In that instant, Selene startled like a cornered wolf. Despite her body still weak from the birth, she shoved the pup into my arms without care and rushed toward the door.
The movement tore open the wounds on her arms—hundreds of needle marks from heat-draught injections and self-inflicted gashes, each one the width of a pup's forearm, splitting open and weeping fresh blood.
Yet she left as though she hadn't seen me at all.
The way she threw herself in front of the Matriarch's walking staff, shielding Dorian Frostclaw behind her without hesitation, made every comforting word she'd spoken to me moments ago seem utterly laughable.
"Grandmother! The plan was my idea—I did it for the Valeheart Pack! Please don't hurt someone who had no part in this!"
Matriarch Aurelia Valeheart froze, her sharp gaze instinctively cutting toward me.
When she saw the white bandages wrapped around my arm already soaking through with fresh blood, her expression twisted with frustration and disappointment.
"You wretched pup! He was stuck with over a hundred acupuncture needles just yesterday—can you not see all the wounds covering his body?"