Chapter 3

I floated in front of him now, watching the panic spread across his face as he suddenly stopped walking.

"Ro, what's wrong?" Sera demanded, frowning. "Why are you stopping? Where are you going?"

She reached out as if to pull him back, but Ronan didn't even slow down. Holding our baby against his chest, he hurried straight toward the operating room and shoved the door open.

"Iris!"

His voice caught in his throat.

For one brief moment, panic flashed across his face. Then his expression hardened into anger.

"You threw the pendant away?"

He stared at the little device lying on the floor beside the operating table. Its faint signal was still beeping.

"You actually threw it away?" Ronan repeated, bending down to pick it up.

His fingers closed around the pendant so tightly that the sharp edges cut into his palm. Blood slowly welled between his fingers, but he didn't seem to notice.

"Ro, I told you she was fine!" Sera hurried into the room, then looked at my motionless body and let out a mocking laugh. "See? She's just lying there, pretending to be dead because she knows she messed up. She even threw away the one thing that could have called you back!"

Ronan slowly straightened.

His face twisted with disbelief before a cold, sarcastic smile appeared on his lips. He looked at me as if I'd committed some unforgivable offense, then slammed the bloodstained pendant onto the floor.

It shattered with a sharp crack.

The one thing I'd made for him. The one thing that had always brought him back to me.

Now it was nothing but broken pieces.

"Iris Lunden, you have one minute to get up and explain yourself!" Ronan shouted, his voice shaking with anger. "Just tell me you aren't leaving me. Say you won't run off with that bastard, and I'll forgive you this once!"

His words echoed through the operating room.

But I didn't move.

The room fell completely silent. Even the healers who'd rushed in behind him held their breath.

There was no answer.

"Fine!" Ronan snapped at last, his voice breaking. "Have it your way!"

Our baby suddenly started crying in his arms. Ronan looked down at him, then turned and stormed out of the operating room.

"Get someone down here to seal this room!" he ordered the healers as he left. "No one opens that door. Iris stays inside until she's ready to admit she was wrong. And don't let anyone take her out!"

He walked through the clinic with a dark expression, ignoring the frightened staff who stepped aside to make room for him.

Our son kept crying, his tiny fists waving helplessly in the air. Ronan looked down at him, the corners of his eyes red.

"Your mother doesn't even want you," he muttered bitterly. "What's the point of crying?"

He gave a humorless laugh and shook his head. "Sera said your mother doesn't love me. She said all nine times we planned our bonding ceremony, she saw the same thing. We'd reject each other within three months."

He glanced at the baby again, then gave a bitter smile.

"Seven years, Iris. Seven years, and you never loved me at all?"

A tear slipped down his cheek.

For a moment, he looked almost as broken as I felt.

But the sadness didn't last. His jaw tightened, and his eyes darkened with determination. "Even if she's right, I don't care. I'll keep you by my side. You can reject me a hundred times, but I'm not letting you go."

He took out his phone and made a call.

"Get the custom wedding dress and rings I ordered delivered to the Ashgrove territory within three days. I want the ceremony venue ready in a week, no excuses."

He paused, then added, "And make sure the flowers are violet irises. Every arrangement. That's what she likes."

He even remembered that.

Ronan ended the call and started to stand, but before he could put his phone away, a frantic voice came from behind him.

"Alpha Hale! You need to come back right now!" One of the healers ran toward him, his face drained of color. "There's something wrong with Miss Lunden. We think she might already be... dead."