Chapter 3

Elena POV

"It's nothing," I said, not even looking at him. "These things used to be valuable to me, but now they are just trash. There's no point in keeping trash."

I turned to walk back inside, but James quickly caught up and grabbed my wrist.

"Elena!" he yelled at the staircase, pulling me back. "How long are you going to keep acting like this? I am grieving Anna too! I am her father! Do you think you're the only one hurting?"

"You're hurting?" I repeated, looking at him as if he had just said the funniest joke in the world.

"If you actually cared about Anna, you would have believed me instead of Clara! You missed the only window to save our daughter!"

I still remembered the day I figured out the toxin in Anna's body was a rare form of Wolfbane.

I realized the only cure was the blood of the person who poisoned her. And I knew, without a doubt, it was Clara.

But when I told James, he had scoffed. "Clara is a fragile human. She doesn't even know what Wolfbane is! Your jealousy is making you delusional, Elena!"

He refused to believe his precious Clara could do such a thing.

"Elena, please, stop this," James sighed, pulling me into a tight embrace, his voice softening. "We are still young. We can have another baby. We can..."

"Don't touch me! You disgust me, James!"

His words triggered something violent inside me. I shoved him away with all my strength.

Unprepared, James stumbled back, hitting his back against the wooden banister. He stared at me, shocked.

I let out a cold laugh. "James, let me make this very clear. I, Elena Vance, formally reject you as my mate and my Alpha. If you don't accept it, I will find another way to break this bond. You can have babies with whoever you want, but it will never be me."

My only child was Anna. And she was dead.

Seeing the cold determination in my eyes, James panicked. "I only asked you to leave back then to trick Clara into giving up the antidote! I didn't think she would actually lie about it..."

He swallowed hard. "I will never accept your rejection. We are not breaking up."

Too late.

What James didn't know was that I had already submitted a petition to the Lycan Council. If he refused my rejection, I would ask the Alpha King himself to sever our bond.

I ignored him, turned around, and locked myself in my bedroom.

"Elena!" James tried to follow, but his phone rang again.

He pulled it out and answered irritably. "Clara, what is it now?"

"If your stomach hurts, go to the hospital! I am not a doctor!"

I didn't care what Clara said next. All I heard was the sound of James leaving the packhouse once again.

This had happened too many times to count.

Over the years, Clara had used every excuse, chest pain, panic attacks, fevers, to drag James away whenever Anna and I needed him.

In the past, I would cry, scream, and smash things in the house. But now, my heart was a flatline.

When you truly stop caring, the things that used to drive you crazy don't even make you flinch.