SERAPHINA'S POV
"Kneel down!" Luna's voice cut through the air. The former Luna of Thornley Pack, my mother-in-law.
The funeral crowd had scattered hours ago. The moment we stepped back into pack, she ordered the guards to force me down at the entrance.
When I raised my eyes to meet hers, I saw black mourning garments hanging from her frame and her eyes were red and swollen.
The death of her son, Ray Thornley, had been a great blow to the woman who'd always seemed unbreakable now appeared decades older.
"Mom..." I started to speak, but she interrupted me.
"Shut up! Don't you dare call me that! Five years married and your belly's still flat. You’re a shame to the name Thornley." My mother-in-law's finger almost poked my nose with her fingers.
My wolf, Phina, whimpered within me, already used to the humiliation.
I bit my lip and said nothing. I've heard these words for five years. Now there was only numbness.
"And you!" She turned to Rose standing beside her. "Ray went bungee jumping because of you! because you wanted him to! He never took risks like that. If he wasn't trying to please you, why would he do something so reckless? You brought disaster on him!"
Rose's face was deathly pale while tears rolled down her cheeks. She was wearing a black dress, looking utterly pitiful. But I knew that beneath that black mourning attire lay a frivolous red thong!
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Yesterday's images kept replaying behind my eyes.
Guests were still filling the house when exhaustion drove me back to our bedroom for rest, only to hear sexual sounds drifting from inside.
My first thought was that some relatives had gotten carried away, which almost made me laugh at their lack of restraint, until my wolf had stood at atte tion, fury blazing through her. Just then, I caught my husband's name through the door. What I glimpsed through the crack would burn in my memory forever.
Rose perched on the desk with her black dress hiked to her waist, that crimson thong fully exposed. Caspian Thornley, my supposed husband, knelt before her with both hands clutching her hips, his face pressed between her thighs while he made ravenous sounds.
"Caspian... does your wife leave you unsatisfied?" Rose's voice dripped like honey.
Caspian Thornley responded in a rough whisper thick with hunger. "I never go near her." Between words, he kissed her again.
"Then why did you marry her...?"
"I only married her to get back at you for marrying my brother." Caspian Thornley lifted his head, eyes blazing. "These five years, I haven't laid a finger on Seraphina. You're the only woman who exists for me."
I stood frozen in the doorway, unable to draw breath.
"That bastard!" Phina's words burned into my soul. I found myself repeating her words under my breath.
So he wasn't indifferent to sex, wasn't buried in work. He simply had no interest in touching me.
The shock hit like a lightning strike. I stayed paralyzed there until they began kissing again, then finally peeled myself off the wall and stumbled away.
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"Mom, please." Caspian Thornley's voice dragged me back to the present moment.
Something lurched in my chest as I glanced up. He emerged from the house carrying a black umbrella, walking directly toward Rose.
"Rose is delicate by nature, and after what happened to my brother, she can't handle kneeling out here," Caspian Thornley said while reaching to pull Rose to her feet.
I knelt beside where he stood, body rigid. He moved past me without sparing me even a glance.
"Caspian, Mom's right, I should be kneeling..." Rose caught her lower lip between her teeth as fresh tears spilled down.
"You don't have to kneel." The gentleness in Caspian Thornley's voice was something I'd never heard directed at me. "What happened to my brother wasn't because of you; it was just a terrible accident."
"Caspian..." Rose gazed up at him, her expression radiating helpless dependence.
Watching them together felt like a fist closing around my heart. Five years of marriage and he'd never once looked at me that way, never spoken to me with such tenderness.
"Mom, Rose really isn't well enough for this. Let her stand up." Caspian Thornley turned to his mother with unusual firmness in his tone.
Then I watched Rose's five-year-old son William come running out to throw himself into his grandmother's arms. "Grandma, Mom didn't do it on purpose. You and Mom are both people Dad loved most, and he wouldn't want either of you crying. Grandma, please forgive Mom." His voice still had that childish quality.
Right then, Rose's body went slack and she collapsed sideways.
"Rose!" Caspian Thornley caught her with impossible speed, though the umbrella handle jabbed me hard enough to hurt.
"Mom, Rose passed out!" Caspian Thornley's voice carried real alarm as he cradled her.
"She still isn't allowed in the house!" The former Luna yelled.