I stood there like a complete outsider, a ghost haunting my own bonding, watching the scene unfold with detached clarity. My wolf whimpered somewhere deep inside, but I had long since learned to silence her.
Only then did he seem to remember I existed at all. He released Aurora, a flicker of guilt crossing his features like a passing cloud. "Sweetheart, you don't mind, do you? She's just my sister."
He'd already prepared himself—ready to soothe a jealous mate, to offer pretty words and empty reassurances.
But I only pulled my lips into the ghost of a smile, the expression feeling foreign on my face.
"I don't mind."
The moment those three words left my mouth, I heard it clearly—the sound of my own heart tearing open, the bond between us straining against wounds that would never heal.
When morning light crept through the stone windows, I woke and reached instinctively for the space beside me on the sleeping furs.
It was already cold.
I pulled on my sleeping robe and padded barefoot down the third-floor corridor of the Alpha's Keep, pausing at the carved stone railing to peer down at Aurora's chamber on the floor below.
The heavy oak door stood half-open.