The truth reached me the way it always did—carelessly, without regard, tossed at my feet like something I should be grateful to catch.
Ken was sprawled at the table, crumbs dusting the front of his shirt, speaking through a mouthful of crisps. “Camille booked the entire top floor at Starview,” he said casually. “Huge spread. Dad says it’s for all of us. Big pack thing.”
My hands froze on the mop. The wood felt slick with soap and age. “All of us?” I asked.
Nolan glanced up, lips curling into a grin far too sharp for a boy his age. “Not you, Grandma. Grandpa said you’re… not really fit for something like that.” His eyes swept over me. “I mean, just look at you.”
Not fit.
As if I were ill.
As if I were already disappearing.
As if I were a wolf too weak to count.
By dusk, the house emptied itself of sound and warmth. Alpha Thorne emerged freshly shaved, his silver-threaded hair slicked back, the expensive cologne clinging to him—the one he only wore for funerals, blood pacts, or occasions that mattered. He looked powerful again, broad and imposing, the Alpha the pack once feared and revered. He straightened the twins’ collars with proud hands while Julian fussed with his suit jacket in the mirror.
“Remember this,” Thorne told them, voice firm and commanding. “Camille does these things out of love. She’s family.”
The boys laughed together. “That’s why we like Camille more than Grandma Nyx.”
No farewell. No pause. Not even a thought spared for me. The door closed with a final, hollow thud, sealing the house behind them like a tomb.
The silence that followed wasn’t peaceful. It was loud—echoing, accusing, heavy with neglect. It hurt more than shouting ever could.
I stood there in my old slippers, a basket of unfolded laundry pressed to my chest. My stomach twisted with hunger, but I hadn’t made food. Ghosts didn’t need to eat.
Out of sheer defiance, I turned on the television.
And there they were.
The Starview Hotel glittered on screen, drenched in light—crystal chandeliers, gold-trimmed tables, violins humming softly in the background. Camille stood radiant in a white fur wrap, Alpha Thorne at her side. Julian and his wife smiled with practiced elegance. Ken and Nolan lifted soda flutes in perfectly tailored tuxedos.
The reporter spoke reverently. “Tonight’s private gathering celebrates the Darkhowl Pack—hosted by Camille Hartclaw. The family behind one of the nation’s most influential shipping empires.”
I wasn’t there.
Not on screen.
Not in name.
Not even as an afterthought.
They raised champagne. I swallowed cold, bitter coffee.
They laughed beneath gold and crystal. I wiped fingerprints from the glass door.
Then came the moment that sliced deepest—Camille leaned toward Thorne, murmured something in his ear, and they both laughed. Julian joined them. I didn’t hear the words, but my wolf bristled hard enough to ache. Some things don’t need sound to be understood. Insults travel through bone and instinct.
Much later—well past midnight—the front door creaked open.
For a heartbeat, foolish hope sparked. Maybe Julian had come back.
But it wasn’t him.
Camille swept inside like the house belonged to her, heels striking marble with effortless confidence. Alpha Thorne leaned against her, heavy with drink, his tie loose, lips stained red with wine.
“Oh, Luna Nyx,” she said sweetly when she noticed me standing by the stairs. “I didn’t expect you to still be up.”
Her arm tightened around Thorne’s, guiding him forward as though she were his rightful mate. “Julian and the boys are staying at my place tonight. Exhausted.” She patted Thorne’s chest possessively. “But he can’t sleep anywhere unfamiliar. Poor Alpha.”
I knew the lie instantly. This wasn’t care—it was performance.
She reached into her bag and dropped a container near my feet. “Leftovers,” she said lightly. “You should eat. You’re painfully thin. A wolf that weak wouldn’t survive a real hunt.”
I stayed still. My hands curled into fists, nails biting skin. My wolf snarled, desperate and caged.
“I’ll help him to bed,” Camille continued, lips curving. “You don’t share a room anymore anyway. He mentioned your side smells like—” She paused, eyes roaming over me slowly, assessing, calculating. “—regret.”
I took one step forward. Just one. My body screamed to strike, to tear, to reclaim something sacred. But I didn’t.
Because the real wound came from him.
Thorne laughed drunkenly, gaze fixed on her like she was the only thing left worth seeing. “Camille’s beautiful,” he mumbled. “She smells sweet. Peaches.” His smile twisted. “My Luna just smells like soap and complaints.”
They went upstairs together, his weight resting on her, her laughter floating down the hall like a victory song.
And I understood then—they hadn’t destroyed me.
They had simply replaced me.
I waited—not because I still hoped, but because I needed certainty.
One hour passed. Then another. The lights upstairs stayed on.
Then the sound came. Soft at first. Then unmistakable. Rhythmic. Close.
My blood turned cold. My wolf surged, dragging me forward against my will. Each step upstairs felt like walking on stone, each breath sharp and burning. The hallway stretched endlessly toward the bedroom—the Alpha’s room. The room that had once been mine.
The door stood slightly open.
I saw everything.
Camille, shameless and bare, straddling Thorne, her painted nails clawing his chest. Her head thrown back, hair wild, riding him with feral hunger. Thorne gripped her like she was salvation itself.
My legs buckled. My mouth went dry.
Her voice rang out, cruel and triumphant. “Alpha, take me. Fill me the way she never could.”
And Thorne—my mate, my Alpha of thirty years—groaned, breathless. “You’re perfect. You always were.”
I fled.
My wolf howled inside me as I stumbled into the downstairs bathroom, vomiting until my ribs screamed, their betrayal echoing louder than my retching.
It wasn’t about desire.
It was about erasure.
They were stripping me of my bond, my place, my crown—letting another woman wear it while I watched.
They didn’t want me gone.
They wanted me broken.
But a she-wolf who survives this doesn’t stay curled on the floor.
She waits.
She remembers.
And she learns how to haunt quietly—
until the night she finally lets her wolf loose.
