"Selene, I want a Bond Rejection. Help me draft the severance terms—I'm walking away with nothing."
After five years of secret bonding to Fenris Duskmoor, I finally understood: he didn't claim me for love. So I decided to sever our bond without his knowledge, presenting the papers as his anniversary gift.
Selene Frostveil stared at me in disbelief. "Lyra Ashvale, are you certain about this? Five years of mating isn't something you just cast aside."
I lifted my chin, my gaze steady. "I'm certain. This bond was a mistake from the start. I don't want to keep pretending anymore."
A few minutes later, she pulled a document from her leather satchel. "Alright. This is the Bond Severance agreement that Pack Advocate Thornhart drafted. He's away on territory business today, so he asked me to pass it along. Just get your Alpha to mark it with his blood seal. Also, make sure you understand the original bonding contract terms—there's a thirty-day cooling period required by Mooncourt law. Be ready for that."
I took the papers and nodded. "Got it."
With the agreement tucked under my arm, I said goodbye to Selene and shifted into my wolf form, running swiftly through the forest paths toward the Duskmoor Central Den.
I pushed open the heavy oak door to the Alpha's council chamber. Fenris sat behind his carved wooden desk, a territory report in hand. When he looked up and caught my scent, a faint smile tugged at his lips.
"Running late today? Don't think being the Alpha's mate means you can slack off from your liaison duties."
His tone was warm, almost brotherly—but there was no love in it. There never had been. My wolf whimpered inside me, sensing what my heart already knew.
"The forest trails were crowded with patrol wolves," I said, walking toward him. I placed the Bond Severance agreement on his desk and drew a steadying breath, fighting to keep the tremor out of my voice. "Alpha Duskmoor, I just closed a new alliance pact with the northern packs. This is the blood oath—I need your seal here."
The moment he reached for the document, I looked up and met his sharp, golden-flecked gaze. My heart stuttered. What if he catches my nervous scent?
But he didn't even glance at the contents. He flipped straight to the last page and pressed his clawed thumb to the blood seal mark, his tone light and casual. "Another pact closed? Nice work, Lyra."
Watching his blood bind to the paper, a bitter ache spread through my chest.
Five years of bonding, and his warmth toward me had only ever been about my usefulness to the pack—never about me being someone he could love as his true mate.
His howl-call crystal buzzed with an incoming message.
He glanced at the glowing stone, and his expression transformed. The polite detachment melted into something tender, almost reverent. Even his voice softened as he answered, his wolf practically purring through the words.
"Hungry? I'm still at the den. If you want, I can hunt something fresh and bring it to your quarters. How does that sound?"
Anyone listening would have assumed the female on the other end was his bonded mate of five years.
But no one knew—no one except me—how long I had loved Fenris Duskmoor.
We grew up together, childhood companions in neighboring pack territories.
For him, I abandoned my own path and studied pack diplomacy instead. I joined his pack as his Omega liaison just to stay close, to breathe in his pine-and-storm scent every day.
Five years ago, one night, we ended up together—an accident fueled by too much moon wine during the harvest celebration.
When morning came, he said he would take responsibility. He said he would bond with me.
I was overjoyed. I said yes without a second thought.
But what he meant was a secret bond. A contract. An agreement that either of us could walk away the moment we found our true fated mate.
I plummeted from the clouds. Yet even then, I couldn't resist the temptation of being his mate—even if only in secret, even if the bond mark on my shoulder stayed hidden beneath my clothes.
So I signed the blood oath. I played the part. I helped him keep his pack elders satisfied with the appearance of a proper Alpha with a bonded Omega.
After the bonding ceremony, I threw myself into pack work, closing alliance pacts, proving my worth. I thought if I tried hard enough, he would finally see me—not as the little pup he once protected during border skirmishes, but as a female who could stand beside him as a true Luna.
But his feelings never changed. Even during our rare intimate moments, it was mechanical. Obligatory. Just instinct and biology, nothing of the soul-deep connection a true mating should bring.
It wasn't until later that I learned the truth: the reason he'd gotten drunk that night, the reason he'd ended up with me—it was because the female he truly wanted had bonded with someone else.
And that female was Aurora Duskmoor.
The false-blooded heiress his pack had mistakenly adopted as a pup.
His sister in name only—but the one whose scent made his wolf howl with longing.
