He wouldn’t stop himself as long as he didn’t cross the absolute red lines. He’d push right to the brink, straddling the line between acceptable behaviour and outright betrayal.
“We can work this out,” he said, changing tactics. “Whatever you think you know about Alexa and me—”
“I know everything,” I interjected. “And so does the Council.”
My questions and arguments always felt weak and ineffective under his silver tongue–because my identity had always been that of his mate, not an equal. I’d been taught to listen to him, to believe his explanations, and to doubt my own perceptions.
Not anymore.
“Ezra, you married me with ulterior motives from the start,” I grumbled. “Trying to keep me now is beyond ridiculous.” His eyes blazed with rage. “That’s not true!”
“Isn’t it? Alexa told me everything in the break room. About your fight. About how you marked me to make her jealous.”
To develop a passionless relationship with someone you don’t truly care about, and then desperately cling to that relationship when it falls apart, pretending to be deeply in love rather than relieved, was the behaviour of a performer, not a genuine mate.
“We could have dissolved our mate bond months ago and given each other freedom,” I said later. “Allowing us both to pursue our own lives with dignity instead of this endless charade.”
He rubbed both hands through his hair, his breathing ragged. “You can’t do this. Not now. Do you know what this will do to the pack’s reputation? To my standing with the other Alphas?”
So there it was. His genuine concern.
Now that the Alpha Council had approved the dissolution of our mate bond, he had no valid reason to continue this precarious relationship. Most importantly, he would lose face.
No matter how you looked at it, he was the story’s heartless villain.
Even if he escaped formal punishment from the Alpha Council, he would still face moral condemnation.
Other packs would despise him, affecting our entire pack’s reputation in the werewolf community. Alliances would be questioned. Trade agreements were reconsidered. His leadership was scrutinised.
“You should have thought of that before the first time you chose Alexa over me,” I said calmly. “Or the second. Or the tenth.” I cleared my throat and looked him straight in the eyes.
“I don’t have time to argue with you anymore. I’ll see you at the Alpha Council in three days.”
With the Council’s approval, we still needed to formally register our mate bond dissolution with them to officially end the connection. A final ceremony to undo what had been done that night under the full moon two years prior.
With those words, I turned and left without looking back.
However, Ezra was stern: “Zara, you’d better think this through. You’re still in my pack. You can’t go anywhere. If I exile you, you’ll be killed by rogue wolves within a day.”
