Alpha Aleron Nightbane’s hand was still suspended midair when he caught sight of my shattered gaze, my irises once warm, now fractured with disbelief and silent agony. A ragged sob tore from my throat, and the metallic tang of blood pooled at the corner of my mouth, trailing down my chin like a crimson omen.
“A-Are you alright, Elara—?” His voice faltered, suddenly unsure, as he reached out to touch me.
But I flinched as though scorched, scrambling to my feet with trembling limbs, clutching my womb instinctively as if to shield the lives inside me from the monster he had become. His touch, once a balm, now felt like acid branding my skin.
“Luna Elara, my sister, please forgive me… I-it’s all my fault. Alpha Aleron, quick. Apologize to Elara,” Liezel cooed sweetly, her tone dripping with false concern. But Aleron froze, paralyzed by the way I looked at him, like he was no longer the man I once loved, but a stranger… No, something worse. A predator who had betrayed his mate.
“Elara, listen to me,” Aleron said at last, his voice cold and clipped. “Apologize to Liezel, and we’ll forget this ever happened. We can go back to how things were.”
A searing wave of humiliation struck me. My tears blurred my vision, but through them, I still saw the wolf who once vowed to protect me now offer a treaty, one that required I bow to my betrayer.
Liezel covered her mouth in fake horror, her sobs shallow and theatrical. “Oh Goddess, I never meant to drive a wedge between you two. I… I can't believe I’ve harmed my own sister.”
Then, putting on the mask of a misunderstood saint, she stood and hurried from the room with a trembling wobble, as though she were the one who had been abused. Alpha Aleron hesitated, glancing at me, then turned to follow her.
“Elara, go home,” he growled over his shoulder. “Apply something to your face. You’ve already embarrassed me enough tonight. Don’t expect me to come back.”
And just like that, the mate who once swore to stand beside me, through every full moon and blood rite, walked away without a second glance. Three years of loyalty, of sacrifice, of raw devotion were cast aside like ash from a burnt offering.
I stepped out of the grand mansion that once served as our den, my sanctuary, my prison. My heart pounded with a new kind of agony, not from Alpha Aleron Nightbane’s slap, but from the weight of betrayal that now crushed the wolf within me. My knees threatened to buckle, the pain radiating up my legs from the gash I’d received earlier, but I remembered I had left my phone inside. I needed it. I needed one last tether to this cursed place before I vanished forever.
Dragging myself back in, I limped toward Liezel’s door, only to freeze as muffled moans filtered through the wooden frame, low, guttural, unmistakably wild. My heart stopped.
“No…” I whispered.
But the truth greeted me like a dagger as I gently nudged the door open just a crack.
There, tangled in our old silken sheets, were two bodies, half-shifted, the scent of heat and lust heavy in the air. Alpha Aleron’s shirt was discarded, his skin flushed as he pressed against Liezel’s bare throat, where her pulse danced like prey beneath his lips.
“Oh, Alpha,” she purred between moans. “You should take off your wedding ring already…”
“No,” he murmured against her skin, his fangs flashing with hunger. “Doing the forbidden just makes it hotter. Elara could never match your fire.”
The words struck harder than any blow. My knees gave out, and I fell against the wall, my hands shaking as the bile rose to my throat. My chest heaved, and for a moment, I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to scream, to shift, to rip everything apart, but I was frozen.
This was the same man I had saved with my own blood. When he was near death, I begged the Elders for the right to donate my essence. I underwent the sacred blood-bonding ritual, offering my life essence to him, not just once, but month after month, until I was too weak to even shift during the full moon.
I worked myself to the bone, often going without sleep, food, or shelter, all to provide for the pack and for him. And this was how he repaid me, by claiming my fake sister during the blood moon, no less.
My trembling fingers clawed at the ring on my hand, the one engraved with Alpha Aleron’s initials. It now felt like a collar choking my very soul. I scratched until blood spilled, until the silver band slid off with a sickening click and fell to the floor.
“I will not be your Luna,” I whispered to the shadows. “Not anymore.”
I left the ring on the table near the hallway flowers, our sacred table, where the pack once laid offerings, and ran. My heels echoed like war drums on the floor, but I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. My unborn twins, my only tether to hope, deserved more than this rotting love.
I could never love this Alpha again.
Tonight, I’ll ease his burden the only way I know how. By vanishing so far, not even his wolf’s nose will find me. Our bond, once sacred under the moon’s gaze, shattered like glass in a house of mirrors. I slipped the silver-bound mating ring onto the flower-strewn table outside our home and turned away, the echo of my footsteps ringing against the hardwood floor.
This mating was broken. Just like my heart.
