Chapter 2

Something complicated flickered across Sebastian's face as he looked at me.

"You really care that much about the money? You never used to be like this…"

I swallowed against the pain slicing through my chest and forced out a carefree smile.

"If I don't take the money, what else are you going to give me?"

His dark eyes locked onto mine, something unreadable stirring in their depths.

"You could beg me not to dissolve the mate bond."

"Sera, all you have to do is ask—and I'll tear up this agreement right now."

Beg him?

I bit down hard on my lip, memories flooding back to the early days after I'd discovered his affair with Hedy.

I had begged him. Countless times.

I'd even taken a silver dagger to my own wrists to force him to come home.

My blood had pooled across the floor, and all it earned me was a single sentence:

"Don't do that again. Hedy can't stand the sight of blood."

"And then what?"

I looked at him calmly, my voice laced with contempt.

"Then you'll tell me this was just another one of your little bets—another game to see how pathetic I'd look."

A bitter laugh scraped out of my throat, raw and aching.

"Sebastian, stop testing me."

"Haven't you had enough fun at my expense these past three years?"

Something cold traced a line down my cheek.

They were the tears I'd held back for so long. Now they finally fell.

Sebastian reached up instinctively and wiped them away.

Something that might have been guilt flickered through his eyes.

He sighed.

"Hedy gave birth to my pup, after all. She's still young, and a little headstrong. But you're her older sister. You should be more understanding."

"Don't worry. I'll give you back the Luna title. Marrying Hedy is just to secure the pup's status as heir."

He paused, then added, as if to reassure himself as much as me:

"I'll give you a hundred million dollars, too. Take the money, go enjoy yourself for a while, and once I've sorted everything out, we'll form the mate bond again."

"That should make you happy, right?"

I tilted my face up, smiled, and let out a soft "Mm."

"Then book me a flight to Switzerland. We always said we'd visit the Alpine lakes together."

Relief washed over him. He pulled me into a tight embrace.

"Okay."

"You go ahead first. Once things are settled here, I'll join you."

"Sera, wait for me."

I rested my head against his shoulder and said nothing.

But I knew, deep down, that I would never wait for him again.

Once Sebastian was satisfied that I'd given in, he finally spoke again.

"You'll need to move out of the Pack residence for a while."

"Hedy's moving in. You know she hasn't been in the best mood since the delivery. Pack up your things. I don't want her seeing any of your things and getting upset."

He cleared his throat and produced a set of keys from his drawer.

"I've arranged a new place for you out in the suburbs."

I said nothing, but my mind drifted to the day I'd first moved into the Quinn Pack.

We had designed the Alpha residence together, from the curtains to the painting in the entryway. We'd even planned two nurseries: one in pink, the other in blue.

He called it our love nest. He carved a nameplate by hand and hung it on the manor door, our names etched side by side.

But later, he'd spent his nights tangled up with Hedy in his office until dawn—while I lay alone in the Pack infirmary, losing our pup.

I smiled faintly and placed the keys back in his hand.

"It's fine."

From now on, everything I owned would be new. Not just the house.

After leaving Quinn's Group, I went to the Pack infirmary alone.

Over the past three years, I had been brought here countless times, crying until I blacked out from the agony of a shredding mate bond.

But none of them knew that I'd met a boy here.

I pushed open the door to the room. Sunlight streamed through the window lattice, yet a small wolf lay curled up in the darkest corner, shrinking from the light.

If the Pack elders had been here, they might have recognized him—the missing heir of the Hadrian Pack.

I spoke softly.

"I can afford it now. I'm going to take you home and help you shift back into human form."

Sebastian didn't know that my real destination wasn't Switzerland.

It was Greece.