The banquet ended long after I had slipped away, but Carson never came looking for me. I waited in our chamber, watching the hours crawl by, my hand resting on my belly as the pup shifted restlessly. By the time the front door finally opened, I already knew where he had been.
The faint scent of Alice clung to him when he stepped inside. He didn’t even bother to mask it.
“You left early,” Carson said curtly, removing his coat without sparing me a glance.
My lips curved in a bitter smile. You noticed I was gone, but you didn’t care. “I wasn’t feeling well,” I replied softly.
He gave no answer, only muttered something about work and disappeared into the shower. Water roared through the pipes, drowning the silence that lay heavy between us.
I sat there, staring at the cold sheets of our bed, and realized with bone-deep certainty: this bond was already dead.
The next morning, I rose before dawn. My hands trembled slightly as I pulled out my phone and booked the earliest flight back to Silverfang pack—just two weeks before my due date. It was reckless, but staying here would be far more dangerous. If Carson truly meant to sever the mate bond, I would not give him the satisfaction of doing it first.
Instead, I would cut the bond myself.