When I heard the enforcer's voice over the line, I wondered if Caleb would even feel the sting of grief when news of my death reached him.
Would he ache? Would he mourn?
Or had more than twenty years of loyalty and devotion truly meant nothing to him?
Caleb's face, always carved in control, showed no crack, no worry. His voice was calm, almost careless. "It's only a gown?"
"Yes," the wolf on the other end replied. "For now, it's just a gown. But Luna Sander may be in danger. We can't rule out self-destruction. We discovered "
Caleb cut him off with the sharp edge of his tone. "I don't know who sent that report, but I know Isabel. She wouldn't end her life. She's played at weakness before. There's no reason to waste the pack's strength chasing her spoiled tricks."
The enforcer fell silent, taken aback. We had bound ourselves beneath the moon only yesterday, yet Caleb's voice carried no urgency, no concern for his mate.
Before the wolf could speak again, Caleb ended the call.
A hollow laugh tore through me, jagged and bitter. To think some part of me had still hoped he might feel something. That he might remember the bond we had forged.
But I was dead. And even now, with the pack involved, he dismissed my cries as nothing more than a game.
Serena coiled herself around him like a vine claiming a tree. "Caleb, what if Isabel truly is in danger?"
His brow furrowed. "On the bond yesterday, she did sound weak… like she was begging for help."
Serena's lips curved into practiced sorrow. *"Maybe she was upset because I tried on her gown. She could have thrown it into the river in spite. But you know we love each other, Caleb. I've buried my feelings so you could have her. What more could Isabel want?
"You had the gown crafted with me in mind, didn't you? The cut, the shade it was my taste. So why be petty? It's worth more than a fortune, and she tosses it away? Now she drags the pack's name through the mud. Isn't she just shaming the Boltons?"*
Her poison sank deep. His brief unease melted, replaced with that cold contempt he now reserved for me.
I remembered a week ago, when I had gone to fit my gown. She had already been wearing it, her body pressed into the silk as if it belonged to her. She'd even altered it to her own size and color.
I had told her to remove it, to stop mocking what was mine. But before I could speak harshly, my own kin scolded me. "It's just a gown. Let your sister wear it. Don't be petty."
And Serena, in that gown, clung to Caleb as though she were already his Luna, while I the true mate was made into nothing more than a shadow.
Their bias had always run deep. It started when we were young. Serena fell into the river at five. I dove in to save her, but the current dragged us under. My head struck a rock, and darkness swallowed me.
When I woke, it was Caleb who had pulled me from the water. Serena was gone.
That was how fate bound us, how I grew beside Caleb, cherished as his childhood companion.
But when I turned eighteen, Adam Bolton, Caleb's father, brought a new mate into the den and with her came Serena, alive, reborn into the pack. Back then, Caleb despised her clinging presence, the way she tried to wedge herself between us.
Three years ago, on the night of my engagement ceremony, she returned to the family in full. She had "regained" her memories and claimed her place as the fifth daughter of the Sanders.
As the pack celebrated, Serena dropped to her knees before me, her hands clutching at my gown, her voice breaking with false agony. "Isabel, why did you trick me? Why did you push me into the river that day?"
I was stunned, the ground tilting beneath me, my claws digging into my palms as if pain alone could steady me. She was my lost blood, my sister. And yet she turned her fangs on me before the entire pack, her voice laced with venom meant to pierce my heart.
I had never wronged her, not as a sister nor as kin bound by pack law. But her words cut through me, leaving me stripped and trembling.
"Isabel," Serena whimpered, her voice frail like a pup seeking mercy. "I promise I'll submit. I won't challenge your place anymore. I won't fight you for anything. Please, stop hurting me. I miss Mother, Father, Ethan. Please, let me back into the den. Let me go home."
Her act was flawless. Even I almost drowned in the weight of her sorrowful howl.
Then came the sting of my father's hand, a sharp crack across my face that burned hotter than fire. "I never thought you could be so cruel," he roared, his Alpha's authority bearing down on me. "She was only a pup of five. How could you be so heartless?"
"No!" My voice broke, my chest heaving with panic. "That's not true. I didn't push her. I didn't "
But his eyes were iron, unyielding. "She's your own sister. Why would she lie? Serena, my poor daughter, you've suffered in silence for too long."
My mother gathered Serena into her arms, sobbing as though her lost child had finally returned.
Yes. She was my blood. My sister. But why would she shred me apart like this?
What should have been my engagement celebration, a night of bond and promise, had been poisoned. Instead of joy, I was branded a cruel wolf who turned against her own, and no matter how hard I howled, the stain clung to me.
My tears blurred everything, my throat raw from pleading, but not a soul would listen.
Adam, who had always shown me kindness, gave Caleb a look sharp enough to cut. "Take her away," he ordered. "Fix her face. She's shaming the pack."
Shame seared through me like molten steel.
Desperate, I clutched Caleb's hand, silently begging him to defend me, to see me. His arms wrapped around me, his touch steady, his voice low against my ear. "I believe you. How could I not? You're the gentlest soul I know."
But his words lacked the fire they once carried. They were hollow now, spoken like a rehearsed vow stripped of true conviction.
From then on, I felt like a ghost among the living. My spirit hovered, my heart nothing but a husk, the cold wind whistling through it. I tried to move, to break free, but some unseen tether bound me close, forcing me to watch the unraveling.
Serena draped herself in my silks, my new garments meant for the bond I was to seal. She sat before my vanity, pouting like a spoiled pup, holding out the brow pencil with a coy smile. And Caleb my mate leaned down, filling in her brows as if it were some intimate ritual between them.
It was as if they were already bound, as if she had claimed my place in full view of the moon.
Caleb's gaze flickered toward the wedding portrait, our faces side by side. His jaw hardened, the muscle ticking as his voice cut through the silence. "Enough, Serena. Didn't we agree things would return to what they were before last night?"
She lowered her head in false submission, her voice soft, trembling with feigned innocence. "Yes, I understand. I won't disturb you and Isabel anymore."
But I knew her eyes, sharp and sly even when downcast. She was rolling to expose her throat, all while her fangs gleamed just beneath the surface.
Caleb tried my number again, but silence answered. If he had called the trackers, if he had ordered the pack to search the territory, they would have found my body. But he didn't.
He snapped the device shut, his scoff cutting deeper than claws. "Isabel, it seems I've spoiled you too much."
Serena's laughter rang light, mocking. "She's clever at playing hard to get. Don't worry, Caleb. She's probably already back at the den, ignoring your calls to make you worry."
His eyes turned cold as steel, his tone final. "We'll go to our parents today. Isabel would never miss such a gathering. If she's hiding, I'll see for myself what game she thinks she's playing."
The weight of betrayal crushed me, heavy as a wolf's paw on my chest. My mate doubted my howl. My sister had stolen my place. And I, bound and broken, was forced to watch as everything that had once been mine slipped into her grasp.