Danae’s POV
Ice moved through my blood.
I grabbed the robe from the back of the door and stepped into the hallway.
Eirwen stood near the entrance, her face the color of milk.
“He’s here,” she said.
Unnecessary.
I’d already heard.
“I’ll handle it.” The steadiness in my voice surprised me.
“I have to start handling my own problems.
Like I did before I met him.”
Eirwen’s hand found my arm.
“Be careful.
He’s not—he’s not calm.”
I walked to the door.
Galen’s fist was hitting it hard enough to make the hinges complain with each blow.
“Danae!
I know you’re in there!
Open this door!”
Deep breath.
I unlocked it.
Galen nearly fell into the apartment, catching himself on the frame.
His usually immaculate appearance had been entirely abandoned overnight—hair disheveled, eyes bloodshot, clothes wrinkled like he’d slept in them on a floor somewhere.
He looked furious.
He also looked, somewhere underneath that, relieved.
“Where the hell have you been?” He reached for me.
I stepped back.
“Don’t touch me.”
His nostrils flared, scenting the air.
Something shifted in his expression—his eyes going dark, calculating.
“Let me in.
We need to talk.”
“No.” Clear.
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“I don’t want to see you.
Please leave.”
He laughed—disbelief with a serrated edge.
“You have some nerve.
After what you pulled last night, you’re the one telling me to leave?”
Without waiting, he pushed past me.
Eirwen moved to block him.
He towered over her, and she stepped aside.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, genuinely confused by the accusatory tilt of it.
“You’re the one with the mistress and the secret son.
I saw everything, Galen—the messages, the pictures, the documents.”
“None of that,” he said, voice gone cold, “excuses what you did.” He looked at me like I was something he was cataloguing.
“I can smell it on you from the first floor.
You betrayed me, Danae.”
A laugh came out of me—short and harsh and nothing like the sound I used to make.
“I betrayed you.
You’ve been sleeping with my bridesmaid for years.
You have a child with her.”
“That’s different.” No room for debate in his voice.”I’m a wolf.
We have different needs.”
“And apparently different standards of basic decency.” I held my ground.
“You were using me, Galen.
I read the documents.
You planned to discard me once I’d served my purpose.”
“You had no right to go through my files,” he snarled, closing the distance between us.
“The moment I threw that ring at your face, I was free.
I can do whatever I want with whoever I choose.”
Something slow and cold moved across his face.
A smile that had nothing warm in it.
“That’s not how this works.
We’re still mates.”
“Fine.” I lifted my chin.
“I reject you.
It’s over.
I never want to see you again.”
He laughed.
The sound cut.
“You tried to reject me.” Savoring it.
“But you failed, sweetheart.
Wolf rejection has rules.
What you just said means nothing.”
I looked at Eirwen.
She gave me a tiny, grim nod.
“What are you talking about?” My voice had gone smaller.
Galen stepped into my personal space.
“You’re still my mate, my dear little human—until I become Delta and you give me an heir.
After that.” He shrugged.
“I’ll reject you myself.”
The casual cruelty of it stopped my breath.
Five years.
Five years, and I had never once seen this version of him.
How had I been so completely, catastrophically wrong about who he was?
“I won’t marry you,” I said.
My voice was shaking now.
“You can’t force me.”
“Can’t I?” The predatory smile widened.
“You’ll be at the beach ceremony this afternoon.
I’ve had the entire area secured.
There’s nowhere to go, Danae.” He let that sit for a moment.
“That’s a promise.”