Chapter 157: Letting Her Go

Connor’s POV

“For the one hundredth time, Elizabeth…” My voice cracked like a whip across the room, hard and final. “I am not releasing Lila! Do you even hear yourself? Do you understand what you’re asking me to do? Why would you be asking me this?”

Elizabeth flinched at the bite in my tone, but instead of backing down, she took a trembling step forward. Her eyes were red, her lips quivering. Then…without warning…she dropped to her knees.

The sound of it…her bones hitting the polished wood of my study floor…echoed in the suffocating silence between us.

Tears spilled down her cheeks in uncontrollable streams, her chest heaving as if each sob might shatter her from the inside out.

“She’s still my child! It happened a long time ago,” she choked out, clutching her trembling hands together as if prayer could save her. “I want to forgive my daughter. My family has suffered far enough from this mistake. I don’t want the suffering to continue. I want my family back together.”

I saw red. The air between us crackled with the force of my fury.

“Suffering?” My voice was low, dangerous…every syllable dripping acid. “Are you really comparing what you feel to what Ivy had to endure because of that so-called mistake?”

She flinched, but I pressed on, my words a blade I refused to sheath.

“Weren’t you there the night she was thrown out of her own bed so Lila could have two beds? Weren’t you there when she was made to sleep on the cold floor in the corner of the kitchen like some unwanted servant? When she was eight, Elizabeth…eight…and you had her scrubbing the packhouse floors with bare hands until her fingers bled.”

Her lips trembled, her eyes darting away.

“You didn’t hear the way your other daughter laughed while Ivy picked scraps from the table because she wasn’t allowed to eat until everyone else had finished. You didn’t see her wearing clothes so worn and small they cut into her skin…hand-me-downs that didn’t even belong to her, that smelled like someone else’s life.”

Elizabeth’s tears streamed faster, but I didn’t stop.

“You didn’t notice when she stopped looking people in the eye. When she stopped speaking because every word she said was mocked or punished. You didn’t care when she was banished from her own home and told to survive out there alone in the cold…told to die…because you believed the lies about her without ever asking the truth.”

I stepped closer, my voice dropping even lower, raw and brutal.

“She was also your daughter back then. So tell me, Elizabeth…what makes it different now?”

She blinked at me through tears, lips parting, but I didn’t let her speak.

“It’s Lila you want forgiven,” I spat, “but when it was Ivy…when it was Aria…she could have died and you wouldn’t have lifted a finger!”

“That’s not fair, Alpha!” she sobbed, desperate. “I’m just a mother…”

“But you weren’t a mother when Aria needed you!” I thundered, my voice shaking the room. The memories clawed their way up my throat like venom, each one as vivid as the day it happened. “When everyone turned on her. When I turned on her. When she became a stray in her own home! When you sent her away…” My voice broke, but I forced the words out, sharp and merciless. “Why didn’t you stand up as her mother?”

Elizabeth’s sobs tore through the room, raw and ugly.

Her face crumpled completely. She beat her chest with clenched fists, each striking a hollow thud against bone.

“I’m a terrible mother,” she gasped. “The worst this pack…and the entire realm…has ever known, I know that. It’s all my fault. I can’t even begin to atone for what I let my family go through. All I’m asking is for a chance at redemption. I want my family whole again.” Her hands reached for me like a drowning woman reaching for a rope. “Let me talk to Lila, at least. She might have repented. We could put this all behind us…”

Her voice became nothing more than a distant hum, fading into the background like the murmur of an irrelevant crowd. She was a lost cause…too far gone. Even with the truth laid bare, her mind, her soul, every thread of her being bent toward only one daughter… as if the other had never existed.

Lila? Repent? This woman had no idea what kind of creature she’d brought into this world.

No idea of the venom that dripped from her other daughter’s tongue, the malice in her heart.

I stepped back, putting distance between us, my expression hard as stone.

“You want redemption, Elizabeth?” My tone was sharp, final. “Then start by accepting that forgiveness isn’t yours to demand. You can beg all you want, but you’ll never see Lila again. Not while I’m Alpha.”

My jaw tightened as I sent a sharp mindlink to one of the guards. Get in here. Now.

The door opened almost instantly, two large warriors stepping inside.

“I have a place to be right now,” I said coldly, my gaze locked on Elizabeth’s tear-soaked face. “And if you can’t behave, you might as well be locked up yourself.”

Her pleading wail echoed behind me as the guards each took an arm and dragged her out of my study. The door slammed shut with finality.

The silence that followed was deafening.

I leaned against the edge of my desk, my hands curling into fists until my nails bit into my palms. I’d made peace with the truth a few days ago: I would live with the guilt, the regret, the pain…and the consequences of my choices.

But now… now it was time.

Time to see Ivy.

One last time.

And then I would walk away.

This was my curse to bear…the price of my pride and negligence.

I straightened and called for my Beta. “I’m going into the city. Make sure no one…no one…goes near Lila for any reason.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“I’ll be back before nightfall.”

The words felt heavy in my mouth as I grabbed my keys and left, the familiar weight of my leather jacket grounding me as I stepped into the late afternoon air.

The moment I started driving, the tension in my chest began to coil tighter with every mile. The city lights shimmered faintly in the distance, but all I could see in my mind was her face…the one I was supposed to claim, but instead, cast aside.

Can I really say goodbye to my one true mate?

‘We already have,’ my wolf’s voice rumbled inside me, the cold edge of truth slicing through my thoughts. ‘We have no claim on her. You rejected her. Now we roam this earth mateless.’

The words echoed like a death sentence in my head.

I groaned, gripping the steering wheel so tightly the leather creaked under my palms.

As soon as I reached the gates of her estate hours later, her scent hit me like a guilty verdict.

It was everywhere…sweet, intoxicating, burning into my lungs with every breath. My chest constricted. My pulse thundered in my ears.

And just like that… my resolve cracked.

Do I still have a chance with her?

Or is it already far too late?

The gates creaked open slowly, as if the universe itself was trying to delay me.

I eased the car forward, my heart hammering a war drum in my chest. The closer I got, the stronger her scent became…wild and sweet, tinged with something uniquely hers. My wolf prowled inside me, restless, clawing at my insides.

Don’t, I warned him.

He didn’t listen.

‘Mate.’ The word was a growl, raw and hungry.

I parked at the edge of the driveway, my hands refusing to leave the steering wheel. The air felt thick, heavy with the weight of the moment. It had been weeks since I’d been this close to her, and still… every nerve in my body remembered her.

I stepped out, boots crunching against gravel. The estate loomed ahead, the late sunlight spilling over its walls like a warning.

I can do this, I told myself.

I have to.

I should let her go.

…Right?

The word echoed in my chest like a hollow drum, but my heart wasn’t answering.