Caleb couldn't bring himself to accept the thought of something happening to me. His frustration rippled through the bond, sharp and bitter, as he slammed the door of his vehicle so hard the sound echoed like a growl across the empty street. He called my name through the tether of his device again, only to be met with silence the cold, mechanical message that my line was dead, cut off from him.
His wolf grew restless beneath his skin, and he opened the glowing screen in his hand. The first name at the top made my chest tighten even from afar Serena. Her chat was pinned, glowing bright with a heart marking her place.
That had once been me. For years, I was the one who carried that place in his world. I saw it shift two years ago, saw my name pushed down, my presence erased, replaced by her. The betrayal had been quiet but sharp. Once, he had even saved her under the name "Annoying Isabel," as if mocking her, as if I could laugh and rest easy. But that, too, changed. She became simply "Serena."
When I questioned him why she was at the top, why she was given a place that should have been mine his eyes had flickered with guilt, but his mouth spoke nothing but excuses. He called me petty, aggressive, too wild to understand. He turned my instincts against me.
Three years ago, when Serena returned to the Sander den, she began weaving her poison. With sweet words and pitiful eyes, she clawed her way into the hearts of my parents and even my brother, painting me as the wolf born of shadows. And they believed her. Every lie, every twist of the knife.
Through it all, I thought Caleb was different. He was my bondmate, the boy who had grown with me, who had once known the cadence of my heartbeat as well as his own. But even he began to shift, slowly, quietly, until the way he looked at me carried the same disdain as the others.
There were signs everywhere. His loyalty was no longer mine. His wolf's gaze lingered elsewhere. While I clung to the past, desperate and stubborn, he walked forward, step by step, leaving me behind.
I felt his fingers scrolling fast through his contacts, the endless messages from the pack flooding him after our shattered joining ritual. Finally, he landed on me. My profile opened, and there it was the last thread I had left him. My words, my plea:
Caleb, we need to talk.
And my location.
He stared at it for too long, his chest tight, his expression unreadable even to those closest to him. Then he pressed his thumb down, his voice spilling raw into the device.
"Isabel, where are you? Stop this game. We're bound now, mated under the moon! Why must you tear at Serena? Do you know how broken she was last night? If you come back now, I'll bury what happened. I'll forgive it."
The message left his lips, carried into the void. Then, with a frustrated snarl, he tossed the device aside, his wolf pacing within him, torn between anger and unease.
Roy, who sat at the front, kept his eyes forward but couldn't hide the pity in his voice. "Alpha, she has always been steady. Even yesterday, when you left her standing alone before the pack, she didn't lash out. I don't think she would twist something so cruelly as to call the enforcers into this. Perhaps… we should go to her. Search for her."
Caleb's eyes narrowed, his lips curling back faintly. "You seem to know her well."
Roy's posture stiffened. "No, Alpha. I only mean she's had too much misfortune clawing at her heels."
"Misfortune?" Caleb's laugh was sharp, bitter. "She thrives on chaos. She lives to stir the den into unrest. Fine. If you feel so sure, then send scouts to Silver Shore. Fetch her corpse, if there is one."
His words struck like fangs, not at me, but through me all the same.
When someone's heart turns against you, there is no point in asking why. They will find reasons, they will weave stories, and every one of them will sound righteous to their own ears.
I had seen it in him long ago, before the wedding, before the humiliation. Caleb, who once despised Serena, grew to treasure her. He memorized her cravings, her fears, her smiles. When he traveled, he carried trinkets back for us both. But his offerings to her were touched with thought, while mine were only obligation.
And I realized my place in his world had been stolen long before I vanished.
Six moons ago, Caleb left the packlands, crossing distant territories for a venture he claimed was important. When word of an earth-shaking landslide reached us, my instincts screamed to run to him, to protect what was mine. I packed in a frenzy, my wolf restless, only to discover my passport and travel pass had vanished.
Serena.
I could scent her treachery even before I saw her boarding a flight that same day, her smile sweet as venom while I was left clawing against invisible walls.
I couldn't wait. I couldn't sit idle while my mate might be buried in stone and soil. So I did the unthinkable I crossed forbidden waters illegally. The sea rose up like a beast, a tsunami crashing over me, its fangs of salt and fury nearly dragging me into the abyss. Strangers wolves who owed me nothing pulled me free when my own strength failed. I should have drowned that day.
When I finally returned, battered but alive, Serena had already poisoned the air. She painted me as careless, claiming I'd been off on a pleasure cruise while she was the dutiful one at Caleb's side. And then, as if she'd planned the entire torment, she "found" my missing passport in a drawer.
Caleb's gaze was sharp, cold. He didn't believe my howls, didn't hear the truth in my voice. His words cut deeper than claws.
So I stood tall, my heart aching but resolute. "Caleb, let's end this bond. Call off our engagement."
He froze, disbelief flashing before irritation twisted his face. "What are you saying?"
"I've bled myself dry for us," I said, forcing my tone steady. "I won't stay bound to someone who sees me as a stranger. Let's walk away while there are still ashes of warmth between us."
For the first time, panic cracked through his eyes. My resolve stirred something in him, and from then on he swore he would chain distance between himself and Serena. He drowned me in gifts, staged a grand proposal before the pack, and spun promises of a wedding that would bind us forever.
I was foolish enough to believe him. To believe that sweetness wasn't laced with rot.
Three moons ago, after too much wine and one heated night, I discovered life quickening inside me. My child. Our pup. My chest swelled with a joy I could barely contain, eager to share it with him.
But before I could, Serena played her next move. She flung herself down the stairs, whimpering like prey, and Caleb ran to her without hesitation. His arms wrapped around her, his rage turned on me, and when I stepped forward to explain, his hands shoved me hard to the floor.
The pain that ripped through me then was like claws raking my womb. Darkness swallowed me whole. When I woke, the healers told me the pup was weak, that my body needed stillness, or I would lose the little life.
Caleb never came. His beta, Roy Carroll, brought word that Caleb was consumed by some grand project. I lay in that bed, night after night, the scent of sterility and blood thick around me, clutching my belly and whispering promises to my unborn child.
Then Serena came. She slithered to my side and whispered filth into my ears how Caleb had kissed her, touched her, claimed her. Each word was poison poured directly into my womb.
The sharp cramp came first. Then the wetness between my thighs. The unmistakable scent of blood.
I reached for the call rope, but my body betrayed me. My hands shook, my voice broke, my strength fled. I staggered from the bed, each step heavy, sweat pouring cold down my back. Blood dripped onto the floor, each drop a reminder that my pup was slipping away.
Still, my thoughts were only of the child. I had to save it. Even if I had to crawl, I would fight for it.
But my vision blurred, the room tilted, and the floor rushed up to meet me.
Everything went black. And all I could think was my baby. My baby.