Desperate heat-slave. Insatiable she-wolf. The whispered condemnations were endless, carried on every breeze that touched pack lands. Meanwhile, Alaric became the noble Alpha who'd been betrayed by his intended mate yet still honored his claiming responsibility. And Seren? She was celebrated as the brave Omega who'd endured public scorn because her devotion to the Alpha was true and pure.
Their supporters flooded my mind-link with death wishes before I severed the connection entirely. Funeral wreaths woven with wolfsbane arrived at my den door. Someone glamoured my face onto pleasure-house advertisements, images so vile I couldn't look at them twice without my stomach heaving.
While I drowned in shame, Alaric took Seren to every sacred site I'd ever dreamed of visiting with him. Every single one.
And still—still—I couldn't let go of the bond.
How could I? In this entire world, after my mother, he was the only one who had ever truly wanted me. The only one whose scent had ever meant safety.
I was eighteen winters old when my father brought Seren and her mother into our den.