Riley’s POV

+8 Pearls

I didn’t look at her when she stepped inside. I didn’t need to. I could feel her energy shift the moment she crossed the threshold–hesitant, nervous,yered bwith /bba /bbdesperation /bshe tried to hide behind bmotherly /bguilt.

She was quiet at first, maybe hoping I’d soften. I didn’t.

Before she could sit beside me, I pointed at the bchair /bacross the room.

“Sit over there.”

She froze. For a heartbeat, I thought she bmight /bargue. But she didn’t. She obeyed.

Good.

She needed to understand: whatever thread once connected us had already frayed to nothing.

She hadn’t even opened her mouth when I said, “I know why you’re here. bYou /bwant me to forgive you. Maybe that’s not impossible. But if you want redemption, you’ll have to earn it”

Her eyes lit up with hope, as if I’d thrown her a lifeline. “Riley, anything. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

“I smell the alpha pheromones in you, Riley, you have a wolf”

Her voice was trembling with emotion, her wolf’s scent shifting bfrom /bguilt to something almost hopeful.

I almost pitied her.

bAlmost /b

“Is that so?” I said, t and calm.

She nodded eagerly. “Please, Riley. Just trust me this once. I promise, I won’t fail you bagain/b.”

I stared straight binto /bher eyes.

Then I said it.

“Get Scarlett out of the Vale estate. Cut all ties. Formally, permanently. No daughter of yours, no Luna training, no inheritance.”

She flinched blike /bI’d pped her.

Her fingers twisted into the hem of her coat, her eyes darting toward me with uncertainty, then fear. “Riley… she’s lived with us for

years. Your father and I raised her like our own. To just cast her out–what bwill /bthe pack think? What will the Elders say?”

Iughed.

Cold. Empty.

“If she’s done nothing wrong, then why’d you erase the security footage?”

Her mouth mped bshut/b.

I had her

“You care more about appearances than justice,” I continued. “When the Enforcers dragged me away in front of the entire bCouncil/b, where bwas /byour concern about the Vale family’s reputation then? Or was it only embarrassing when I survived?” She winced like the bwords /bcut deep. Good. Let them bleed.

“You’ve always bloved /bScarlett like gold,” I bsaid/b. “And me? Just a weed growing where you didn’t want bone/b.”

+B Pearls

Her eyes wellest again. She clutched her chest like my words physically hurt her. “Riley, please…”

“Don’t. I don’t need you to lie again.”

Her wolf was trembling inside her–I could smell the shift, the way it recoiled in guilt and shame.

“I knew you wouldn’t do it,” I said, voice cold as stone. “So don’t bother pretending byou /bwould’ve.”

“No!” she surged forward, grabbed my bhands/b–chuched them like a drowning wolf “Please, Riley, just give me one more chance. I’ll do anything. Anything! Just don’t shut me out again.”

I didn’t answer right away. I let the silence stretch.

Let her drown in it.

Then quet her eyes and said, “Fine. One more chance.”

Her breath caught. Her fingers squeezed mine. “bThank /bbyou/b–thank you-

“But I addell, voice razor–sharp, “if you want forgiveness, if you want to keep Scarlett in your precious house, you’re going to climb all 999 kreps of Sacred Howl Ridge to the summit temple. Kneel. Prostrate. bAnd /bbeg the Moon Priest for a blessed protection charpe Then bring it back to me,”

She paled instantly.

The bclimb /bto Sacred Howl Ridge wasn’t for the faint of heart. bEven /bwarriors trained in endurance struggled toplete the ascent. The elevation was brutal. The stone stairs bwere /bsteep, uneven, sacred. Most wolves attempted the bclimb /bas part of aing–of–age trial–at sixteen.

She was fifty. A Luna intitle. A stranger in truth.

Her lips trembled. “Riley, that climb is dangerous. 1–I’m not as strong as I used to be. Even the Alpha hasn’t done it since his twenties. What you’re asking..”

“Isn’t beven /bclose to what you bowe/bb,/b” I said.

I didn’t yell. I didn’t growl.

I just looked at her.

bAnd /bI watched her break.

Just a little.

Enough to make me wonder if she would actually do it.

Enough to bmake /bmy wolf, Nyra, growl softly in the back of my mind: She won’t climb. She’s already chosen the other one.

I didn’t answer her.

Because I bknew /bNyra bwas /bright.

But still I wanted to give her the bchoice/b.

Let her fail on her own this time.

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