Chapter 3

Another reporter rose to their feet. "Miss Grey, would you care to explain?"

"Oh, allow me." Selene's voice cut in, sweet as a sugar-coated blade.

She turned to me, wearing a smile that never quite reached her eyes.

"Aurelia, I want to thank you for keeping Kieran company these past few years. While we were apart, it was a comfort knowing someone was looking after him."

The way she said it — as though I were a pet she'd left behind to watch the house.

"Of course, fated mates always find their way back to each other, don't they?" She gave Kieran's hand a gentle squeeze. "Kieran and I grew up together. We went through our first shift at fourteen, our first hunt under the moon. Some bonds are carved into blood and bone."

I saw Kieran's jaw go taut. "Selene, that's enough —"

"I'm simply setting the record straight." She looked out at the reporters, all innocence. "I wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea. Aurelia is a friend of the pack. That's all she's ever been."

A friend.

Three years, and I was just a friend.

The photograph in my pocket burned like a red-hot silver brand, searing through the fabric and into my skin.

"Actually —" I stood up. Every camera in the room swung toward me.

I pulled the photo out and held it up under the lights.

"This photograph was hidden inside a picture frame in the apartment Kieran and I shared. Perhaps Miss Silvercrest is right — what Kieran Blackwood and I had hardly qualifies as a partnership."

I tossed the photo toward them, my voice eerily calm. "But let me set one thing straight — we didn't break up three months ago. Whatever existed between us ceased to be the moment he told me his first lie."

"I wish you both every happiness."

I turned and walked off the stage. Behind me, questions erupted in a barrage, shutter clicks firing like gunshots.

I didn't look back. Not once.

At the end of the corridor, I leaned against the wall, fighting to steady my breathing.

Footsteps sounded behind me. I didn't need to look — the air had thickened with pine and wildfire, the kind of pheromones an Alpha couldn't contain when his emotions slipped their leash.

"Lia." Kieran's voice was low, controlled, and dangerous. "We need to talk."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Like hell there isn't." He closed the distance, one palm slamming flat against the wall beside me. "What you just did in there —"

"What did I do?" I finally looked at him. "I told the truth. That's all."

"You're destroying the Blackwood pack's reputation —"

"I don't care!" My voice caught in my throat. "All I know is that I've been made a fool of for three years."

He clenched his jaw. "This is far more complicated than you realize."

"It's not complicated at all. You're bonding with her. You lied to me. End of story."

"Selene is a pack arrangement —"

"Stop saying that!" I shoved him hard. "You've known each other since you were children. You went through your first shift together, your first hunt. This isn't pack politics, Kieran — she's the mate you want. Not me."

His entire body went rigid, his throat working around a swallow.

"Lia, listen to me." He stepped closer, his hand rising to touch my face. "Give me two years. The bonding ceremony is only for the alliance. After two years, I'll dissolve the contract. We can —"

"Two years?" My eyes went wide. "So the marriage alliance was decided long ago. You had everything planned out."

"You won't go without anything. A place to live, a security detail. I'll still —"

"Still sleep with me while you go home and play the perfect Alpha couple with your childhood sweetheart?" I laughed — a jagged, broken sound. "That's what you're offering me? Being your mistress?"

"Don't use that word —"

"Then what should I call it? Secret lover? Pet?" My tears finally fell, scalding hot against my cheeks. "You'll mark her at the moonlit altar, then sneak into my bed in the dead of night. Every full moon gathering, every pack ceremony, I'll have to vanish — you're negotiating terms for your mistress like a business deal, Kieran."

Gold flared in his eyes. "I'm trying to build a future for us —"

"You're trying to have both." I dodged his touch. "Her alliance. My body. Congratulations, Kieran. You almost pulled it off."

"Lia —" His hand clamped around my wrist.

I reached over with my other hand to pry his fingers loose. He pressed forward, pinning me against the wall with his weight.

"You don't get to just walk away —"

That was when his phone buzzed.

I watched him glance down at the screen. I watched something flicker behind his eyes.

He released my wrist.

"I'll come by tonight." He stepped back and straightened his cuff. "We'll talk properly."

"Don't bother."

He didn't answer. He turned and took the call. "I'm on my way."

Of course he was.

Anna drove me back to the apartment. I dragged out a suitcase and started packing my things.

Last, I pulled open the nightstand drawer and took out a small wooden box. Inside lay a tuft of silver-grey wolf fur — Kieran's.

It was from last year's full moon night. He'd shifted in Silver Pine Grove and then laid his great head in my lap, letting me comb through his fur. I'd secretly kept a small handful. When he noticed, he hadn't been angry — just let out a low, rumbling laugh and nuzzled my palm with his wolf's muzzle. "Keep it," he'd said. "That way you'll always carry my scent."

I'd asked him then: "Does this count as a kind of mark?"

His golden eyes had been impossibly tender in the moonlight. "Yes. I'm yours forever."

He'd said forever too…

I snapped back to the present, pressed my lips together, and tipped the fur into the trash can. I wheeled my suitcase to the living room and sat down.

Since I'd decided to end this, I wanted to do it properly — a real goodbye, face to face with Kieran.

But he never came back that night.

The next morning, I was woken by my phone buzzing nonstop.

The press conference had blown up overnight — but not in the way I'd expected.

#CrazyEx was trending at number one.

"Aurelia Grey Can't Accept the Breakup"

"Desperate Human Woman Causes Scene at Pack Charity Event"

Sources Close to the Situation Reveal: She Has Been Harassing Alpha Blackwood for Months