Thaddeus POV
I'm watching my entire world end, and I can't stop it.
The Lunar Council chamber is packed with wolves—hundreds of witnesses here to watch the High Alpha's mate invoke the Law of Broken Faith. Against me. Against my brother. Against Alaric Ravenspur, my worst enemy.
Three Alphas. One Omega. Public destruction.
"When did you lose control?" Cassian whispers beside me. He looks terrible—hasn't eaten properly in days, dark circles under his eyes.
"The moment I took her for granted," I mutter back.
Alaric sits on my other side, equally miserable. Three weeks ago, we would've killed each other on sight. Now we're united in our shared devastation, waiting for Elowen to destroy us all.
The chamber doors open.
She walks in, and my heart stops.
White dress. Mourning color. Hair unbound like she's already dead to us. But it's her face that kills me—serene, empty, like we don't even exist anymore.
I've seen Elowen scared. Sad. Broken.
I've never seen her like this. Powerful. Untouchable. Free.
She's beautiful, and I'm realizing it eighteen months too late.
"All rise for the Lunar Council," the Head Councilor announces.
We stand. Elowen walks down the center aisle alone—no escort, no support, just her and Vesperine standing guard at the back.
Every eye follows her. Whispers ripple through the crowd.
"The wolfless Omega actually did it—"
"Three Alphas! Unprecedented—"
"What did they do to her?"
Elowen reaches the front. Stands before the ancient Council stone where wolves have sought justice for a thousand years.
The Head Councilor looks grim. "Elowen Miravel. You've invoked the Law of Broken Faith against three Alphas simultaneously. This is highly irregular. State your case."
Elowen's voice is clear, steady. "I will present evidence of broken bonds, broken promises, and broken faith. Then I will invoke my right to sever all ties."
She pulls out documents. My heart sinks.
For thirty minutes, she speaks. Thirty devastating minutes.
She presents our marriage contract—shows how it was purely political, how I specified "territory merger" as the primary clause. Reads my own words: "Emotional attachment is not required for this alliance to succeed."
The crowd murmurs. I feel their judgment like knives.
She calls witnesses. Pack members who saw me with Lyria. Who heard me dismiss Elowen publicly. Who watched me treat my own mate like furniture.
Each testimony cuts deeper.
"Alpha Thaddeus called his mate 'acceptable' when asked if he loved her."
"He spent their anniversary night with Lyria. We all knew."
"The Omega ran his entire territory. He took credit for everything she did."
I want to argue, to defend myself. But every word is true.
Then she turns to Cassian.
She presents the wager. Actual documentation—betting slips, witness statements from the guards. Five hundred gold for bedding the "ice queen."
Cassian makes a strangled sound beside me.
Elowen's voice never wavers. "Cassian Ironhart seduced me while I was vulnerable. Made me believe he cared. Three months of lies. The bet was never cancelled. He collected his winnings the morning after we—" her voice finally cracks, just for a second, "—after I gave him everything."
The chamber explodes with shocked whispers. Cassian doubles over like he's been gutted.
Finally, she presents evidence against Alaric. Recordings. Actual recordings of him talking to his Beta about using her as a weapon.
"The Omega trusts me completely. When she testifies against Thaddeus, we'll dismantle the dynasty from within."
Alaric's face goes white.
Elowen plays more. "She's served her purpose. Once Thaddeus is destroyed, I'll return her. She's no longer my concern."
The Council members look horrified. Disgusted.
"Three Alphas," Elowen says quietly. "Three different betrayals. Thaddeus Ironhart claimed me for land. Cassian Ironhart claimed me for sport. Alaric Ravenspur claimed me for revenge."
She walks to the Council stone.
"Under the Law of Broken Faith, I reject these bonds. All of them. I sever every tie."
"Wait!" I'm on my feet, desperation overriding dignity. "Elowen, please—"
"I choose myself," she says simply.
She cuts her palm with the ceremonial blade. Blood wells, bright red against her pale skin.
Three drops fall onto the Council stone.
Power erupts.
Ancient magic—old as wolves themselves—responds to her invocation. The bonds connecting us snap like breaking chains.
Pain explodes in my chest. Fire and ice and agony like I'm being ripped apart from the inside.
