Chapter 7

My parents loved me, but they were traditional. In their minds, a good mating was everything. If I severed my Bond, that meant no one wanted me. Pathetic. Shameful. And Dorian was a good Alpha by any measure. Handsome. Successful. He could cook and run a household.

So when Dorian told my mother that I might be thinking about severing the Bond, she showed up at the manor furious. "Ivy, have you lost your mind? You want to sever your Bond over some other wolf? Do you know how that would look for this family?"

In the past, I would've screamed back at her and slammed the door. But I'd learned things in these months. Screaming let out the pain. It didn't solve anything.

I stayed quiet for a while. My mother stopped and looked at me, confused. "Ivy, I feel like you've changed so much."

Mothers always know their children. Even the smallest shift.

I sat her down and calmly told her about Serena. But my mother still didn't fully understand. She said, "Dorian hasn't done anything that crosses a line. He's just looking after his childhood friend. Why are you being so sensitive?"

I was the one who had to live with Dorian, not her. So I understood why she didn't get it. So I told her a secret. One that no one in the world knew except me.

It was when Serena had just moved in. She deliberately smashed our Bond photo, and I was shaking with anger when we started fighting. Right then, Dorian came home. The moment he saw us, Serena collapsed onto the floor pretending to have a cardiac episode. Dorian rushed over, pushed me aside, and took Serena to the infirmary. He left in a hurry. He didn't see the blood spreading beneath me.

That was the pup I'd spent six months trying to conceive. A pup I'd been waiting so long for.

My mother's eyes went red. She slapped Dorian across the face when he rushed home, then moved her things in that same night and started looking after me. She bought me supplements and fed me properly.

Dorian didn't understand what was happening. He went to find my father to talk some sense in. My father chased him off with a walking stick. A few days later, my father moved in too. Every time he saw Dorian, he drove him out. In recent months, Dorian could only stay at a hotel outside the manor.

Without him there, I breathed easier. With both parents fully behind me, I had more room to move at work. Another six months passed. With a major project, I fought my way back to the management circle of our Pack's business.

At the victory dinner that night, I formally told Dorian I wanted to sever the Bond. Of course he refused. He fell apart. Completely.

By then the whole social circle was saying: "Poor Ivy. Such a capable woman, stuck with a mate who can't control his emotions."

The Bond severance proceedings took two years. Neither of us gave an inch. But in the end, we both came out okay. The Pack business holdings were split evenly. The shared accounts — sixty percent to me, forty to him. The manor, he kept. I was happy. I got everything I wanted. Dorian walked away with everything I didn't want.

The day the Bond papers were signed, Dorian cried in front of me for the first time. Through his tears he said, "Ivy, I hate this so much. Why couldn't we just be happy together?"

I was about to answer when a familiar voice came from behind me. "Because you're an idiot. Did you get your brain vaccinated as a pup? What you pulled is straight out of the playbook of the biggest fool in history — the one who was too clever for his own good and lost everything because of it."

I couldn't hold it. I burst out laughing.

Dorian went white with rage, jaw clenched. "Cain. What are you doing here?"

Cain blinked at me with wide, innocent eyes. "Ivy, do I hear the sound of someone slapping themselves in the face?"

I tried to keep a straight face. "I think I hear it too."

Cain looked genuinely concerned. "We should go. I heard there's been an outbreak of stupidity in the area. Better not catch it." He grabbed my hand and we walked away.

Once we were clear of everyone, I laughed until I couldn't stand up. When I finally caught my breath, I found Cain standing in front of me with a look of complaint on his face. "Ivy, I said to use me. Why didn't you sign any contracts with my company?"

Cain's company was much larger than mine. Different sectors — he was in research, I was in manufacturing. No overlap. But to back my business, he'd redirected a portion of his funding to sign deals with my side. His team knew nothing about manufacturing. I could've absorbed every dollar they put in and booked it all as clean revenue for my company. A windfall, basically. But I'd turned it down.

The reason was simple. I smiled at Cain, confident. "Because I'm very capable."

Cain's eyes curved into a smile. From somewhere he produced a single rose and dropped to one knee. "Well then, very capable Ms. Calloway. Would you give me the chance to pursue you?"