Morning came without warmth.
I woke in a room that no longer felt like mine, the silence heavy and unfamiliar. For the first time since I could remember, Kaelrion was not there. His side of the bed was cold, untouched. No lingering scent of pine and steel. No quiet weight beside me that once meant safety.
Just emptiness.
I dressed slowly, every movement deliberate, as if rushing might crack something fragile inside my chest. My body felt weaker today. The Moon had taken more than it should have overnight. My wolf stirred restlessly beneath my skin, uneasy, exhausted.
Outside, Blackthorn Hall was already awake.
I stepped into the corridor and stopped short.
The pack was gathered.
Not formally. Not summoned. Just… watching.
Vaelis stood at the center of it all, wrapped in a pale mantle that brushed the floor. My mantle. The one reserved for the Luna during rites and announcements. She wore it as if it belonged to her by right, her hand resting lightly on Kaelrion’s arm.
He stood tall beside her.
Unyielding. Alpha-perfect.
When he spoke, the hall fell silent.
“For the next lunar cycle,” Kaelrion announced, his voice echoing against stone, “Vaelis will stand as acting Luna of Blackthorn.”
The words hit harder than any blow.
My breath left me in a sharp, silent rush.
“This is temporary,” he continued. “A necessity for the binding ritual that will save Eirlys Vale’s life. Any who challenge this decision challenge me.”
No one spoke.
No one looked at me.
The pack bowed.
I watched them kneel to another woman wearing my place, my mantle, my name—while my mate stood beside her and let it happen.
Vaelis turned then, eyes finding mine across the hall.
She smiled.
Not sweetly this time.
Victorious.
I left before they could see me break.
—
By midday, my strength was nearly gone. My hands shook as I tried to hold a cup of tea, the porcelain rattling softly against the saucer. I hadn’t realized how much energy anger consumed until there was none left to fuel it.
That was when she came to my room.
Vaelis didn’t knock.
She closed the door behind her carefully, as if this were a private meeting between equals. Between sisters.
“You saw the announcement,” she said lightly.
“Yes.”
She circled me slowly, examining the room as if committing it to memory before taking possession. “The pack needed reassurance. They trust Kaelrion. If he stands beside me, they’ll accept it.”
I said nothing.
She stopped in front of me. “You look worse today.”
“Get to the point.”
Her smile sharpened. “I won’t give you my blood.”
The words were soft. Casual.
My chest tightened painfully. “You already made the deal.”
“I changed my mind.” She leaned closer. “Why would I save you now? I already have everything I wanted.”
“You don’t,” I whispered. “Not yet.”
She laughed quietly. “Oh, Eirlys. Haven’t you realized? I never needed the ritual. I just needed time.”
Time.
Time to slide into my life.
Time to teach the pack to bow to her.
Time to teach Kaelrion to forget me.
“I told him,” she continued pleasantly, “that the ritual can wait. That I’m anxious. That stress affects blood compatibility.” She tilted her head. “He believes me.”
My wolf growled weakly inside me.
“You’re killing me,” I said.
“Yes,” Vaelis agreed. “Slowly.”
She stepped back, smoothing her mantle. “But don’t worry. I won’t let you die just yet.”
I laughed then—quiet, broken. “Why?”
“Because,” she said, eyes glittering, “I want him to watch.”
She left without another word.
—
That evening, I packed.
Not clothes. Not jewels.
Memories.
The last things I hadn’t burned.
I folded them carefully into a small bag and carried it outside, past the sentries who pretended not to see me. The air was heavy with approaching rain. The Moon hid behind thick clouds, as if unwilling to witness what came next.
I didn’t go far.
Just to the edge of the territory.
I sat on a fallen log and waited.
Headlights cut through the dark not long after.
The car stopped, and a woman stepped out—tall, composed, her presence commanding even in silence.
Seraphaine Vale.
My mother.
She looked at me as if afraid I might vanish if she blinked. Then she crossed the distance in three strides and wrapped me in her arms.
“You came,” she whispered.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go,” I replied.
She pulled back, eyes scanning my face, the tremor in my hands. Her expression hardened into something dangerous. “You’re worse than when I last saw you.”
“I’m dying.”
“I know,” she said. “That’s why I’m here.”
She took my hands. “I can save you. But not like this. Not here.”
I hesitated. “Kaelrion—”
“Is not your fate,” she cut in sharply. “And he is not worthy of what you will become.”
Rain began to fall, light at first, then harder.
“I need you to trust me,” she said. “One last time.”
I closed my eyes.
And nodded.
—
By morning, Blackthorn Hall was in chaos.
My room was empty.
My scent gone.
Kaelrion stormed through the corridors, fury etched into every sharp line of his face.
“She was here,” he snarled. “Find her. Now.”
His men searched the territory until dawn broke and found only one thing.
My cloak.
Soaked. Torn. Abandoned at the edge of the cliff road where the mountain fell away into darkness.
The rain washed everything else clean.
Kaelrion stood there long after the others left, staring down into the ravine below, his chest tight, his heartbeat wrong.
The Moon finally slipped free of the clouds.
And for the first time since our bond had formed, it did not answer him.
Not because I was gone—
—but because I had let it take my name.
And somewhere far from Blackthorn lands, with a new path opening before me and death close enough to taste, I whispered into the dark:
Let them believe I fell.
When I return… the Moon will remember who I am.
