[Elara's POV]
The wind roared in my ears as the War-Branded Griffin beneath me let out a cry of pure exhilaration.
I could feel its joy. A powerful creature like this was born for the sky.
The mocking voices, the doubts, all of it was left far below, swallowed by the clouds.
Easy, friend. Let's give them a show. I sent the thought directly to its mind, a gift of my bloodline.
The griffin shrieked in response, and at my command, it shot upward in a breathtaking vertical climb.
What followed was a sequence of pure aerial artistry: a heart-stopping dive that pulled up at the last second, a series of tight barrel rolls, and a nearly impossible maneuver known as the "Moon Goddess's Tear"—carving a perfect, shimmering arc through the air, like a single tear shed by the goddess herself.
On the ground, the assembled packs erupted in cheers and gasps of astonishment.
They didn't know who I was. They only knew that the anonymous rider in the sky possessed a skill that bordered on divine.
I savored this long-lost freedom.
For Kaelen, I had sacrificed so much of my own glory. I had hidden my wisdom, my talents, my very essence beneath the shadow of his ambition.
Now, it was time to let them see the sun.
The demonstration ended. I guided the griffin to a smooth landing and dismounted with a single, clean motion.
Kaelen just stood there, his amber eyes wide with a shock that bordered on disbelief.
"You… you really can…" he stammered, unable to find the words.
"And so what if I can?" I looked at him calmly, repeating the words I had spoken earlier. "Is mastering a griffin really that impressive?"
His face flushed a deep, painful red, the color spreading to the tips of his ears.
I knew how those words must sound to him now. A monumental, crushing irony. He had thought I was nothing but a jealous, ignorant fool making empty boasts.
Now he understood. I truly didn't care.
It was like a man who owned an entire forest being told to envy the single tree in another's garden.
"When did you…" His voice was hoarse. "When did you learn?"
He only knew me as a lone wolf from a fallen clan. He had never once wondered about the life I lived before him.
"What, you're only just now curious about my past?" I asked, my voice dripping with scorn.
When we first mated three years ago, I had tried to tell him everything. About my family, my honors, all the things I could do.
But he had cut me off. Your past doesn't matter, he'd said. I only care about our future.
Back then, in my naivety, I thought he truly didn't care about my origins, only about us.
I learned later that he simply didn't care about me. So, naturally, my past held no meaning for him.
An expression of profound awkwardness, one I had never seen on him before, twisted Kaelen's features.
Just then, Lucian and his pack of sycophants swaggered over.
"Kaelen, Seraphina's looking for you in the main hall. What are you still doing here?" Lucian bellowed. When they saw me, their faces contorted with open disdain. "Is this woman bothering you again?"
"No… it's not that," Kaelen denied awkwardly.
But they didn't believe him. One of them shot me a malicious glare. "Elara, weren't you just boasting that riding a griffin is no big deal? If you're so great, why don't you go ride one now?"
"Ha! As if she could! If Seraphina hadn't been injured on that Windrunner, she'd be here to show this woman the massive gulf between them!"
The chorus of mockery resumed.
Liana stormed forward, pointing an accusing finger at Kaelen. "Are you even a man? You're just going to let your friends insult your mate like this?"
Kaelen's expression froze.
I pulled my furious friend back, my gaze as cold as a glacier as it swept over Kaelen and his so-called friends.
"The gap between individuals is never measured by the ability to ride a griffin." My voice was quiet, but it silenced the area around us.
"And who are you to judge?"
"Just because I was once Kaelen's mate? Does that give you the right to insult me, to belittle me whenever you please?"
My inner wolf stirred, and a powerful aura radiated from me. It wasn't the dominance of an Alpha, but a deep, inviolable dignity that stemmed from the very core of my bloodline.
The normally arrogant males were stunned into silence, their taunts dying on their lips.
I paid them no more mind, taking Liana by the arm and turning to leave.
It took Lucian a moment to recover. He yelled at my back, his face flush with rage and humiliation. "A lone wolf with the audacity to act so high and mighty! Kaelen, you need to put her in her place, show her what she really is!"
"Enough!" Kaelen snapped, his face a thundercloud. "Elara is my mate. No matter what, you shouldn't look down on her!"
The image of me soaring on the griffin, combined with the hot shame burning on his own face, had finally forced a single, decent sentence from his lips.
"What's wrong with you?" Lucian, stunned by the rebuke, shot back with a nasty sneer. "The one who looks down on Elara the most is you!"
"Weren't you the one who said it? That she has nothing? You're the one who told us mating her was a mistake! That the Moon Goddess must have blinded you for a second, and you've regretted it ever since!"
Kaelen was speechless.
It was true. Those were his own words, complained to his friends in a drunken stupor.
But was she truly worthless?
The defense plans she'd created for the Pack had saved him countless sleepless nights. She could tame a frenzied beast, even command a War-Branded Griffin in maneuvers that left professional riders breathless.
Each of these truths was a mountain, pressing down on his chest, suffocating him.
The mate he had deemed useless was revealing, again and again, a powerful, capable self he had never known.
She had been his mate for three years, yet she felt more and more like a stranger.