Brushing her hand aside, he continued to right his clothing. “No, Svana.” Shepherd felt an impure film on his skin, everywhere Svana’s hands had crept over him unclean. “It was wrong for me to take you now. Your assessment was correct, we have surpassed physicality, and I will not defile our bodies by attempting to mate with you again. Things have changed, we must both accept that.”

Her voice cracked. “You cannot possibly prefer another to me.” Svana stood before him, demanding he see reason. “Especially a woman who defies you, who prefers the pretty Beta downstairs.”

Shepherd lowered his chin to his chest, the deep furrow between his brows sinister. “Claire is unenlightened and misunderstands my purpose. The very fact that she abhors what I’ve done to her people demonstrates her worth.”

“I am the one who loves you,” the beauty pleaded. “Do you not see that she hates you? Has run from you… The Omega could never love a marked man from the Undercroft. You disgust her.”

The sharp sting of Shepherd’s tattered bond concurred. “But she is still mine, carries my heir, and is under my protection.” He grew, cracking bones as he postured. “You will not touch her again, Svana. Do you understand me?”

“You will come crying to me when everything you imprudently created falls apart.” Svana nodded, staring forward as if she could see into the future. “And I love you so greatly that I will give you the comfort you do not deserve.”

Shepherd could not tolerate another moment of such spite. After what he had heard earlier, the lie spilling from her lips, it was painfully obvious Svana had never intended to let him keep his due. She’d expected that he would cast off the Omega. Nothing he had done had satisfied her—and like the monster Claire believed him to be, he’d stood by and let Svana debase his mate… even willingly participated.

Squeezing his eyes shut, he heard Jules’ words echo for what felt like the hundredth time: You allowed Svana to manipulate you into dishonoring your pregnant mate.

Shepherd had accepted his beloved’s liaisons, even though the revelation had dumbfounded him. He had even adored Svana despite her foulness with Premier Callas. The same respect was not wielded in his direction, her expectations contradictory, immature.

Every word Svana had spoken when they’d faced off over Premier Callas had been carefully chosen to extradite herself of blame, to justify her own actions. Now he understood—she’d never expected him to seek sexual fulfillment with another.

His beloved had taken him for granted, made his devotion common.

There was something so very cutting in the revelation. After all, her actions had led to his response… his needs apparently considered less important than hers.

Svana had never truly been concerned about Shepherd’s feelings on the matter, and now she stood before him and openly lied.