I had sworn to tear their lives apart before I left this cursed territory behind, to sever every bond that tied me to them. My claws were ready, my plan set in place. But fate, cruel and mocking, twisted everything. Caleb slipped away from the wedding, and Serena never showed her painted face.
Without the two of them standing together in the open, there was no point unleashing my truth. My moment of reckoning crumbled, leaving me pacing the shadows, hungry for another chance.
But I never thought death would claim me first.
That night, my body gave out, and I slipped into darkness, forced into the role of a silent wolf-spirit. I watched from beyond, unseen, unheard, tethered still to the very ones who had destroyed me.
I lost. Utterly. Completely.
How could a ghosted wolf compete with the living? How could I fight for Caleb's heart when he had already chained it to another? How could I ever avenge the pup ripped from my womb?
I was a failure mate, mother, she-wolf. My love had been nothing but a cruel mistake, a rope binding me tighter to my own destruction.
Even in death, Caleb never sought the truth. Not once.
I followed him, drifting like smoke in his wake. But he never turned, never scented me, never searched. He walked on as if I had never existed at all, slipping back into his routine, his work, his life, untouched by the gaping hole I had left.
Every year, every heartbeat I'd poured into him felt wasted. The weight of it all pressed down on me, and regret carved its claws into my chest.
I should never have loved him.
That night, the Sanders pack gathered for a banquet. The hall glittered with false light, laughter echoing like the howls of wolves drunk on their own power.
And then she appeared.
Serena, draped in a pink dress delicate as spun silk, her arm entwined with Caleb's. Her voice was soft, sugar-coated venom. "Caleb."
I saw him flinch, instinct tugging at him. His hand pressed against her, pushing her away. Some part of him knew it was wrong, knew the bond between us still lingered, unseen but unbroken.
"Serena, stop," he muttered, voice low. "If Isabel saw us like this, she'd grow jealous."
His words cut me deeper than any claw. Jealous? I was gone, my body rotting beneath the soil, and yet he still spoke of me as though my feelings were nothing but petty jealousy.
My parents laughed, sharp and cruel. "Isabel was always so small-hearted. Even with her own sister, she could never let go of her spite. Who knows what wicked thoughts she carried in that head of hers?"
Their words stung, but worse was watching my brothers. Wolves who should have defended me, who should have remembered their blood bond to me, instead bent their heads toward Serena with affection.
One of them ruffled her hair, pride in his touch. "How could Isabel ever compare to our gentle, sweet Serena?"
Gentle. Sweet. I wanted to howl with bitter laughter. They couldn't scent the poison coiling inside her, couldn't see the rot dripping from her heart.
The scene blurred before me, rage clouding my vision.
I had died for them, for the lies and betrayals they wrapped around me. I had carried love, loyalty, and the pup that never had a chance. And now, in death, all I had left was the taste of vengeance on my tongue.
If I could not claw my way back into the living, then I would haunt them from the shadows. If I could not hold Caleb's gaze anymore, then I would let him feel the weight of mine burning from the dark.
I would make them all pay. Even if it took eternity.
Hearing them shower Serena with praise while dragging my name through the dirt made my chest burn with bitter laughter.
Pure? Gentle? Adorable?
Would a wolf so innocent and sweet sink her claws into her sister's mate on the very night of the bond ceremony? They worshipped her as if she were untouchable, but I knew the truth of her scent sweet poison masked in roses.
The evidence I once gathered, the voice I still longed to unleash, had died with me. My phone, my proof, my howl all gone.
Caleb's eyes swept across the den, his voice sharp enough to cut through the noise. "Where's Isabel? She hasn't returned yet?"
He spoke with such calm, as if my absence was nothing more than a whim. He thought I had slunk off to lick my wounds alone. He didn't see how my own bloodline had cast me out like a rogue. That house, that territory they hadn't felt like home for years. Why would I crawl back there, broken and abandoned?
My mother's brow furrowed as though my existence were a puzzle she no longer cared to solve. "Still sulking? I thought she would've followed you back by now."
No mention of my wounds, no thought of danger lurking beyond the trees. Just irritation, as if my vanishing was another childish act of defiance.
A hollow ache curled in my chest. Even after death, even after being torn apart, they treated me like an empty shadow. My death had stirred no sorrow, no instinct to mourn.
Ethan's voice broke through the indifference, a rare flicker of unease in his tone. "Do you think Isabel might really be in danger? Maybe we should reach out to the patrols again, see if they've caught any scent …"
Serena bowed her head, her lashes trembling like prey beneath an alpha's glare. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have called Caleb yesterday. I didn't mean to disrupt her ceremony. I didn't think she would get so upset and disappear."
The pack closed ranks around her, protecting their precious jewel. My absence was brushed aside as if I'd staged yet another tantrum.
Caleb's expression shifted, his jaw tightening, but he didn't snarl or echo their insults. For once, his silence carried weight.
After the feast, he padded toward my den without hesitation, his steps heavy with unspoken thoughts. His face, shadowed and grim, told a story of storms he refused to voice.
He paused at the doorway, his eyes lingering on the space that had once been mine. Did he ever feel my scent still lingering here? Did the walls whisper my name when the night grew too quiet?
He struck a match, lit a cigarette, and let the smoke curl into the air like a broken promise. His hand tightened around the small device in his grip.
"Any news?" His voice was low, rough, carried with the weight of an alpha who didn't want to admit his pack had failed. "Have they found Isabel's body?"
The word body hit me like a claw across the heart. He didn't search for me as his mate. He didn't demand answers, didn't rage or tear through the territory. He asked for my body, as though I were already nothing but a lifeless carcass.
I stood there, unseen, a ghost to the pack I once called mine, and realized how deeply betrayal could carve into a soul. My bloodline had chosen Serena, my mate had chosen silence, and I already lost was left to wonder if love had ever truly been mine at all.