Chapter 2
Freya's POV
Grayson's smile freezes on his face.
He clearly didn't expect me to say yes this fast. Something like shock flashes in his eyes.
I don't look at him again. I turn and walk toward the silent rogue.
"Let's go." I say to Kade.
Kade looks at me for a long moment, then nods.
Right as I'm about to walk out of the ballroom, Grayson snaps out of it.
He strides over and blocks the door.
"Freya, you've really got some nerve now, huh?" Grayson grinds the words out, his eyes dark. "Playing hard to get with me?"
I lift my eyes and look at him, cold.
"Move."
Grayson laughs, furious. "Fine, that's just fine! You walk out that door today, and you can get down on your knees and beg me later, I'm never taking you back!"
"Don't flatter yourself." I walk around him, expression blank. "You're filthy. I don't want to touch you."
Back in my room at the pack house, I start packing right away.
Everything here still carries the stink of Frostpeak. It's suffocating.
I only take a few changes of clothes and the things my parents left behind. Everything else, I don't want.
The door slams open. Grayson storms in with Lila.
He spots the bag on my bed, and his face goes dark.
"You're really doing this?" He gives a cold laugh and steps closer. "Freya, the show's over. You actually think I'm coming to get you back?"
I don't even look up. I keep shoving a jacket into the bag.
"Shut the door on your way out. Thanks."
Being ignored makes Grayson's breathing turn heavy.
He slams a hand down on my bag, his voice taking on that same old tone like he's doing me some huge favor.
"Record a video right now. Apologize to Lila in public. Admit you were jealous and ruined her dress on purpose."
Grayson lifts his chin. "Then maybe I'll think about taking the engagement back."
I finally stop what I'm doing and look up at him.
"Grayson, are you out of your mind?"
Grayson freezes.
Ten years, and this is the first time I've ever talked to him like that.
"You..."
"I told you already. The engagement's off. I said yes to the rogue." I look at him, cold. "What part of that don't you understand?"
"You've got the nerve to talk to me like that?!" Grayson's temper flares.
"Grayson, don't be mad." Lila slides up beside him right on cue, rubbing his chest, then turns to me with those innocent eyes.
"Freya, I get that you're upset with me. But Grayson's only doing this for your own good. A rogue can barely survive out there, how would you even manage?"
My mouth twists. My stomach turns.
"Drop the act." I look at her. "There's nobody here to perform for."
"Freya!" Grayson pulls Lila behind him and points a finger in my face. "Don't push your luck! You think you're still the one who saved me? I paid that back a long time ago!"
Paid it back?
I look at him and almost want to laugh.
Ten years ago, in that blizzard, I fed him the last of the soup with my own hands.
I was shaking from the cold, in so much pain I was rolling in the snow, and he was passed out the whole time.
Later he became this untouchable Alpha, and I became a wolfless nobody.
A few hand-me-down jackets, a few scraps of leftover food, and he thinks that's paid back?
"Sure. You paid it back." I nod, calm. "So get out of my room. Both of you."
Grayson's face goes from red to white and back again, and he finally settles on a cold laugh.
"Since you're leaving, you might as well leave with nothing."
He holds out his hand. "Hand over that signet ring I gave you. It belongs to Frostpeak. Someone like you doesn't deserve to walk out with it."
I freeze for a second.
That signet ring was never his to give.
Grayson had gone up into the mountains alone once, trying to prove himself to his father by digging up a signet ring Frostpeak had lost years back during the pack's move. He got caught in a blizzard doing it. I was the one who found it while I was digging him out.
Afterward, to look good in front of his father, he claimed he'd braved death to recover it himself.
I never called him out on it. I let him save face.
And now he actually has the nerve to come demand it back?
"What, can't bear to let it go?" Grayson takes my silence as a sign he's hit a nerve, and his smile turns even more smug.
"Don't hold onto something that was never yours to begin with."
