The morning I prepared to deliver my rejection to the Alpha Council, an unopened email on my laptop stopped me in my tracks. My breath hitched as I opened it, the sender’s name igniting both hope and fear.
Damien Blackwell.
The message was brief but carried the weight of a storm.
Damien: I am, but who told you that? Besides, would you believe me, Isla?
His use of my birth name—one I hadn’t heard since my family’s fall—shook me to my core. Could it really be him? Could my brother, lost to me for years, truly be alive?
I hesitated, doubt warring with the desperate yearning in my chest. What if it was a trap? Wolves knew how to exploit vulnerability, and my longing for family was a weakness I had buried deep.
My fingers trembled as I typed my reply.
Celeste: Prove it to me.
An hour passed in a blur of exchanged messages. Damien answered my cautious questions with precision, revealing details only my brother could know.
Finally, he sent his number, insisting it would be easier to explain over the phone.
When I called, the sound of his voice shattered the fragile dam I had built around my emotions.
“Celeste?” he said, his deep voice steady yet laced with warmth.
“Damien?” I whispered, tears springing to my eyes. His name felt foreign yet achingly familiar. “Is it really you?”
“It’s me,” he said softly. “I’ll do whatever it takes to prove it. I know it’s been years, but I’m here now.”
My breath hitched. “How… why didn’t you come back before?”
“It’s complicated,” he admitted, his tone grave. “But I’m free now, and I want to help you. Are you in trouble?”
His question pierced through my defenses. He could still read me as if no time had passed. Everything I had endured spilled over.
“Please take me away from the Klein pack,” I choked out, the words tumbling free.
There was no hesitation in his response. “Done. Send me your location. I’ll send someone to bring you to the Midnight Hollow.”
“Midnight Hollow?” I echoed, caught off guard.
“It’s safe—a place for wolves like us, away from human eyes,” Damien explained. “You’ll understand everything soon. Just trust me.”
---
That evening, after delivering my rejection to the Alpha Council, I returned to the Klein pack’s manor for the last time. The rejection ceremony had been swift but emotionally taxing.
Now, standing in my room, I packed only the essentials. My heart ached as I retrieved the love letters I had once written to Darius—symbols of a love that had been one-sided and unreciprocated.
Before leaving, I gathered the letters and lit them one by one, their ashes a testament to the end of what I had once believed in.
---
By the time Darius returned home, the manor was eerily silent, a stillness that immediately unsettled him.
“Celeste, I’m back!” he called, his voice echoing through the empty halls.
No response.
His unease grew as he searched each room, his anxiety mounting with every passing moment. Finally, he stumbled upon the charred remains of the letters in the backyard.
Among the ashes, a partially burned note caught his eye. The handwriting was unmistakable—mine.
Darius’s heart sank. He stormed back inside, his breath coming in short, frantic gasps.
“Where is my Luna?!” he bellowed at a servant who had just returned from errands.
“I don’t know, Alpha,” the servant stammered, cowering under his intense glare. “She was here this morning…”
Darius’s claws extended as he dashed to our bedroom. The sight of the open closet and missing suitcase confirmed his fears.
He returned to his study, desperate for answers, and found a letter on his desk, neatly placed. His hands shook as he opened it.
“For the mate who didn’t deserve me. Happy rejection day.”
The note was simple, but its message was clear.
A sudden, excruciating pain shot through his chest. His hands gripped the desk as the bond between us severed completely.
Through the mate bond’s remnants, he reached out, his voice frantic in my mind.
“Celeste! Why? Why are you doing this?”
