[Kaelen's POV]
The assassination attempt at the restaurant was a stone tossed into a still lake, and the ripples were spreading fast.
The damn gossip crystals had recorded everything, embellishing the tale as it shot through the Packs.
The focus wasn't on the Rogue who tried to kill the Lycan King. It was on me.
The Alpha of the Blackwood Pack, a mated male, had shoved his own mate aside in a moment of crisis to protect another she-wolf.
Overnight, Seraphina's name was irrevocably tied to the disgraceful label of "interloper." Her reputation had taken a devastating blow.
The situation was infuriating.
It was a fatal wound to the future alliance between our two Packs.
I had to fix this.
I found Elara in our chambers. She was packing her things into a small suitcase that looked jarringly out of place.
"The incident at the restaurant has been twisted into a scandal," I said, getting straight to the point, trying to keep my voice even. "The news is calling Seraphina an interloper. It's destroying her reputation."
She stopped folding a tunic and looked up at me, her ice-blue eyes completely devoid of emotion.
That look made my wolf restless.
"And?" she asked.
"And I need you to make a public statement to all the Packs," I took a deep breath and laid out my plan. "You will tell everyone that you and Seraphina are friends, and that our relationship is a purely political alliance. You will say that the situation was critical, and that you asked me to protect her."
I finished.
The silence was absolute.
Elara just stared at me. Her expression shifted from flat, to stunned, to something I had never seen before: a look of profound, visceral disgust.
As if she were looking at something rotten.
"Kaelen," she finally spoke, her voice a low tremor of disbelief. "Have you no shame? How can you stand there and even suggest such a thing?"
A hot flush crept up my neck.
I knew it was a lot to ask, but I had no other choice.
"Seraphina has sacrificed too much to become a War Master. I can't let a misunderstanding ruin her career," I tried to explain.
"Misunderstanding?" She laughed, a sound laced with bitter irony. "I was shoved aside to watch you shield another woman from danger, and you call that a misunderstanding?"
"I—"
"I refuse," she cut me off, her voice sharp as steel.
"What?" I was floored. I never thought she would refuse so absolutely.
"I will not lie to the entire continent," her voice was ice. "You and I both know it wasn't a misunderstanding. And Seraphina is certainly not my friend."
My temper flared. "Elara, are you trying to destroy her?"
"You're the one who forgot he was mated. You're the one who entangled yourself with her and ruined her reputation!" she shot back.
"I did not! I have never been unfaithful! We are just friends!" I yelled.
"Friends?" She took a step closer, her eyes boring into mine. "A friend who keeps you out all night? A friend you drop everything for at a moment's notice?"
"That's because she just returned, she needed my help with things!"
"And to help her, you could afford to miss the ceremony for my parents' Hero's Spirit Stones, is that it?!" she demanded, every word a hammer blow against my conscience.
"Must you bring up the past?" I snapped, my shame turning to anger. "It's just a few words! It's not that hard for you to help her!"
"Not that hard?" Her eyes were filled with a terrible disappointment. "Kaelen, you are selfish beyond measure. If you cared for her so much, why didn't you just end our bond when she returned?"
"I—" I was speechless again.
"If you had ended it then, told me you loved her, I would never have stood in your way," she said. "And Seraphina's precious reputation would be intact."
"I wouldn't have ended it!" I roared, the words feeling hollow even to me. "When we mated, I made a vow! I told you, Elara, I would not forsake you!"
"Not forsake me?" The phrase was a mockery coming from my own lips.
She just looked at me with an expression that saw right through me.
"Kaelen, you refused to end it, not because you remembered some vow. You refused because you didn't want the stigma of casting aside your mate after you became powerful."
"You want it all. You want the alliance Seraphina brings, and you want to maintain your honorable reputation."
"You forsook me long ago. You let your family and friends humiliate me. You missed my parents' ceremony for a scratch on Seraphina's mother's hand. Kaelen, they were my parents! And I couldn't even give their spirits a single night's rest in my own home!"
Her words, raw with grief and accusation, bled the color from my face.
I was utterly defeated.
It took a long time for me to find my voice.
"I know… you've been wronged," my voice was rough. "This weekend, I'll go with you. To pay my respects to your parents. I'll apologize to them for not being there to welcome them home."
It was the only form of atonement I could think of.
Elara watched me, her expression unreadable.
She knew it was a desperate attempt to appease her.
But in the end, she nodded. "Fine."
"You do owe my parents an apology," she said.
But when the weekend came, I broke my promise. Again.
I reached out to her through the mind-link.
"I'm sorry, an urgent Pack meeting came up. It's critical. I can't get away. I can't go with you today. Next time. I promise I'll go next time."
"Alright. I understand." Her mental voice was calm. So calm there wasn't even a ripple.
Then, she closed the link.
No argument. No questions.
Not even a flicker of disappointment.
Because I had disappointed her too many times.
She had simply disconnected. In the silence that followed, I had the chilling sense that she was methodically erasing every warm memory she had ever associated with me from her heart. She wasn't just angry; she was purging me from her soul.
Just then, her communication crystal lit up.
It was Liana.
"Elara, you free today? Want to come with me to the Hunt Festival's riding competition? I hear they've got some incredible riders this year. It's going to be a blast!"
Elara was silent for a moment.
She knew. That was exactly where she would find me, the man who was currently in a "critical meeting."