Anika's POV:
I called a rideshare back to the Mccormick estate. The place I once considered home now felt like a tomb, its very air thick with suffocation.
I moved through the grand, empty living room like a ghost. On the wall hung our official "family portrait." The smile on my face in the photograph was a bitter mockery.
I didn't go to our bedroom. I walked straight to Chalmers's study. I knew he wouldn't be there. At this hour, he'd be at the Pack headquarters, being the powerful Alpha.
The heavy oak door was slightly ajar. I pushed it open. The scent of cedarwood, his signature scent, filled the air. It once drove me wild with desire. Now, it made my stomach clench with nausea.
My eyes landed on his massive desk. On it sat a crisp stack of papers. The title on the top page was stark and clear: "Mate-bond Rejection Agreement."
My gaze scanned to the bottom of the page. Chalmers Mccormick's signature was scrawled there, bold and impatient. The date signed was one week ago.
While our daughter was fighting for her life, he was preparing to discard us.
I picked up the document. The heavy paper felt like a tombstone in my hands. So, he'd wanted to be free of me all along.
I walked to the large window overlooking the gardens. And there he was.
Chalmers was on the lawn, laughing with Harriet and a young boy, Nate. His smile was genuine, carefree—a smile I hadn't seen directed at me in years.
Harriet, dressed in a flowing white dress, looked every bit the lady of the manor. She said something that made him chuckle, a low, intimate sound.
And Nate, the boy Chalmers treated as his own, was clutching an expensive new robot. The same one Kira had circled in a toy catalog for her birthday, the one she had dreamed of.
I watched the happy little scene, my heart a frozen, dead thing in my chest. There was no pain left. Only a vast, empty plain of scorn.
I turned back to the desk. I picked up the heavy fountain pen. On the line designated for the "Rejected Party," I signed my name, each letter a careful, deliberate stroke.
Anika Velazquez.
According to the ancient laws of the wolves, a rejection required acceptance from both parties to be finalized. I accepted his rejection.
From my purse, I pulled out the cremation authorization the nurse had given me. I signed that, too.
I placed the two signed documents side-by-side in the very center of his desk, where he couldn't miss them. One to end our life together. The other, to end our daughter's existence on this earth.
I went to Kira's room. It was just as she'd left it, her teddy bear sitting on her perfectly made bed.
I didn't take anything. Just a small, silver frame from her nightstand. Inside was a photo of her as a three-month-old baby.
I walked downstairs, dragging an empty suitcase behind me. It was the one I had packed for Kira's hospital stay. Now, I would use it to carry her ashes away from this place.
The housekeeper, Mrs. Gable, saw me. Her eyes, usually so stoic, were filled with pity. She opened her mouth to speak. "Mrs. Anika..."
"Goodbye, Mrs. Gable," I said, my voice flat and even. I cut her off before she could say more.
I walked out the front door and didn't look back. The bright afternoon sun felt like a spotlight, but I couldn't feel its warmth.
Chalmers's POV:
Beneath the full moon, the banquet hall of the Pack territory blazes brightly, bustling with extravagant noise and revelry.
I sit atop the Alpha’s throne with the docile Nate in my arms. Beside me stands Harriet Mercer, her makeup immaculate and her demeanor gentle and poised. She effortlessly declines toasts on my behalf and leans down softly to chat and soothe Nate. To everyone’s eyes, she is the rightful Luna of this Pack, my irreplaceable family by my side.
Pack members come forward one after another to toast and flatter me, their words dripping with blatant favoritism.
“What great fortune you have, Alpha! Miss Harriet and Young Master Nate are the perfect, whole family.”
“Indeed! Anika Velazquez is nothing but a wolfless human clinging stubbornly to the title of Luna, needlessly tearing apart what should have been a complete family.”
I swirl the amber liquor in my glass, a cold, indifferent smirk tugging at my lips. I have long grown tired of these empty praises. Anika… that cold, stubborn, obstinate woman. Irritation churns fiercely in my chest. A wolfless human who can barely survive in the Pack without my protection. How much longer will she keep throwing these petty, jealous tantrums just to get my attention?
A Beta guard suddenly pushes through the bustling crowd and hurries toward me. His face is ashen, his wolf tail rigid and taut, his entire body radiating sheer panic.
“Alpha, Mrs. Velazquez and your daughter Kira are scheduled for cremation today. You are required to head to the crematorium to collect their ashes.”
I do not so much as furrow my brow, my tone icy and unyielding. “She is a grown woman. How much longer will she continue this childish farce out of jealousy?”
The guard tenses up entirely, his voice trembling. “But Alpha… you personally signed the cremation consent form and the divorce agreement beforehand.”
My hand holding the wine glass freezes instantly. My heart skips a beat, and a bone-chilling cold sweeps through every inch of my body.
“What did you say?”
I storm out of the banquet hall in utter chaos, speeding all the way to the crematorium without restraint.
The moment I witness the cold, lifeless bodies of my wife and daughter being slowly wheeled into the cremation furnace, a sharp, tearing pain rips through my chest in an instant. A piercing agony erupts from the depths of my wolf soul, raw and unbearable.
