“No,” I snapped, the word cracking like a command-sigil. “It seems this den suits you better than it ever suited me.”
Axton shoved a hand through his disheveled hair. “That isn’t right. You’re my bonded mate—”
“Your mate?” A bitter laugh spilled out of me. “Is that what you call this? Because from here I stand, I look like a deluded she-wolf.”
“It was one lapse. One weak moment—”
“Spare me.” The food basket slipped from my numb fingers. “I don’t want your explanations. I don’t want anything from you.”
The life I’d built in this kingdom—far from the shadows of my bloodline—fell apart in a breath. Every vow, every shared dawn, every whispered promise in the moonlight—lies.
“Isolde, don’t walk out like this—”
“How should I walk out, Axton? With your command? Your blessing?” I slid the Moonbond ring off my claw-marked finger, the metal still warm.
“Here. Offer it to someone who still buys your fantasies.”
——
The ring struck his desk with a sharp clang, echoing through the chamber. Axton looked at the ring, the panic on his face hardening into something colder, sharper. The charming façade I once fell for peeled away like rotted bark.