He rubbed slow circles on my back, his voice softening. "You've always been the most sensible one, Perenna. I was overthinking it. Rest now. Your mate will stay right here. I'm not going anywhere."
I didn't know how long I slept before the noise from the courtyard dragged me awake.
The moment I opened my eyes, I saw Rowan sprawled in the center of the yard, a silver-tipped switch cracking down across her body again and again.
Her clothes were soaked through with blood. Each breath she drew looked like it might be her last. The smell of burned skin rose with every strike where the silver bit into her, and something in my chest went so still it frightened me.
Cressida Thornwood sat nearby, watching with cold, disinterested eyes.
When Hadeon saw me stir, he didn't bother explaining. He simply pressed my shoulders back down. "The Alpha Heir's mate is disciplining a servant. Don't interfere, Perenna."
I had braced myself for some grave offense. But the crime, it turned out, was nothing more than this: after delivering the Bond Severance petition to the Alpha King, Rowan had taken it upon herself to summon the pack healer for me.
The Alpha King and his Luna already carried guilt over the Alpha Heir breaking his fated bond with me. When they learned what had happened, they'd rebuked Cressida harshly.
Called her vicious. Said she'd shown callous disregard for another she-wolf's life.
Cressida couldn't touch me, not with the Alpha King and his Luna shielding me. So she'd turned her fury on Rowan instead.
I watched Rowan's broken body twitch with each blow, barely clinging to life, and the tears wouldn't stop. The silver left thin lines of smoke rising from her skin. My wolf pressed itself flat inside me, whimpering low, unable to look away.
I seized Hadeon's sleeve and begged. "My lord, please save Rowan. Every fault is mine, all of it."
"She was only worried about me."
Hadeon's expression pinched with reluctance. "Perenna, she's just a servant. Let the Alpha Heir's mate vent her anger and it'll blow over."
I stared at that handsome face of his, so perfectly composed, so perfectly human, and could not fathom the rottenness it concealed.
Because we were born lowly, our lives simply didn't matter?
Mine didn't. Rowan's didn't. And neither had the hundred-some families of the Hollowmere Pack.