Chapter 2

2.

In the past, the mere sight of Caleb and Seraphina together would send me into a spiral.

We were childhood sweethearts, betrothed before we could even walk, and he had spent years doting on me.

But everything changed when his cousin, with her fragile heart and her scent of fading lilies, arrived to seek refuge.

At first, Caleb avoided her, swearing to me that taking her in was only because his mother insisted.

He kept his distance, still sneaking over the pack walls every night to bring me my favorite sweets.

But slowly, things shifted. He started wearing the wolf-fur charms she made for him.

When he brought me treats, he always had a portion saved for her.

Even the nickname "Cal" was no longer mine alone.

I felt the change and fought it with everything I had, crying and screaming at him for his divided attention.

Even then, he would just sigh and pull me into a kiss, silencing my protests with a possessive touch.

For a while, it worked. He moved Seraphina to a remote cottage and stopped taking her gifts.

But one afternoon, when I went to surprise him, I found him in that cottage. Seraphina was on her knees, sobbing.

"I have no one left, Cal. Are you really going to throw me away too?"

That was the day I lost my temper and pushed her. She collapsed, and the pack doctor diagnosed her with a rare spiritual heart defect.

As she lay in bed, pale and whispering his name, my heart broke for a different reason.

Caleb didn't say a word to me. He just took her hand and rubbed her back, ignoring my presence.

When I demanded an explanation, he shouted at me for the first time.

"Elara! What is wrong with you? Do you really want her dead before you're satisfied?"

That condition gave Seraphina the ultimate victory. She became the object of his eternal pity.

I left in a rage, expecting him to follow. He didn't come for weeks.

When we finally met, he was as cold as ice.

I was terrified of losing him, so I swallowed my pride and begged for his forgiveness just to keep things the way they were.

But nothing was ever the same.

Seraphina became a shadow in our lives. She was the one Caleb helped out of the carriage at every gala.

She was the one who received his most tender blessings on her birthday.

He even spent hours in the kitchen, despite his clumsiness, making her a traditional bowl of longevity noodles.

I watched from the doorway as he looked at her with such softness, while my own eyes burned with unshed tears.

He had forgotten it was the anniversary of my mother's death―the one night he usually spent with me, lighting candles in the woods.

I begged him to come with me that night, just for an hour.

He hesitated, then finally agreed.

But while we were in the woods, Seraphina had an episode. She nearly flatlined.

When we returned, Caleb was consumed by guilt. He scooped her up and whispered, "Seraphina, I will never leave you alone again."

I stood there like a ghost, suddenly the villain in their tragic romance.

Three years ago, on the night before our mating ceremony, the Blackwood family tried to keep the news from Seraphina to avoid a relapse.

But she found out. She tried to end it all with a silver blade in her room.

Caleb found her just in time.

She looked at him through tears and whispered, "Go get mated, Cal. Don't let me be a burden to Elara anymore."

She survived. Caleb vanished.

He took his precious cousin and ran, giving her a private ceremony in the Northern Wilds where no one could judge them.

He wanted her to smile, even if it cost me my dignity.

I was left behind, a discarded mate-to-be, a joke to the entire town.

Caleb thinks I'm still that girl, waiting for him with bated breath.

But he has no idea that I almost died in those wastes, and once you've faced death, you don't care about a man's fickle heart anymore.