I was tired of life.
Tired of pretending. Tired of playing Luna to a man who only loved the idea of me, never the mess I really was.
But Lucas… Lucas didn’t let it slide.
The black SUV door shut behind him with a soft click, and there he was—crossing the street like the shadows were his to command. Every step of his boots on gravel echoed louder than it should’ve. Maybe because the air between us was so full. Heavy. Waiting.
He didn’t speak right away. Just stared. That quiet, ancient intensity burning in his golden eyes. Not the gold of a hero. The gold of something hunted, wounded, and still dangerous.
And then—his voice. Low, rough. Like it’d been soaked in fire and silence.
“Then maybe…” he said, each word slow, precise, brutal, “you should choose me.”
I blinked.
No.
No, that wasn’t supposed to happen.
Lucas was always the one in the corner. The unspoken loyalty. The quiet ache. The only person who ever looked at me like I was more than a Luna-shaped trophy.
“I wasn’t trying to make Kael jealous,” I said, my throat dry. “I just… I need space. I need—”
“You need someone who sees you.” His eyes burned through me. “And I do. I always have.”
My heart twisted. God.
Lucas didn’t love loudly. He never had. But when he did, it cut deeper than knives.
So I did what I always did when I was about to unravel—I made it a joke.
“Sure,” I said lightly, “after the divorce papers are signed, you’ll be first on my list.”
And then I walked away. Fast. Like the world would crack open if I stayed a second longer.
But I felt him behind me, like a storm that never stopped watching.
That night, my phone buzzed once.
Lucas: I’m done waiting.
I stared at the message.
What did that mean?
I stepped onto the balcony, breath catching in my throat.
There he was.
Still.
The same SUV, still parked. Him leaning against it, like he had nowhere else to be. A cigarette dangled from his fingers.
Lucas never smoked.
The moonlight hit him just right, like it chose him—silver tracing his sharp cheekbones, glinting off the edges of pain he never spoke about.
Our eyes met.
And he smiled. A slow, broken kind of smile. The kind that says, I already know how this ends, but I’d do it anyway.
He got in his car. And left.
But my chest didn’t unclench.
It never would—not where he was concerned.
Kael came home before sunrise. He smelled like winter wind and someone else’s perfume.
“Smoke?” he snapped the second he walked in, disgust curling his upper lip. “You stink. Try not embarrassing me for once.”
I hadn’t smoked.
But I’d stood beside someone who had. And for once, I didn’t try to hide it.
“I’ll take a shower,” I said quietly.
He followed. Of course he did.
“You’re acting different.”
I didn’t reply.
His gaze caught something near my collarbone. The edge of a bruise that hadn’t faded. The one Lucas hadn’t meant to leave when he grabbed my arm in the dark, begging me not to go back inside.
“What happened to your neck?” Kael demanded.
I moved away. Reflex.
And that small recoil—it undid him.
His hand clenched. “You ungrateful—”
I cut him off. My voice was low. Steady. “If I’m such a burden… maybe we should get a divorce.”
Silence.
And then laughter. Bitter. Cruel.
“You? Leave me?”
He stalked forward.
“You wouldn’t last a day. You don’t even have a scent strong enough to be claimed again. No one would want you.”
I didn’t flinch. Not this time.
He paused, nostrils flaring. “You think Lucas would keep you? He was raised to serve, not to claim. You think that mutt would choose you over blood?”
He waited. Wanted me to shatter.
I didn’t.
Instead, I washed my hands in the sink. The sound of water was louder than the sound of my heartbeat.
When he finally spoke again, his voice was cold.
“Grandfather’s party. Wear something red. You’re coming.”
Not a question.
Just control. Disguised as a schedule.
He picked me up early.
And in the front passenger seat, legs crossed and lipstick fresh, sat Mira.
She turned when she saw me. Soft smile. Hollow eyes.
“Evening, Luna.”
She didn’t need to say more.
Her scent was on the seat. On his shirt.
On my life.
Kael didn’t explain. He never had to.
And I didn’t ask. I climbed into the back seat and folded my hands in my lap like a girl raised to survive instead of scream.
But as the engine rumbled to life and Mira laughed at something only Kael could hear, I felt something shift in me.
Not rage.
Not heartbreak.
Something older.
Something quieter.
Like smoke.
Like silence.
Like the moment just before the howl.
