Bond Rejected at the Tribute Gala

"Where are my parents?"

Back when Aurora's pack territory fell under resource freeze, I had tried to reach out to my parents through the courier stone network.

But every message went unanswered.

Aurora told me they had been caught in a territory collapse on their journey home. Both of them—lost to the wards failing. She said their bodies were never recovered from the rubble. I spent three years searching through every allied pack's records. But just two days ago, I finally learned the truth.

They were not dead at all.

Aurora had tricked them into crossing the sea to distant territories.

Three whole years.

For three years, Aurora had been using my scent-seal to send them messages, telling them I was well and healing—while I rotted away in that punishment den, and they had no idea their son was being broken apart.

"Aurora."

I looked into her eyes and decided to give her one last chance.

"Is there anything you have been hiding from me?"

She blinked, then reached over to smooth the hair from my forehead, her touch gentle as morning frost.

"Silly. How could I ever hide anything from you?"

I lowered my gaze, feeling the last flicker of hope die in my chest.

"Good."

After a pause, I said, "I miss my parents."

"First thing tomorrow, I will take you to visit the memorial stones we raised for them."

I asked about my parents' territory holdings—surely they would have left me some claim to the Duskvale resources.

But Aurora's answer came out halting, her scent turning sour with hesitation.

"Everything happened so suddenly. Before I could even sort through their bloodline affairs, I was marked as disgraced and cast into outcast status by the council."

"But now I have plenty of time to investigate what really happened back then."

Her gaze flickered like a candle in wind. She took my scarred hand in hers.

"Alaric, maybe your parents are not really dead. Maybe there is still hope."

Ha.

The three-year mark was almost here. She had lied to me about my parents' deaths, and now she could not keep the story straight anymore.

So she pivoted—claimed there might be hope after all.

Too bad. She had already squandered her last chance.

A few days later, Aurora made an excuse about a pack alliance meeting. In reality, she was going to see Rowan.

I watched the moon climb toward its peak, then scattered the sleeping herbs across the den floor.

The healer sent word through the courier stone. "Everything is ready."

I nodded and sent Aurora a scent-sealed message.

"Aurora, your punishment won. You wanted to protect Rowan? Fine. Take everything."

"Take my life too."

At that same moment, a courier stone hummed frantically in a distant den.