Elowen POV
I'm standing in the safe house Vesperine rented, staring at 500 roses, and I feel absolutely nothing.
They arrived an hour ago. Red roses covering every surface—the table, the chairs, the floor. A letter sits on top in Thaddeus's handwriting.
"I'm sorry. I was blind. I was cruel. I realize now, too late, that you were everything I needed. Please come back. I'll spend the rest of my life making this right. —T"
I crumple the letter and drop it in the fireplace.
"That's the third delivery today," Vesperine says from the doorway. She's been guarding me since we left the Council chambers. "Before the roses, there were diamonds. Before that, a deed to some estate."
"Burn them all."
"With pleasure."
She starts gathering roses, tossing them into the fire. They blacken and curl, their sweet smell turning acrid.
I should feel something. Satisfaction? Vindication? Anything?
But there's just emptiness where emotions used to be.
The bond breaking should've hurt. Everyone says severing mate bonds feels like dying. But when that ancient magic ripped through me, when I felt those three connections tear away—
Nothing. Just relief.
Maybe I'm broken. Maybe rejecting three bonds in one day destroyed something vital inside me.
Or maybe I just don't care anymore.
A voice rises from the street below, singing. Badly.
I walk to the window. Cassian stands beneath it, soaking wet from the rain that started an hour ago, singing about "real love" and "second chances."
Pack members gather to watch, some laughing, some looking pitying.
"Should I make him leave?" Vesperine asks, hand on her knife.
"No. Let him sing. Let everyone see what the mighty Cassian Ironhart has become."
We watch him for fifteen minutes. His voice cracks. He forgets lyrics. Starts crying in the middle of a verse about "the one that got away."
It's pathetic.
I feel nothing.
Finally, guards drag him away. The crowd disperses, gossiping about the fallen Alpha who lost his mind over a wolfless Omega.
I close the curtains.
A knock sounds at the door. Vesperine checks, then curses.
"It's Alaric Ravenspur."
"Let him in."
She looks at me like I'm crazy. "He kidnapped you—"
"And I destroyed him publicly. Let him in."
Vesperine opens the door reluctantly. Alaric enters, drenched from the rain, violet eyes desperate.
He drops to his knees right there in the doorway.
"Elowen. Please. Just listen—"
"You have two minutes," I say flatly.
"My feelings were real. By the end, everything I felt for you was real. I was going to tell you the truth, abandon the revenge plan, just—"
"Just use me anyway because you couldn't resist destroying Thaddeus?"
He flinches. "Yes. I'm a coward and a fool. But I'm also desperately in love with you, and if you give me one more chance—"
"No."
"Please—"
"Your two minutes are up. Vesperine, remove him."
Vesperine hauls Alaric to his feet, pushing him toward the door. He doesn't resist, just stares at me with broken eyes.
"I'll wait," he says. "However long it takes. I'll wait for you."
"Then you'll wait forever."
The door closes. I hear his anguished howl through the wood.
Still nothing. My heart stays frozen solid.
"They're not going to stop," Vesperine says quietly. "All three of them. They'll grovel and beg and make your life hell trying to win you back."
"I know."
"So what do you want to do?"
I think about that. What do I want?
Not revenge—I already took that. Not their apologies—words mean nothing. Not their love—too late, too fake, too broken.
What I want is to disappear. To go somewhere none of them can find me. To be anonymous and free and far away from Alphas who see me as a prize to win.
"Tell me about the Crimson Mating Hunt," I say suddenly.
Vesperine's eyebrows rise. "The Hunt? Why—"
"Just tell me."
She sits, studying me carefully. "It's an ancient tradition. Held in Veilwood every year during the blood moon. Unmated wolves wear masks and scent-blockers, hunting for true mates based on instinct alone. No names, no ranks, no politics. Just primal connection."
"And it starts when?"
"Two weeks. But Elowen, you can't be serious—"
"I'm completely serious." For the first time since the Council hearing, I feel something stir. Interest. Possibility. "I'll be masked. Anonymous. They won't know it's me."
"What if you find a mate? What if the bond—"
"Won't happen. I'm wolfless, remember? The Moon Goddess already proved she has no plans for me." I stand, decision made. "But I can disappear there. Lost in the crowd. Free."
Vesperine looks worried. "And if one of them figures out it's you and follows?"
"Then you'll stop them. That's why you're coming with me."
She grins, fierce and loyal. "Wouldn't miss it."
The next two weeks pass in a blur of preparation and ignoring desperate Alphas.
Thaddeus sends letters daily. I burn them all.
Cassian camps outside the safe house. Guards eventually arrest him for disturbing the peace.
Alaric tries everything—gifts, pleas, showing up at random times to "accidentally" run into me. I have Vesperine ban him from the property.
Their pain should matter. Should move me.
But I'm empty. Hollow. Free.
On the morning we leave for Veilwood, a package arrives. No name, just a silver mask with amber inlay and a scent-blocking charm.
I open the note inside.
"Because you deserve to choose freely. Because Thaddeus doesn't deserve you. Good luck in the Hunt. —L"
Lyria. Thaddeus's lover sent me a gift.
Despite everything, I smile. Just a little.
We ride for Veilwood at dawn, leaving the three groveling Alphas behind.
The forest is ancient and wild, neutral ground where pack politics don't matter. Two hundred wolves gather at the Hunt grounds—all masked, all anonymous, all searching for something.
I wear my silver and amber mask. The scent-blocker makes me invisible to wolf senses.
For the first time in my entire life, I'm nobody. Not the Miravel heir. Not the wolfless Omega. Not someone's mate.
Just a masked wolf looking for freedom.
The Hunt Master explains the rules: three nights of pursuit, bonds formed through instinct, masks fall on the fourth dawn.
"Trust your wolf," he says. "The Moon Goddess guides those ready to find their fate."
I almost laugh. My wolf doesn't exist. The Moon Goddess abandoned me years ago.
This isn't about finding a mate. It's about escaping.
The moon rises, full and blood-red.
The Hunt Master howls.
Two hundred wolves sprint into the forest.
I run with them, my heart racing, my senses sharp despite having no wolf.
Then the wind shifts.
A scent hits me through the blocking charm—impossible, but there. Pine smoke and winter rain and ancient magic so powerful it makes my skin tingle.
My chest explodes with heat.
Something inside me roars awake after twenty-three years of silence, clawing toward that scent with desperate, primal hunger.
No. No, this can't—
My eyes flash gold in a puddle reflection.
Gold. Not grey.
And somewhere deep inside, a voice that isn't mine whispers:
"MATE."
My wolf.
My wolf just woke up.
And she's screaming for someone in this forest.
Someone whose scent makes my entire body ignite with need.
Fourth time's the charm?
Or the Moon Goddess's cruelest joke yet?