After my elder sister was torn apart during a pack skirmish, the elders invoked the Moon Law and bound me to her surviving mate—Alpha Nathan Storm of the Nightfall Pack. Overnight, I was forced into a role I had never wanted. I became the Luna in her place, and the reluctant guardian to her five-year-old cub, Lucien Storm.
Five years. That was how long I’d been pretending this was a real family.
On the night of my twenty-fifth birthday, the pack insisted on a small celebration in the main hall. I hadn’t meant to stand out. I hadn’t meant to provoke anyone. But in the rush of getting dressed, I pulled a ceremonial gown from the wardrobe—the pale blue silk trimmed with silver thread that had once belonged to my sister.
The moment Lucien saw me, something ugly flashed in his eyes.
Before I could even reach the table, he seized the cake with both tiny hands, growled under his breath, and flung it straight at my face.
The frosting exploded across my cheeks. Sugar and cream slid down into my collar. The entire hall froze, wolves and humans alike staring in horrified silence.
Lucien didn’t look like a cub anymore. His stare was empty, cold—eerily identical to the Alpha who stood motionless at the head of the room.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” he said, his young voice sharp with scorn. “You think wearing her clothes makes you my mother? You just married into the Storm bloodline for power, you greedy mutt.”
His lips curled back, not in a child’s tantrum but something darker.
“It should’ve been you who died on that night,” he hissed. “Then the pack would be lighting moon candles for you instead of throwing you a stupid birthday feast.”
He took a step closer, his little fists clenched.
“And one day, when I’m Alpha, I’ll personally chase you out of this territory.”
The cake slid off my jaw and dripped to the floor. It tasted unbearably sweet—yet all I could feel was the sting in my throat.
I stared at the cub I had carried through fevered shifts, the boy whose howls I had soothed during his first transformations, and for the first time in five years, I didn’t feel heartbroken.
I felt empty.
When a child no longer sees you as family, sometimes the only thing left to do is walk away.
And I did.
Not long after I left the Nightfall Pack, Alpha Nathan and his precious heir crossed pack borders to find me—wolves stripped of pride, begging for forgiveness that came far too late.
---
“Everly… are you truly set on severing your mate-bond with Nathan?” Mrs. Everwood asked over the phone, worry thick in her voice. “Lucien is still a cub. He needs a Luna. He needs you.”
I stood in the kitchen of the manor, one hand braced against the marble counter, the other holding the phone loosely.
“I didn’t marry him out of love,” I replied evenly. “It was a contract. Lucien is five now—strong enough to survive without me. I’ve done my duty.”
I owed Mrs. Everwood everything. She had taken me in after I was orphaned, paid for my schooling, and later arranged a five-year mating contract with Alpha Nathan so I could stand as temporary Luna for the Nightfall Pack.
Five years of playing family.
Tomorrow, that contract would expire.
Before she could answer, a sharp crack split the air. Pain exploded across my forehead.
Something solid struck me and fell to the floor with a dull clatter.
A stone.
Blood seeped through my fingers as I looked up and saw Lucien standing outside the kitchen window, arms folded across his chest, his young face twisted with contempt.
“Calling Grandma again?” he sneered. “Guess throwing a cake in your face didn’t teach you enough. Maybe I should bury you properly so my mom won’t be lonely down there.”
The memories from earlier that night crashed over me like a rogue wave.
I’d bought myself a tiny cake. I’d never celebrated a birthday before, not really. But seeing me in my sister’s dress had sent Lucien spiraling.
He’d grabbed a jar of black ash-paint, scrawled the letters “RIP” across the frosting, then decorated it with white moon chrysanthemums—flowers only used for funerals.
My birthday cake had become a mourning altar.
“You don’t deserve a birthday,” he had laughed. “If you weren’t around, my mom wouldn’t be dead. From now on, this date is your death day.”
And then he had smashed it into my face while the pack watched.
I hadn’t screamed. I hadn’t howled. I’d simply gone to the kitchen, numb.
He followed me, irritated by my silence.
“Why aren’t you crying?” he snapped. “What, you think you’re above me now? Just wait—I’ll throw you out of this pack the moment I come of age.”
I looked at him then, truly looked at him.
“You won’t need to,” I told him quietly. “I’m leaving tomorrow.”
I walked away to clean the blood from my forehead when glass shattered upstairs.
Something inside me snapped.
I ran up the stairs and found my mother’s jade wolf-carved bracelet—the only thing she had left me—smashed into a hundred glittering fragments on the floor.
I dropped to my knees and gathered the shards, my hands trembling.
I hadn’t cried when Nathan treated me like a shadow of my sister.
I hadn’t cried when the elders belittled me.
I hadn’t even cried when Lucien humiliated me in front of the pack.
But this?
This broke me.
Tears streamed down my face as he watched from the doorway, a smug little smile playing on his lips.
“Hurts, doesn’t it?” he said. “That’s what you get for killing my mom. I’m going to ruin everything you love, murderer.”
That was the moment I lost control.
I seized his arm. “Pick them up. Every single piece. Put it back together!”
Fear flickered in his eyes—then someone shoved me violently from behind.
I hit the floor hard.
“What is wrong with you?!” Nathan roared, eyes bloodshot. “It’s just a trinket. You’re attacking a cub over trash?”
I stared up at the man I was bound to, unable to recognize him anymore.
To him it was worthless.
To me, it was my mother’s last gift—the woman who had died shielding me during the great quake ten years ago, her body crushed beneath falling stone so I could live.
Nathan shoved Lucien out and shut the door. Then he lifted me gently, laid me on the bed, wiped my tears.
“You’re better than this,” he murmured. “You owe Lucien an apology.”
Then his hands moved to my blouse.
“It’s your birthday,” he said softly. “Let me reward you for everything you’ve done for this pack.”
I pushed his hand away.
“Nathan,” I said, my voice steady despite the storm inside me, “I want to dissolve this mate-bond. I want a divorce.”
