The house was silent that night. Not the kind of silence that brought peace, but the kind that thickened the air, pressing down on my chest. The kind that felt like a storm brewing just beyond the horizon.
I sat on the edge of my tiny mattress, the springs digging into my skin through the thin fabric. My dress from the ball lay crumpled on the floor, a reminder of the humiliation I had endured just hours ago. My fingers traced the bruises forming where I had clenched my fists too tightly, as if trying to hold my heart together while it shattered.
Jaxon’s silence.
His cold eyes.
The way he had walked away like I was nothing.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but the memories clawed their way in, refusing to be buried. I had always known I was unwanted, an outcast, but some foolish part of me had hoped. Had believed.
That part of me was dead now.
A knock on the door jolted me from my thoughts. Before I could answer, the door creaked open, and my parents stepped inside.
My mother’s face was pale, her lips pressed into a tight line. My father’s eyes held something I hadn’t seen before—something raw.
Pity.
I hated it.
I straightened my back, bracing myself. “I’m fine,” I said before they could speak. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
My father sighed, stepping closer. “Aria…”
“No.” My voice cracked. “Just leave it.”
Silence stretched between us, thick with things unsaid. Then my mother moved toward me, kneeling so we were eye level. Her hands, calloused from years of work, reached for mine.
“We’re leaving,” she said softly.
The words didn’t register at first.
I blinked. “What?”
“We’re leaving this pack,” my father repeated. “We’ve made arrangements with another Alpha. We’re moving to a new home.”
My chest tightened. “You can’t be serious.”
My mother squeezed my hands. “We are.”
Panic surged through me. “But this is our home. We’ve been here my whole life. You’ve been loyal to this pack for years!”
My father’s jaw tensed. “And what have they ever given us in return?”
I flinched.
He ran a hand down his face, exhaling sharply. “You think we don’t see what they do to you? The way they treat you like dirt beneath their feet? How they—” His voice wavered. “How they humiliated you tonight?”
I looked away. I didn’t want to talk about it.
“We should have done this sooner,” my mother said, pain in her voice. “We stayed because we thought things would change. We thought Jaxon—”
I ripped my hands from hers. “Don’t.”
Saying his name hurt too much.
My mother’s eyes filled with unshed tears, but she nodded. “We can’t let you keep suffering here, sweetheart. This pack will never accept you. We need to go somewhere you can have a fresh start.”
Fresh start.
The words rattled in my skull, but all I could feel was the crushing weight of rejection. Leaving meant giving up, didn’t it? It meant letting Seraphina win. Letting Jaxon walk away without a second thought.
But staying meant more of the same. More cold stares, more whispered insults, more isolation.
I thought about the future—what it would mean if I remained here. Would I spend the rest of my life in the packhouse basement, cleaning up after wolves who didn’t see me as one of their own? Would I always be the girl without a wolf, the pariah, the misfit?
Would Jaxon ever look at me with anything other than regret?
No.
I knew the answer.
The realization hit me with a force so strong I almost gasped.
This pack would never love me.
This pack would never be my home.
I forced myself to meet my parents’ eyes, my throat burning. “When do we leave?”
A look of relief washed over my mother’s face. “Tomorrow. At dawn.”
Tomorrow.
That was it. One more night in this prison.
One more night in a place that never wanted me.
I turned my gaze to the small window above my bed, staring at the moon.
I had spent my whole life waiting to belong.
Maybe it was time to stop waiting.
