Chapter 3After He Left Me to Freeze, I Rejected Him as My Mate

I looked at the messages he had sent, and stayed silent for a long time.

There had been a time when a couple of perfunctory reassurances from him were enough for me to invent my own excuse to forgive him.

He would hurt me, soothe me with two sentences, spare me a little time, and I would convince myself he loved me.

He made me kneel to Eliana, then coaxed me back again.

I told myself his childhood friend had simply led him astray.

But the doctor had just told me that another ten minutes in the cold would have killed me.

Theodore only cared whether the footage gave him enough leverage to control me.

At three in the morning, my father reached the hospital with mismatched socks.

He touched my face and his eyes went red.

"Where is Theodore?"

"He left already."

I answered evenly. I did not want to hurt him.

"He said he had to go back and get ready for the marking ceremony."

My father choked out a curse. I stayed calm.

"Dad, do three things for me... I want to reject the bond."

He pulled me into his arms and said I should have done it long ago.

"First, preserve every chat log and financial record from the Westridge pack! Second, withdraw every form of support the Meadowland pack gives them. Cancel the unsigned property gifts and equity-transfer agreements. Change my insurance beneficiary. Freeze Theodore's cards and every authorized-user card on my accounts. Third, I'll pray to the Moon Goddess to sever the bond. But tomorrow's ceremony stays on. Everyone attends."

My father stared at me, at a loss. "Lyra... you..."

I simply showed him the videos and the photos.

Seeing me kneeling on the ice like a beaten dog, my father wanted to kill Theodore on the spot.

"It's over, Dad! They wanted to humiliate me in front of everyone, didn't they? Then we'll show everyone who should truly be ashamed!"

With the doctor's permission, my father gave me a dose of healing potion.

It gave me just enough strength to make it to the ceremony.

According to their test plan, I was supposed to arrive at the ceremony and find Theodore lying in a coffin.

Maybe I would see his memorial portrait, and Eliana would tell me he had fallen down the stairs and died.

Then, once grief had shattered me, he would throw open the coffin and demand in front of everyone, "Do you understand now how much I mean to you?"

Sure enough, at nine o'clock exactly, Theodore lay down in the coffin.

Eliana climbed in and lay down with him.

"Lyra's greatest fear is losing me. Once she sees that portrait, she'll be on her knees beside the coffin, sobbing." Satisfaction filled Theodore's voice.

Eliana straightened his tie. "She told you to treat her as dead yesterday, but she was probably just talking tough."

Theodore scoffed, "She's angry, that's all. She could never reject me."