Kelsey POV:
Before I left the territory forever, I had to go to one place.
I drove my car down the gravel path toward Moonlight Lake. The old suspension groaned over the bumps, a sound that echoed the tightening vice in my chest. This was where Bennett and I had first shifted together. It was where we had promised to lead the pack side by side.
I parked the car and walked toward the water. The scent of damp earth and pine needles usually calmed my wolf, but today, it smelled wrong. It smelled like betrayal.
I froze.
Two figures were standing by the water's edge.
Bennett and Aria.
He was draping his jacket over her shoulders. His movements were gentle, careful—a tenderness that had been absent from our marriage for years.
Aria leaned into him, giggling. The sound grated on my sensitive hearing like claws on a chalkboard.
"Alpha, you are so good to me," she cooed, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. "Unlike how cold you were with her."
Bennett didn't correct her. He didn't defend me. He just pulled her closer.
"The past is the past," he murmured, his voice low. "You are the future."
I felt bile rise in my throat. I stepped back into the shadows of the tree line, intending to leave. But then I saw it.
The Unity Tree.
It was a massive oak where every Alpha and Luna pair carved their initials before the mating ceremony. It was sacred. Bennett and I had carved "B + K" there five years ago. He had told me then, *This mark is permanent, just like my love for you.*
I walked closer, my eyes locking onto the bark.
The carving was gone.
In its place was a jagged, ugly mess. My initial, the "K", had been aggressively scraped out with a knife. Over the scarred wood, fresh carvings bled amber sap.
"B + A".
And below it, a crude drawing of a pup.
My breath hitched. It felt like someone had reached into my chest and squeezed my heart until it burst.
*He let her do this.* He let a stranger deface our history.
My inner wolf howled, a sound of pure, shattering grief. I stepped out of the shadows.
"Is nothing sacred to you?" I asked, my voice trembling with rage.
Bennett and Aria spun around. Bennett looked surprised, but Aria... Aria smiled.
"Oh, look who it is," Aria said, stepping away from Bennett with a smirk. "Coming to say goodbye to your little tree?"
"You had no right," I spat, walking toward the oak.
"I have every right," Aria countered. "I am carrying his heir. You are just a ghost haunting this pack."
I looked at the tree. The sight of that "A" next to his "B" was an insult to the Moon Goddess herself.
I picked up a sharp rock from the ground.
"What are you doing?" Bennett demanded, stepping forward.
I ignored him. I slammed the rock into the bark, scraping furiously at the fresh carving. I wanted it gone. I wanted *him* gone. I drove the stone into the wood, chipping away his initial, then hers, then the remnants of mine.
I was erasing us.
"Stop it!" Aria shrieked. "Alpha, stop her!"
"Kelsey, put the rock down!" Bennett roared, using his Alpha voice. The command vibrated in the air, pressing against my mind.
My hand faltered, fighting the compulsion, but I didn't stop. I scraped until my knuckles bled, mixing with the tree sap.
Aria rushed at me. "That's mine! He's mine!"
She grabbed my arm, digging her nails into my fresh wounds from the party. The pain flared, hot and sharp.
"Let go!" I shouted.
She pulled a ring from her pocket—a ring Bennett had given her. "Take it! Look at it! He gave me the pledge ring! You can finally let go, you barren waste!"
The insult snapped the last thread of my control.
I didn't think. My wolf reacted. I shoved her. Hard.
"Get away from me!"
Aria stumbled back. Her heels caught on a root. Her arms flailed, and with a high-pitched scream, she fell backward into the freezing water of Moonlight Lake.
*Splash.*
"Aria!" Bennett roared.
He didn't look at me. He didn't ask if I was okay. He dove into the water, ruining his expensive shoes in the mud, scrambling to reach her.
I stood there, panting, the bloody rock still in my hand.
I took a step back, tripping over the same root. My head slammed into the trunk of the Unity Tree.
Black spots danced in my vision. Pain exploded in my skull.
Through the haze, I saw Bennett dragging a coughing, sputtering Aria onto the bank. He held her like she was made of glass.
He looked up at me. His eyes were glowing with the fury of a wolf protecting its mate. But I was his mate. Or I used to be.
"Beta!" Bennett yelled into the air, his voice carrying over the territory. "Get warriors down here!"
He glared at me, his lip curling in disgust.
"Get her out of my sight," he snarled, pointing a shaking finger at me. "I don't want to see her face. She is no longer my mate. She is a threat to my pack."
Two warriors emerged from the woods. They grabbed my arms roughly.
I was dizzy. Blood trickled down my forehead, blinding one eye.
Bennett turned his back on me, focusing entirely on warming Aria up.
As the darkness took me, the last thing I saw was his back. The back I used to wash in the shower. The back I used to cling to.
He didn't look back.
