The council chamber was colder that night.
Not from stone or weather—but from the way every gaze slid past me as if I were already gone.
I stood where they told me to stand. Silent. Unmarked. Human in everything but the truth burning under my skin. The Elders spoke in measured tones, weighing futures that didn't include my voice.
"The bond is unproven," one said.
"The prophecy is clear," another added.
"The Alpha cannot afford weakness."
I looked at him then.
He didn't look back.
That was when I knew.
I had come prepared to fight—to tell them about the pain in my side, the way my strength had been fading for days, the blood I hid beneath layers of fabric so no one would call me a liability.
But the moment passed.
The moment where he might have noticed.
Might have chosen differently.
"Send her away," an Elder concluded. "Before the mating claim destabilizes the pack."
My breath caught.
I waited for him to speak.
One word would have been enough.
He rose slowly, power rolling off him in waves that made the room tremble.
"If she leaves," he said carefully, "it will be without protection."
A pause.
Not a refusal.
A sentence dressed as mercy.
I finally met his eyes.
He flinched.
Just once.
They took that as consent.
No guards were assigned. No escort offered. Just an open gate and a path that led straight through the Iron Pass.
When I turned to leave, pain split through my side—sharp, blinding. I stumbled, fingers digging into the doorframe.
He still didn't come after me.
Outside, the night swallowed me whole.
The wound worsened quickly. I knew that then. Knew I wouldn't make it far without help.
But pride is a cruel companion.
By the time I reached the border, the bleeding wouldn't stop.
I pressed my hand to my side and whispered his name once—just once—into the cold.
It answered with silence.
The world blurred after that.
I never told him I was injured.
Never told him the bond had already begun forming.
Never told him that leaving wasn't a choice—I was already dying.
And he never asked.
When they say he betrayed me, they're only half right.
The truth is worse.
He never heard me at all.