We settled into a private room at a high-end restaurant in the Neutral Zone. The first thing I did was send a message to the Enforcers, letting them know I would be there later to complete my statement.
At the mere mention of the Blackwoods, Liana's face contorted with rage. "That bastard. I heard he's already trying to hire the best lawyers on the continent for his mother and sister. Does he have no shame? What they did was monstrous!"
"He won't find any," Ethan said, his voice a low, cold rumble.
Liana and I both turned to look at him.
"Not one of the four Great Law Guilds on the continent will take his case," Ethan stated, his tone flat but absolute.
I immediately thought of Ethan's maternal family—the most powerful and respected legal dynasty in the werewolf world. His grandfather and uncles were legends in the field.
"Excellent!" Liana slammed her hand on the table. "That's our boy! See, it was worth it, all those times Elara had to chase you around the training grounds like a mother hen!"
A faint flush crept up Ethan's neck. He looked down, embarrassed. "If Sis hadn't protected me back then, my father would have dragged me home within three months. She was good to me. Of course I have to be good to her."
"Yeah, yeah, we know you're the best. I wish I had a little brother like you," Liana mused, her eyes twinkling. "Hey, Elara and I are the same age. How about you call me 'Sis' too? Let me see what it feels like."
Ethan looked up, his expression one of pure disdain.
"You want to be my Sis?" he asked lazily. "Can you carry me for three kilometers through a blizzard with a forty-below wind chill to find a shaman? Can you pin me to the ground and beat me until I submit?"
"…" Liana rubbed her nose. Okay, she couldn't do either of those things.
"Besides," Ethan's tone turned deadly serious, "not just anyone gets to be my Sis."
The raw arrogance of the "Little Tyrant of the North" was back, and Liana wisely shut her mouth. She had almost forgotten that the man acting like a devoted puppy in front of Elara was, to the rest of the world, an untouchable force of nature.
"Alright, Liana was just joking," I said, trying to smooth things over.
But Ethan's gaze was fixed on me, his expression intense. "Joke or not, to me, you are the only one."
The food arrived, and since I was ravenous, I immediately dug in.
"Slow down, you'll choke," Ethan murmured, ladling a bowl of soup and placing it in front of me with a practiced ease. He rotated the serving platter, moving all my old favorite dishes to my side of the table.
The transformation was so complete it made Liana roll her eyes. This wasn't the Tyrant of the North; this was a giant golden retriever, wagging its tail for a scrap of affection.
Once I had eaten my fill, Ethan set down his own utensils.
"When are you ending it with him?"
His voice was quiet, but it shattered the comfortable atmosphere in the room. Liana and I both stared at him, surprised. I had never told him.
As if reading our minds, Ethan's obsidian eyes narrowed, a banked fire of rage glowing within them.
"Don't tell me you're not ending it, not after all this," his jaw was clenched tight. "Are you really still that in love with Kaelen Blackwood? So in love that you'll endure his affairs, his family's abuse, everything?"
I said nothing.
To him, my silence was an admission.
The fire in his eyes erupted into a full-blown inferno, threatening to burn away all reason.
"What is so great about him that you can't let go?" he bit out, his voice shaking with a rage born from a deep, profound pain for what I had suffered. "He is not the only man in the world! A woman like you… he is not worthy of you!"
"Do I have to go over there and force him to reject you myself?"
Seeing the raw anguish in his eyes, I finally spoke, my voice calm and clear.
"I am ending it with him."
Ethan, who a moment ago had been a raging lion, froze completely.
"Yes. I am ending the bond," I repeated, and slowly raised my left hand. I looked at the Mate's Mark on my wrist—once a vibrant crimson, now a dull, ugly scar.
"You were right. There is nothing great about Kaelen Blackwood. So there is nothing left to miss," I said softly, as if pronouncing a final verdict on myself.
The man who had once been my comfort, my warmth after my parents' death, had been worn away to nothing by three years of neglect and betrayal. And my love for him had withered and died with each new heartbreak.
Now, there was truly nothing left.
My inner wolf was silent.
It no longer whispered his name, no longer sang for him, and it would never again cry for him.
My words transformed Ethan's rage into a look of stunned, incredulous joy.
His dark eyes, which had been burning with fury, now seemed to glitter with starlight.
And for me, speaking those words was like closing a book, a final, resolute end to a disastrous chapter of my life.
The past was over.