The 30-Day Severance, Revenge Before I Leave Chapter 02

The 30-Day Severance, Revenge Before I Leave Chapter 02

The Winter Solstice Gala had always belonged to Silvermoon.

Every year, Carl stood beneath the crystal chandeliers with me at his side while elders, allied Alphas, and old family friends raised their glasses to the pack’s future. The hall smelled of pine, candle wax, perfume, and snow melting off fur-lined coats.

That night, I wore white.

“You look like Rosehaven snow,” Carl said, fastening the silver clasp at the back of my neck.

I laughed, taking it as a compliment.

By the end of the first toast, Carl was gone.

At first, I thought an elder had pulled him away. That happened often enough. Carl could not cross a ballroom without someone asking for his judgment, his blessing, or his permission.

I searched the clusters of elders, expecting to spot Carl among them.

My gaze drifted toward the refreshment table instead.

The place where Selina had been standing moments ago was empty.

I found them near the east study.

The door was not fully closed. A thin line of firelight cut across the corridor, and voices slipped through with it.

“An heir is not enough,” Elder Graves said. “Not if the blood answers the wrong side.”

Someone shifted inside. A glass touched wood.

Carl’s voice came next, low enough that I had to move closer.

“Elena is my mate.”

“Rosehaven blood does not belong to Silvermoon just because you marked it,” Graves said. “If she ever bears a white wolf—”

The sentence stopped.

So did I.

For a moment, there was only the muffled music from the ballroom and the sound of my own breath.

Then Carl’s voice dropped.

“Wait.”

A beat of silence.

His gaze shifted toward the door.

I stepped back too late.

The door opened.

Carl stood there in his black formal coat, his expression already calm. Behind him, Elder Graves sat near the fireplace with a drink untouched in his hand. Selina was by the desk, holding a crystal glass.

She looked at me first.

Then she looked down.

“Elena,” Carl said. “Why are you in the hall?”

“I was looking for you.”

His eyes swept over my face with a caution that should not have existed between us.

“Graves wanted a word about the northern border.” Carl stepped out and pulled the study door halfway closed behind him. “Nothing you need to stand around worrying about.”

Selina came out a moment later with a small smile that did not reach her eyes.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I stole him away. The elders were getting tense, and Carl asked me to bring drinks.”

Her voice shook just enough to sound harmless.

Carl touched the small of my back.

“Come on,” he said. “You’ve been on your feet all night.”

I glanced at the study door.

Elder Graves was no longer visible, but I could feel him listening from the other side.

“What did he mean by an heir?” I asked.

Carl’s hand stayed warm against my back.

“The same thing they always mean. Succession. Bloodlines. Old men trying to make simple things sound sacred.”

Selina gave a soft laugh.

“Drink something,” she said, holding out the glass in her hand. “You look pale.”

Carl walked me back toward the ballroom, and the music rose around us again. People were dancing beneath the chandeliers. Someone near the doors called Carl’s name, and he lifted a hand in answer without letting go of me.

Then the room tilted.

I reached for his sleeve.

He caught me before I fell.

“You’re exhausted,” he murmured against my hair. “I’ve got you.”

Over his shoulder, I saw Selina standing at the edge of the ballroom.

Her eyes were wet.

I thought she was afraid for me.

The next morning, I woke in our bed with a headache sharp enough to make the winter light hurt.

Carl sat beside me, already dressed.

“You fainted,” he said before I could ask. “The doctor said you pushed yourself too hard.”

I tried to sit up, but the room shifted.

“Selina?”

“She stayed to help.”

He kissed my forehead.

His lips were warm. His voice was gentle. Nothing in his face gave me a reason to doubt him.

So I did not.

Not then.

After the Solstice, Carl began coming home later.

There was always a reason.

A border inspection. A meeting with the elders. A problem at the packhouse that needed his personal attention.

Sometimes he came back with snow on his coat and Selina’s perfume faintly caught in the wool. When I asked, he said she had been helping with charity accounts, guest lists, old correspondence—small things, harmless things, things a Luna’s best friend might help with.

I believed him because the alternative was too ugly to hold in my mind.

Then, in early spring, I returned from a visit to the western clinic and found two kitchen maids whispering near the pantry.

They stopped when they saw me.

One of them turned so quickly she nearly dropped the silver tray in her hands.

I should have walked past.

Instead, I said, “Finish what you were saying.”

The younger maid went pale.

The older one lowered her eyes. “It’s only gossip, Luna.”

“Then it should be easy to repeat.”

She swallowed.

“They say someone was marked in the east wing last night.”

I said nothing.

The younger maid rushed in, too nervous to stop herself.

“We heard a wolf howling after midnight. Loud enough to wake half the east wing. Then the guards sealed the whole corridor. By morning, everyone knew. Someone had been marked behind a locked door.”

The older maid hissed her name.

But the girl was already looking at me with wide, frightened eyes.

“They said it was Miss Selina.”

My fingers tightened around my gloves.

“Who marked her?”

By noon, the whispers had stopped.

Maids lowered their eyes when I passed. Guards stood outside the east wing like stone. Even the Lunas who loved a fresh scandal suddenly had nothing to say.

When I asked Carl about it that night, he was removing his cuff links at the dresser.

“People will turn anything into a story,” he said.

“Was Selina hurt?”

His hands paused for half a second.

Then he set one cuff link beside the other.

“She was embarrassed. That is all.”

“By whom?”

“Elena.” He looked at me through the mirror. “Do not make your friend’s mistake into entertainment for the servants.”

I felt ashamed before I knew why.

The next day, Selina came to see me with a scarf wrapped high around her throat.

She laughed when she caught me looking.

“A rash,” she said. “The doctor gave me something for it.”

I did not ask her to move the scarf.

A few months later, she stood in Carl’s study with her hands folded over her stomach and told us she was pregnant.

Carl looked up from his desk.

“Pregnant?” he asked. “Since when?”

Selina’s eyes filled at once.

“After the Solstice,” she whispered. “It was only once. He left before morning. I don’t even know where he is now.”

Carl was quiet for a moment.

Then he sighed, as if her shame had become another duty he would have to carry.

“You should have told us sooner,” he said. “Elena will worry about you.”

I did worry.

I had never met Selina’s mate. I had never heard his name. But she cried when I hugged her, and Carl stood beside us with the patient expression of an Alpha protecting a frightened woman from gossip.

So I believed them.

Or maybe I needed to.

Now, in that hospital room, with Selina’s son carrying Carl’s scent and Carl telling me they shared blood, everything clicked.

It had never been gossip.

It had been them.