Chapter 7

Seraphina’s POV

Calla wept, tears streaming down her cheeks like petals in the rain. “If you have a problem, take it out on me. Why go after Kael? He’s just a pup! I’ll apologize to you, just please, let him go, all right?”

As she spoke, she started to beg for my forgiveness, her scent thickening with that sweet jasmine curdling over decay.

Roderick stepped forward and pulled the pitiful Calla into his arms, his gaze hardening as he turned to glare at me. The Alpha aura rolled off him in a cold wave, pressing down on every wolf in the Healing Hall.

“How dare you lay a hand on my pup!”

“Roderick,” I said flatly, “If you don’t give me my daughter back, I’ll kill him.”

I met his eyes without flinching, openly taking on a crime I hadn’t committed. The boy wasn’t even in my hands, but that didn’t matter now.

His expression darkened with hatred, the woodsmoke and cold iron of him sharpening, yet he still refused to say whether my daughter was alive.

Watching him, my heart plummeted to the very bottom.

Could it be true? Was my daughter truly… dead?

The thought tore through me, and somewhere beneath my skin my wolf threw back her head in a soundless howl. I could no longer hold myself back. I lunged forward and wrapped my hands around Calla’s throat.

“Roderick, give my daughter back to me! If she’s dead, Calla will go to the grave with her!”

Calla clearly hadn’t expected me to act so recklessly. Her smug expression collapsed into sheer panic.

Roderick’s eyes flickered toward her, his hands lifting as if to calm me down.

But in the next second, the room flooded with pack warriors. They wrenched Calla from my grip, and I was instantly surrounded.

Slaps rained down on my face, hard, stinging blows, while Roderick stayed at Calla’s side, soothing her like a frightened pup. His gaze, however, when it turned back to me, was pure ice.

“Throw her into the cold cell,” he ordered. “When she’s ready to tell us where Kael is, let her out. If not, keep her there until I find him myself!”

The next second, they stripped away my clothes and shoved me into a freezing silver-warded cell. The air bit at my skin like knives; it was thirty degrees below zero, and the frost crept into my bones where my wolf could not warm them. Standing at the doorway, Roderick met my eyes.

“Roderick,” I rasped, my voice raw from the cold, “I truly regret ever mating with you!”

He hesitated for a fraction of a second. But in the end, he turned without a word and walked away.

When the door finally opened again, three hours had passed. I uncurled my stiff, frozen body and slowly stepped out.

Roderick stood there holding Calla protectively, his gaze wary.

Behind them, Calla’s son looked perfectly healthy, warm and utterly unshaken.

I didn’t spare them another glance. Instead, I walked past and retrieved my communicator from the room.

I sent a message to Caspian.

[Caspian, is my daughter still alive?]

I gripped the crystal so tightly my knuckles ached. If Wrenna was truly gone, I would set this entire den ablaze and drag every last one of them into the flames with me!

A reply came almost immediately.

[My warriors saved her. She’s fine. Get your documents ready. Tomorrow, I’ll come with your daughter to pick you up.]

My vision blurred as tears finally spilled over.

Thank the Moon Goddess. Thank the Moon Goddess my daughter was still alive!

Just then, Roderick stepped forward.

His expression was complicated as he studied me. “Who are you talking to?”

I didn’t even look at him. “Someone you don’t know,” I replied coolly.

He reached out, trying to snatch my communicator, but I didn’t resist.

Still, no matter how he tried, he couldn’t unlock it. In the end, he had to hand it back, his frustration simmering beneath the surface, his scent souring.

“Tomorrow,” he said flatly, “you’re coming with me to a public reckoning. You’ll openly admit before the pack that our bond is already rejected.”

A short laugh escaped me as I idly scrolled through my communicator. That was when I saw the news. Roderick had been far too brazen these past few days. His bond with Calla was now all over the spirit network.

Only the identity of their pup had been carefully kept under wraps.