I walked into my mother’s bedroom, ready to tell her all about Isabella.
I never came here. This was her sanctuary, the one place in the mansion that was entirely hers. She’d been shocked when I’d walked in, her teacup halfway to her lips, her expression shifting from surprise to suspicion in an instant.
“Dimitri. What are you doing here? Is…is everything okay?”
I’d closed the door behind me, moving toward her. “I need to talk to you about something important.”
“If this is about the Ashworth contracts, I already had the family lawyer draft—”
“It’s about Isabella.”
The temperature in the room dropped ten degrees. My mother set down her teacup with deliberate precision, her expression going cold.
“What about her?”
I’d rehearsed this conversation a dozen times. Thought about how to approach it, what words to use. In the end, I’d decided on honesty.
“She’s my Mate, Mother. My Fated Mate. I felt the bond when Ikissed her.” I’d taken a breath. “I can’t go through with the engagement to Selene. I’m going to announce Isabella as my Mate at the ceremony.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
Then my mother laughed—a sharp, bitter sound that made my wolf bristle.
“No,” she’d said simply.
“It’s not a request. I’m telling you.”
“And I’m telling you no.” She’d stood abruptly, the teacup falling and smashing to pieces. “You will not disgrace this family by claiming that girl as your Mate.”
“She’s not ‘that girl’. She’s my Mate.” I shot up, too. “The Moon Goddess has chosen her for me.”
“Then the Moon Goddess has made a mistake.” Her voice had turned to ice. “I mean, look how your father turned out, look at what he did to his pack. Yet I was supposed to be his Fated Mate.” She scoffed. “That’s proof that the bond means nothing.”
“It doesn’t feel like nothing, Mother. I feel complete, I feel—”
“Oh, spare me that crap, Dimitri!” she snapped. “I will not watch you repeat his mistakes. I will not watch you throw away everything for a girl who means nothing. Who is nothing.” Her hands had fisted at her sides. “I’ve tolerated her presence in this house for seven years. I’ve watched her exist in spaces she has no right to occupy. But I will be damned if I watch my son—the Alpha—legitimize that whore’s bastard.”
“Don’t call her that.”
“I’ll call her whatever I want.” My mother had moved so close I could see the madness glinting in her eyes. “And if you announce her as your Mate, if you choose her over your duty, over your pack, over the alliance with the Ashworths,” she’d paused, then said the next words slowly so I could grasp each word, “I will kill her myself.”
I’d stared at her, this woman who’d raised me, and seen a stranger. Seen the depth of her hatred, her madness, and her willingness to commit murder to get what she wanted.
“You’re bluffing.”
“Am I?” She’d tilted her head. “Test me, darling. Announce that girl as your Mate at the ceremony. And I promise you, by morning, she’ll be dead. An accident, perhaps. A tragic fall. A sudden illness. These things happen.” Her smile had been serene, terrifying. “No one would question it. After all, she’s just the charity case. The bastard. Who would really miss her?”
It wasn’t just my mother who opposed the union. The entire Council had, too.
All the elders were now passing me smiles and congratulations, as though three weeks ago, they hadn’t sat in judgment and threatened to strip me of my title if I chose Isabella. They’d called it a taboo, an unnatural bond, even when they knew Isabella and I weren’t actually step-siblings. It was just the optics my father had presented to the pack before his death to protect her from being branded a bastard.
But optics were everything to them. And Isabella’s existence was inconvenient.
So, they’d given me an ultimatum: reject her and keep my crown, or choose her and lose everything—my title, my pack, my ability to protect anyone. Including her.
I’d chosen the path that would keep her alive.
And destroyed us both anyway.
