CHAPTER 35: MRS. RILEY

I used to think blood meant loyalty.

But sometimes, wolves outside your bloodline love you far better than those born in it.

Lena had proved that.

She was the only one who stood by me, the only wolf who treated me like her own pup.

She became my real mother in every way that mattered.

Now, standing beside her with my arm linked through hers, I felt light.

Free.

Alive in a body that wasn’t supposed to be alive at all.

Across the hall, my birth mother Vivian stared at me like she was looking at a ghost.

Her face pale.

Her breath caught.

Her eyes wide and shaking.

Beside me, Lena let out a small laugh and squeezed my hand.

"This girl," she said softly, "always clinging to her mom, even now. Don’t mind her, Mrs. Morrigan."

Vivian’s lips trembled.

"My daughter used to do that too," she whispered. "Always holding onto me like this. But I... I lost her."

She turned away as sobs shook her whole wolf body.

Lena reached out and comforted Vivian because that’s just who Lena was. A wolf with a soft heart, even toward those who didn’t deserve it.

I looked away.

I had no interest in comforting people who had pushed me aside again and again.

My gaze drifted across the room.

My brothers stood stiff among the mourners, eyes red, jaws tight.

Grieving sons?

Or two wolves weighed down by guilt?

I didn’t bother to guess.

Then I saw him.

My father.

He stood near the altar, holding a white chrysanthemum my favorite flower. The strong wolf who once seemed invincible now looked small, old, worn down by regret. Gray streaked through his once-dark hair. His hand trembled as he reached toward my portrait.

He looked so fragile.

But I didn’t stop.

I walked past him without a word.

Because there was someone else in the room who demanded my attention.

Right in front of my portrait, someone knelt.

Julian.

The Alpha heir.

The wolf who was supposed to be my mate.

The wolf who left me standing alone in the snow.

Whispers spread through the hall like snow drifting on cold wind.

"I heard he abandoned her on the wedding day..."

"She went after him and never came back."

"Her body wasn’t found for weeks."

"Such a waste. Over a man like that."

"Childhood sweethearts? Guess love didn’t matter."

"Tsk. Jumping into a river for a guy? No wolf is worth that."

The pity.

The judgment.

The quiet poison of gossip.

Little daggers, wrapped in soft voices.

They were right about one thing:

No wolf is worth dying for.

And that’s why, from today on, I would be the one writing the storynot the one buried in it.

The investigation into my death was still going on, but outsiders had already decided their own truth.

"Elena Morrigan died for love."

"A heartbroken girl who ended her life."

I let out a small, cold smile behind my veil.

How convenient.

A neat little lie for people to whisper about.

The Hales and the Morrigan were still lost in their grief, unable to see the truth.

They didn’t know the real storm hadn’t even started.

I walked toward the memorial display, where dozens of wolves had laid flowers for me

for the wolf they thought I used to be.

I picked up three roses and stepped toward my own portrait.

The picture was taken when I was eighteen

a young wolf, full of hope and warm light.

She looked happy.

She had no idea betrayal waited behind her.

I barely recognized that girl.

With slow, steady movement, I knelt and placed the flowers beneath the portrait.

That was when I felt eyes on me.

Strong. Unsteady.

Julian’s scent shifted, sharp and confused.

He was still kneeling nearby, head bowed

but when he looked up at me, the shock in his eyes was almost painful to see.

"C-... Elena?" he whispered, voice shaking.

His face was empty, hollow.

Like a wolf who finally realized what he’d lost... and that it was gone forever.

I stepped closer.

Close enough for him to catch a faint echo of my scent beneath the veil

the scent he used to know so well.

Then, with a slow lift of my hand, I raised the lace just enough to reveal the small red mole on my forehead.

"Julian," I said softly, with a playful edge,

"you’re mistaken again. I’m Riley Ashbourne... your Aunt Riley."

Even with only a touch of lip gloss, I smiled brightly at him.

A smile meant to slice straight through his chest.

He blinked, dazed.

"Riley... Right. You’re not Elena."

I tilted my head, voice gentle but carrying a cold truth.

"That’s right. Elena’s dead."

I wanted the words to tear him open.

To let guilt bleed through every inch of him.

"What... did you say?!"

Julian’s head snapped up, his voice rough, angry, desperate.

His wolf stirred beneath his skin hurt, chaotic, ready to break.

Feigning innocence, I blinked at him.

"Why? Does it hurt you that she’s gone? Or are you just pretending again?"

Before Julian could bark back, James stepped forward, posture stiff with Alpha training.

"Ms. Ashbourne," he warned, tone tight, "this is a funeral. Watch your words."

I turned toward him slowly, wearing confusion like perfume.

"Oh? But I thought it was common knowledge."

I looked around the hall.

"Julian abandoned her at the altar. Isn’t that why she died?"

Gasps.

Whispers.

"If you claim to love someone," I continued calmly,

"would you really leave your mate-to-be standing alone in front of the whole pack?"

I let my voice stay soft, almost sad.

"Imagine it... guests watching, cameras flashing...

And she stood there alone.

Cold.

Confused.

Waiting for the wolf she’d loved her whole life."

I turned away from him, toward Lewis

who had been standing quietly, gazing at my portrait with an unreadable expression.

I slipped my arm into his.

His wolf energy brushed mine steady, grounded, calm.

"Lewis," I murmured with a soft smile,

"tell me honestly... would you vanish on our mating day?"

He blinked, drawn out of his thoughts.

His grey eyes met mine steady, deep, unshaken.

"I won’t," he said softly.

I turned back toward Julian, still holding Lewis’s arm.

"See?" I said sweetly.

"That’s what a real mate does. He shows up."