Chapter 7

She had a look of barely hidden triumph on her face.

And Elena, face uncovered and unseeing, was furious enough that she didn't notice her veil had fallen to the ground. "Rowan, you piece of garbage. You've been keeping Zara as your mistress behind my back?"

Rowan wrinkled his nose in revulsion. "Put your veil back on."

Elena took that like a punch. She went still. Tears started running down her face. "You think I'm ugly? How dare you say that? I'm the reason you hold the rank you do in this Pack."

Rowan looked like he'd run out of patience. "If it weren't for your dowry and the fact that Alpha Gerald pushed me into this, I never would have married you. You deal with your parents today. I'm taking Zara to buy something."

He put his arm around Zara and walked away.

Elena's hand flew into her sleeve and came back with a knife. She drove it into Rowan's back.

Then she grabbed Zara by the collar and shoved the blade into her chest.

Blood poured across the estate courtyard. When Elena turned and started running toward Zane and me, Zane reacted fast and twisted the knife out of her hand.

I let the corner of my mouth pull up, quietly.

I had paid well to remove the guards from the Pack Shrine where Zara had been kept. And it was Petra who had pretended to be a matchmaker and arranged things between Rowan and Zara, until what they had was undeniable and the Alderton family had no choice but to take her in.

Even if Elena hadn't stabbed anyone today, she and Zara sharing a roof in the Alderton estate was never going to end peacefully.

A moment later, with my parents' crying in the background, Zane escorted Elena to Pack Enforcers.

Grandmother heard about the birthday disaster and only sighed, turning her prayer beads in her hands and murmuring something quietly.

The full moon hung bright that night. My parents sat at a table full of untouched food, empty-faced.

I didn't want to be in that atmosphere. I decided to take Zane out to a restaurant.

When I stood to leave, Mother reached out and caught my hand. "Sophia. We failed you. We were so focused on the youngest that we ignored you..."

I smiled and gently pried her hand away. "I think I was never meant to be close to you. I gave up expecting anything a long time ago. I'm not hurting now. Goodbye, Mother."

A muffled cry came from inside the room as the night breeze chilled my face.

Ten days later, Elena was sentenced to death by Pack tribunal for the assault on kin.

Mother emptied everything she had. Father pulled every string he could. They saved Elena's life.

But from that day on, Elena could only live in secret, buried under a false name, as a kitchen worker on a Pack outpost at the edge of the territory.

Then someone brought the matter to the Alpha King. He was furious. Out of respect for Gerald's years of service, he spared Elena's life — but he stripped Gerald of his Alpha title, reduced him to a common Pack member, and ordered him and Mother to leave the territory.

After the celebration of our firstborn son's first full moon, I was resting on a daybed when Petra leaned down and whispered in my ear. "My lady, Zara is gone. I heard she hanged herself at the gate of the outpost estate. They said her tongue was out when they found her."

All my old debts were finally paid.

I looked over at the cradle where my son was babbling quietly, and I smiled.

From here on out, only good days ahead.