I scream. Can't help it. Can't breathe.
Beside me, Cassian and Alaric collapse, their screams joining mine.
The mate bond—eighteen months old, cold and neglected but still there—tears away. Leaves a gaping wound where connection used to be.
I hit the floor, gasping. My wolf howls in anguish, clawing at me from the inside.
Through blurred vision, I see Elowen standing steady. The bond breaking should hurt her too—always hurts both parties.
But she's not even flinching.
How? How is she so strong when I'm dying?
The Head Councilor's voice cuts through my agony: "The Law of Broken Faith is satisfied. Elowen Miravel is hereby granted independent status. No pack. No mate. No ties. The accused Alphas will face—"
"No punishment," Elowen interrupts.
What?
She looks down at us—three Alphas on our knees, broken and bleeding and destroyed.
"I don't want revenge," she says. "I want freedom. Let them live with what they've done. That's punishment enough."
She turns to leave.
"Elowen!" I gasp. "Please—I'll give you anything—"
She stops. Doesn't turn around.
"I already took everything that matters, Thaddeus. My dignity. My freedom. My future."
"I love you!" The words rip from my chest. "I know I didn't before, but watching you walk away—I can't lose you—"
Now she turns. Looks at me with those empty grey eyes.
"You never had me to lose."
She walks out. The chamber doors close behind her with terrible finality.
I'm still on the floor, chest gaping with the absence of our bond, when I realize the full horror of what I've done.
I had eighteen months with an incredible woman. Eighteen months to see her brilliance, her strength, her loyalty.
And I spent all of it looking past her to someone else.
"She's gone," Cassian chokes out beside me. "She's really gone."
"We destroyed her," Alaric says hollowly. "All three of us."
The Council clears the chamber. They're surprisingly merciful—no formal punishment beyond public humiliation and having to live with our choices.
But as I struggle to stand, chest still burning where the bond used to be, I realize Elowen was right.
This is worse than any punishment they could give.
Because I finally understand what I lost. Who I lost.
And she's never coming back.
Lyria finds me in the hallway outside. For once, she's not smug or triumphant.
"You loved her," she says quietly. "You just realized too late."
"I don't know if I love her. But I need her. And that's—" I stop, throat closing.
"That's worse?"
"That's everything."
I walk back to my chambers in a daze. Everywhere I look, I see Elowen. Her sitting at my desk handling correspondence I was too lazy to read. Her reorganizing trade routes I never appreciated. Her making me look competent while I took all the credit.
On my desk, I find a letter. Her handwriting.
Thaddeus—I've transferred all Miravel territory management back to you. I've also included three years' worth of reports I wrote that you presented as your own work. You might want to actually read them this time. You'll find running those lands much harder without me doing all the actual work. —E
I open the reports. Page after page of brilliant analysis, strategic planning, policy recommendations.
All in Elowen's hand.
All credited to me in official documents.
She made me look like a genius while I treated her like she was worthless.
I sink into my chair, the letter crumpling in my fist.
Cassian appears in my doorway, looking haunted. "Did she leave you a letter too?"
"What did yours say?"
"That she forgives me for the bet. That she hopes someday I figure out who I am without trying to prove I'm better than you." He laughs bitterly. "She destroyed me with kindness."
Alaric shows up an hour later. Apparently Elowen sent him evidence of my father's actual murderer—not me, not my doing, but someone else entirely.
"She cleared your name," Alaric says numbly. "After everything I did, she gave me the truth I've been hunting for seven years."
Three letters. Three different mercies.
Each one proof that Elowen is better than all of us combined.
That night, I stand at my window watching the road leading away from the palace.
Somewhere out there, the woman I broke is finally free.
And I'm left with this gaping wound in my chest and the terrible knowledge that I destroyed something irreplaceable.
My wolf whimpers, searching for a bond that's gone.
I let him. Let us both suffer.
We earned this.
But as the moon rises, full and bright, something shifts in the air. Power—ancient and wild—pulses from the Veilwood.
My wolf's head snaps up, suddenly alert.
That power feels familiar. Feels like—
No. Impossible.
Elowen is wolfless. Always has been.
So why does that pulse of wild magic smell exactly like honey and wildfire?