Lyra’s voice sharpened like a blade drawn under moonlight.
“Shut up,” she hissed at the trembling healer. “You’ll do exactly as written in that scroll. The ritual happens tonight. Afterward, you’ll get your payment — and your silence.”
The conversation ended there.
I shrank back into the shadows beside the elevator, waiting until their footsteps faded before slipping out.
Every instinct screamed at me to keep moving, to leave before the scent of my fear betrayed me.
When I reached the ward, Jace’s voice floated out through the half-open door.
“Lyra, what’s this nonsense about your heart being unstable? The healers said your aura’s collapsing—what’s going on?”
Lyra looked pale, fragile, her skin glistening with cold sweat that I knew she’d conjured for effect.
“I don’t know… the healer said there’s something wrong with my wolf-heart. He can’t find the cause. Could it be… Sister?”
She broke off mid-sentence, covering her mouth as if she’d said too much.
Her wide eyes filled with feigned horror. “No, that’s impossible. Seris would never do this to me…”
Jace’s expression hardened with pain and anger. He drew her close, his hands trembling over her shoulders.
“Don’t think about it, Lyra. I’ll stay with you — always.”
Their embrace, framed by the sterile glow of the healing runes, was almost poetic.
If I hadn’t known the truth, perhaps I’d still have believed it.
I felt a cold laugh rise in my throat.
It burned like silver.
---
“Ma’am?” a healer at the desk startled me out of my thoughts. “Are you here to see the patient?”
The sound made both Jace and Lyra turn.
Jace’s face darkened instantly. “What are you doing here?”
I stepped forward, calm and deliberate. “Delivering a scroll.”
He frowned. “At a time like this? Can’t you tell it’s not appropriate?”
“I tried sending it through your steward,” I said evenly, producing the parchment from my satchel.
“It’s about Lyra’s Silverfang expansion charter. The courier said it had to be sealed by your hand tonight, or the deal lapses.”
I let a pause stretch between us. “If you don’t want it, I can burn it right now.”
I reached for the parchment, tearing the seal with my claws.
“Wait!” Lyra’s reaction was immediate — too fast. She nearly leapt from the bed before Jace caught her.
“Please, Sister, don’t!” she gasped, tears springing to her eyes. “This treaty took months to negotiate. It’s all for Jace — for our pack!”
Her voice cracked perfectly at the edges, like a trained actress hitting her cue.
“Please, don’t ruin everything again… If you want me gone, I’ll leave the country, I swear. Just don’t destroy his future!”
“Seris!” Jace’s roar shook the glass walls. “Give it to me!”
I walked toward him, my heartbeat steady.
The parchment trembled in my hand — not from fear, but from the magic pulsing beneath its surface.
I handed it over.
Hidden among the alliance scrolls was another document, inked in dark blood — a Severing Oath, the ancient form of divorce among Alphas.
Jace, blinded by Lyra’s tears, didn’t even glance at it. He signed the rune seal in one swift motion, pressing his claw through both documents.
Then he threw me a look of pure disgust. “Now get out. Don’t stain her recovery with your presence.”
The rune on the parchment glowed red, sank into the page — and with that single mark, our bond began to unravel.
Relief coursed through me like fire through veins.
“It’s done,” I said softly. “You should’ve signed it years ago.”
I turned and walked out before my knees gave way.
Outside, the night wind tore through the corridors, and I sent the alliance scroll back to Jace’s steward through a messenger hawk.
He’d never know he’d just signed away his Luna.
---
That night, I returned to my inn, booked a flight to the outer territories where the Bloodmoon Rebellion waited.
I was ready to disappear.
But before dawn, my comm-crystal flared with a new message.
From Lyra.
I tapped it once.
A video projection filled the dark room — flickering gold, humid air thick with the sounds of breath and water.
For a heartbeat I didn’t understand what I was seeing. Then I heard her voice.
“Jace… Jace, Lyra wants to bear your pup. Please?”
His laugh was low, indulgent. “Of course, little moon. Any child of yours would be perfect.”
“But what about her?” Lyra asked in mock innocence. “She keeps trying to conceive for you…”
Jace’s voice darkened, cruel amusement twisting his words.
“She’ll never carry my blood. Her womb’s as dead as her wolf. Every egg she produces either goes down the drain or finds its way into a stray mutt’s belly.”
Lyra giggled, breathy. “Then she’s really useless, isn’t she?”
“Utterly,” he said. “You’re the only one worthy of my lineage.”
The crystal dimmed. Silence fell.
---
For a long moment, I couldn’t move.
Then the laughter broke out of me — quiet, cracked, unhinged.
In that instant, the last thread of my humanity snapped.
The bond between us — Luna and Alpha — shattered completely.
I looked into the mirror across the room.
The reflection that stared back at me wasn’t human anymore.
My wolf’s eyes gleamed, silver like liquid moonfire.
The magic that had been chained for years surged through my veins, wild and furious.
They took my blood.
They took my womb.
They took my love.
Now, I would take their hearts.
