Rue’s POV

Aiden’s hand snapped forward just in time, catching his mother’s wrist mid-air before it could reach me.

“Enough, Mother,” he said, his voice firm, sharp, commanding.

For a very brief moment, I thought maybe something inside him had shifted. That maybe, just maybe, there was still a part of him that remembered who I was to him, who Iris was.

But before I could cling to that thought, Haven stepped into the space between us. Smooth as silk. Her delicate fingers slid through Aiden’s arm, her body pressing lightly into his side like she belonged there.

“Aiden, don’t get so worked up,” she said softly, her tone sweet and intimate. “It’s not worth it.”

Like I wasn’t worth it, like the daughter we had wasn’t.

My fingers curled into fists, my nails biting into my palms so deeply it hurt. But that pain was nothing compared to the ache in my chest. Iris had been burning with fever. She had called for her father again and again.

And he hadn’t come.

And now, he stood here like this. Letting her cling to him. Letting her replace me, even now.

I took a slow, shaking breath.

“So,” I said quietly, bitterness laced in every word, “you decide to show up now?”

He looked at me. Guilt flickered in his eyes, but it was weak. “She was sick, Aiden,” I said, louder now. “On her birthday.”

“I know,” he said, his voice low. “Rue, it’s not what you think, Haven asked me to accompany her, I didn’t…”

I scoffed, sharp and tired. “You’d rather accompany her than visit your dying daughter?”

He didn’t respond. This silence was louder than any denial, it was the confirmation I never wanted, the final cruel truth I had always suspected.

I turned away before the tears could fall. Before he could see how much it shattered me again. My heels clicked hollowly as I walked away from him, away from them, toward the quiet of the first-floor lounge.

I didn’t know where I was going, I just knew I needed space to a place that didn’t taste like betrayal.

The corridor stretched endlessly as I walked, and every step felt heavier than the last. My body moved, but my mind was stuck in that moment, Aiden and Haven, arm in arm, like a portrait of what he really wanted all along.

The doors closed behind me, sealing in the memory like a coffin lid. I collapsed to my knees beside Iris’s hospital bed, empty now, her tiny body moved to the operating room.

Her stuffed bunny was still there. The one she’d dragged everywhere since she could walk.

I reached for it like it was a lifeline, clutching it to my chest. I pressed my face into its fur and breathed in the faint scent of her strawberry shampoo. I could still hear her giggle, still picture her curled up under her blanket, asking me to sing her favorite lullaby again.

And now she might never hear it again.

I screamed into the silence, my anguish echoing off the sterile white walls. Then the scream dissolved into sobs.

I cried harder than I had in years, I cried like the child I used to be, the one who had never felt safe. I cried like a mother whose soul was splitting in half, my little girl, my last piece of light, was slipping away, and I had nothing left, just the hollow ache of failure.

A sharp knock at the door pulled me upright. I wiped my face quickly as the doctor stepped in. His scrubs were stained, his eyes exhausted. He pulled off his mask and cap, and the expression on his face said everything before he spoke.

“Iris’s vitals are dropping fast,” he said gently. “We’re doing everything we can, but…”

He didn’t need to finish.

“She’s slipping,” he continued. “If you want to try other hospitals, I can refer you to…”

“No,” I interrupted.

I couldn’t hear it again. I couldn’t hear that she might not make it.

Not from him. Not from anyone.

He nodded solemnly and left me alone again, the weight of his words hanging in the air like smoke.

I paced the room for what felt like hours. Calling witches, healers, rogue shamans, anyone who might know what to do. Anything that could give me a sliver of hope.

But none of them had answers.

No one had even heard of a venom case like Iris’s. The poison was rare, ancient cursed, one whispered.

I was nearly broken when I remembered what the doctor had said once in passing. About a witch who was powerful, silent and hidden.

And she only served one Pack.

My father’s Pack.

Blood Claw.

The Pack I abandoned. The one I had turned my back on to escape an arranged mating, I stared down at my phone. Then, with shaking fingers, I dialed the number I hadn’t called in years.

It rang for a while and then “Hello?” came the voice. It was rough, cold, and commanding.

Alpha Cyrus, my father.

“It’s me,” I said, voice barely above a whisper. “It’s Rue.”

A long silence.

Then, “Rue.”

It was all he said, but there was a weight to it. A reckoning.

“I need help,” I said. “My daughter, Iris, she’s dying. There’s a witch in your pack that can help her. I know it, please let her help.”

Another silence. “You have a daughter?” he asked.

I swallowed. “Dad, please.”

I had cut him off years ago. I left without a word. I erased him from my life. I had no right to ask him for anything.

But I was asking.

“No witch will help you unless I allow it,” he said at last. “You want her help?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’ll come back,” he said. “And fulfill the promise you ran from. You will marry the man I chose. You’ll honor the alliance you broke.”

His voice was emotionless. Just business.

My chest tightened.

I had known this would be the price and yet, the decision wasn’t hard. “I’ll do it,” I whispered. “I’ll come home.”

He hung up without a word.

I stared at the screen for a second before shoving the phone into my pocket, grabbing my coat and car keys with trembling hands.

I stepped into the hallway and pressed the elevator button.

The doors slid open, and there she was.

Haven.

“Well, well,” she said, her voice syrupy. “In a hurry?”

I stared at her, too drained to play games.

She took a step forward. “You know, I’m going to take him back. I always do. Aiden was mine first and he always comes home.”

Her smile sharpened.

“I’ll be Luna soon,” she added, “and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

I didn’t flinch. I just looked at her, steady.

“Good for you,” I said. “You can keep him.”

Haven blinked, clearly not expecting that.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but then it happened.

The explosion.

A deafening boom tore through the corridor. The walls shook. The lights above us burst in a shower of sparks. A wave of heat and force slammed into me, throwing me against the wall.

Dust filled the air. The building screamed around us. Alarms blared.

My ears rang, disoriented and raw.

Through the haze, I saw Aiden. He ran straight to Haven.

He pulled her into his arms, shielding her with his body as debris rained down. He didn’t even glance my way.

Not once, the sting in my chest outmatched the blast, not even instinct made him run to me, he chose her, again.

In that moment, through the smoke and chaos, I saw the truth, there was nothing left between us, and when this chaos ends, so would our bond, I would divorce him.