He looked wrong.
Too pale. Too quiet.
A leather binding rested around his wrist where the healers had tied a charm threaded with wolfsbane-neutralizing herbs—standard practice when a wolf suffered a violent shift or spirit injury. A bowl of steaming tonic herbs sat beside the bed, its scent sharp and bitter in the air.
Yet Marcus hadn’t stirred in days.
The faint aura of his wolf flickered weakly around him—like the last sparks of a dying fire.
And I was running out of coin.
Caleb had made certain of that.
My former mate didn’t simply want Marcus punished.
He wanted me ruined.
Every bit of work I managed to find slipped away within days. A stable job might last a week—two if the Moon was feeling generous. A month at most before the same hollow excuse arrived from nervous employers who refused to meet my eyes.
Pack restructuring.
New hires.
Unexpected changes.
Lies.
All of it.
This had nothing to do with work.
This was Caleb Lutherford’s reach tightening around my throat.
He wanted to drive me into a corner. To starve me of options until I crawled back to him, head bowed like a disgraced omega begging forgiveness.
Until I accepted whatever humiliating conditions he chose to grant me and called it mercy.
But I wouldn’t.
I couldn’t.
I wrapped my fingers around Marcus’s cold hand, squeezing gently, hoping—ridiculously—that my warmth might reach him wherever his spirit had wandered.
“Don’t you dare leave me here alone, pup,” I whispered, leaning close so only he could hear. “Not like this.”
My voice trembled, but I forced the words out anyway.
“I’m not giving up the way you did. I’ll keep fighting. Until my last breath, Marcus. I swear it.”
I pressed my lips against his knuckles.
Salt touched my tongue. Tears I hadn’t realized had fallen.
Slowly, painfully, I straightened.
My legs protested with every step, but I forced them to carry me out of the infirmary chamber. If I stayed one moment longer, I would collapse beside his bed and never rise again.
---
The corridor beyond felt endless.
The air smelled of herbs, antiseptic smoke, and quiet grief.
Somewhere down the hall a healer murmured soft reassurances to a frightened mother cradling her injured pup, and the sound nearly broke me.
Where was I supposed to go now?
I had no work.