DELPHINA

"Who the hell is this woman, Helio?"

My voice thundered through the entryway, sharp and loud enough to slice through the heavy silence of the house the moment Helio crossed the threshold of our home.

The woman beside him looked effortlessly gorgeous and completely sure of herself as she smiled, like this was the plan all along.

I didn’t care.

I stood there, still in the dress I’d changed into hours ago, one I wore just for him. The table was still set, candles melted halfway, the roasted lamb already cold, the red wine untouched in our wedding crystal glasses. I had spent all day preparing for this.

Our anniversary. A date I had clung to like a fool, spending hours cooking his favorite venison stew, baking honey-dusted cornbread, and laying out the wine gifted by the Elder Council after our mating ceremony.

I had waited. All damn day. My wolf had paced restlessly beneath my skin, growing more agitated as dusk bled into darkness. Every sound made me perk up, only to sag back down when it wasn’t him. But I never imagined this.

He brought her on his arm, like that wasn’t a slap in the face.

Helio didn’t answer. He barely acknowledged me, as if I were a piece of furniture he’d long since grown tired of.

“Helio,” I said again, this time lower. Firmer. “I’m asking you. Who is this woman?”

Still nothing. But I saw his jaw tense.

His eyes flicked toward me for a heartbeat before turning away. No surprise. No guilt. Just cold detachment. He kept walking.

I moved fast, stepping into his path and grabbing his arm. “I asked you a question.”

His body tensed. I saw the flicker of irritation in his eyes as he turned to face me fully.

“Delphina,” Helio said at last, voice stiff with annoyance, “this isn’t the time-”

“No?” I cut him off, stepping forward. “You show up late, reeking of someone else's scent, on the night our bond was blessed under the moon, and I’m the one being unreasonable?”

The woman stepped forward, confident, smug. Her fingers still looped through him like a chain. “Hey, there. My name’s Renata,” she said, her voice like honey and venom all in one. She stepped forward with a graceful confidence I didn’t miss. “I’m Helio’s chosen.”

I let the word chosen settle between us. My wolf growled within me.

His what?

I didn’t flinch.

But the heat rising to my cheeks betrayed me. My nails dug into my own palms as I forced myself not to look away.

I took a deep breath and raised my chin. “Chosen, huh?”

Neither of them replied. They just stood there, hand in hand, united in their betrayal.

Helio still didn’t meet my gaze. Coward.

The mark on my neck, the one I had once worn with pride, seemed to burn and fade all at once. Our bond had never been strong, faint at best, but the Goddess had tied us together anyway. And I had tried. For years, I had fought to strengthen a bond that Helio treated like a leash.

I stared at them, him with his cold silence, her with her mocking eyes, and something inside me snapped.

“You dare to bring her here? To our home?” I asked, stepping closer. “Where we first shifted together under the full moon? Where the elders blessed our mating? Where your mark still stings on my skin?”

Renata blinked, suddenly less smug. But Helio? He just sighed, like I was the inconvenience.

“Delphina, stop making this harder than it needs to be.”

“Harder?” I laughed bitterly. “I gave up everything for this bond, Helio. I gave you my submission, my future, my trust, and you gave me silence. You avoided me every day with your absence, your cold shoulder, your refusal to even try.”

“You knew from the start this wasn’t about love,” he muttered. “The Elders forced it. I never wanted a mate.”

“And yet you marked me,” I snapped. “You claimed me in front of the entire pack. Was that just for politics?”

He stared at me for a moment. “You and I both know this marriage hasn’t worked for a long time, Delphina,” he said flatly. “It’s cold. Empty. We were thrown together by duty, not choice.”

“And you think this is the way to fix it?” I gestured wildly toward Renata. “By humiliating me in my own home, on our damn anniversary?”

“I didn’t come here to fight.”

“No, you came here to throw salt on the wounds you’ve been carving into me for years.”

My voice didn’t shake. I was proud of that.

Helio ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t love you, Delphinia. I never have.”

I blinked once.

Not because I was surprised, but because I’d finally heard it out loud.

And Goddess, it hurt.

Renata’s eyes widened slightly in delight, but I didn’t even glance her way. My entire world had been rearranged in front of my own eyes, and I was still standing. That counted for something.

Helio looked at me with something that might’ve been regret… or maybe just guilt for being caught. “I’ve been waiting for the right moment to make it clear.”

He stepped forward, towering over me.

“I, Alpha Helio Vargsson of Silvercrest, reject you, Delphina Arden, as my mate.”

It felt like the wind had been knocked out of me.

The mark on my neck burned hot for a second, then went cold. Dead. The bond severed like a rope snapped in half. My wolf whimpered deep inside, then grew eerily still.

But I didn’t fall.

I didn’t weep.

I held my head high.

“I, Delphina Arden of Silvercrest, accept your rejection,” I said clearly, my voice calm even as my world cracked beneath me. “May the Moon Goddess see this bond broken and erased.”

Renata let out a quiet breath, like she’d been waiting for that to be done. Maybe she thought I’d fall apart. Maybe Helio did too.

“I gave you my youth, my dreams, and every ounce of loyalty I had,” I said. “You never deserved any of it. But thank you.”

He looked confused. “For what?”

“For finally freeing me.”

Then I turned to Renata. “Enjoy the scraps. Because if he could treat his mate this way, imagine how he’ll treat you once the excitement fades.”

She blinked, unsure whether to be offended or afraid.

I walked past the dining table with its cold food and melting candles. Past the walls where our pictures once hung. Past the door of the bedroom I had once filled with prayers and silence.

I packed quickly. Only the essentials. My dagger. My journals. The necklace my mother had enchanted with protection spells before she passed. Everything else could rot in this house, along with the lie of our mating.

When I reached the door again, Helio stood there, watching. The woman was nowhere in sight.

I just walked away.

Not to cry. Not to shatter.

Then I shifted.

Bones cracked, fur surged through my skin, and the silver wolf inside me broke free with a howl that shattered the night air.

No more waiting.

No more silence.

No more being someone’s unwanted bond.

I ran into the forest, feeling the cool wind whip through my fur, the ache in my chest easing with each step. Somewhere beyond the trees, a new life waited for me, one that I would choose on my own terms.

I was no longer his.