ago she was never going up there!"

"You told her that when you were her Alpha," Miles said softly, looking straight into my eyes. "You told her that when she was your Luna. She isn't your Luna anymore, Declan. You gave her her freedom, remember?"

The paper crumpled inside my tight grip.

"She leaves in three days," Miles added, turning his back on me.

I stood alone in the room, the paper crushed inside my trembling fist. My wolf roared inside my chest, wild, angry, and terrified.

She wasn't waiting for my plan.

She wasn't choosing me.

She was leaving.