Isla POV:
"The arrangements are made, Alpha."
I stood in Damien's office the next morning. I was wearing my white lab coat, holding a clipboard. I was the picture of efficiency.
"Good," Damien said, not looking up from his paperwork. "Seraphina is very excited. She's never seen the Moon Pool."
"It is a sacred place," I said neutrally. "Tell her not to wear shoes in the water."
"I'm taking her to the lodge in the Rockies afterward," Damien said. "The mountain air will be good for the pregnancy. We'll be gone for a week."
A week. That meant he would be gone until three days before the... before my departure.
"Enjoy your trip," I said.
"Isla," he said, finally looking up. His eyes were softer now. "Thank you. For being reasonable. I know this is hard for you. But once the baby is born... things will go back to normal. We will be us again."
"Of course, Alpha."
I walked out. As soon as the heavy oak door clicked shut, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
He left an hour later. I watched from the balcony as the helicopter took off, carrying Damien and Seraphina toward the mountains.
Silence descended on the apartment.
I walked out onto the balcony. It was a large terrace, high above the city smog. For five years, I had turned it into a garden.
It wasn't a flower garden. It was a pharmacy.
Rows of Silver-Leaf Mint for fevers. Pots of Golden Root for energy. And in the corner, the most precious of all-the Moon Herbs. They only bloomed under moonlight. I had cultivated them to make salves for the pack's warriors, to help them heal faster after battles.
Damien had once called them "weeds."
*Why do you play in the dirt?* he had asked. *We can buy medicine.*
He didn't understand. He never understood that the earth gave power that money couldn't buy.
I knelt in the soil. The dirt was cold against my knees.
I reached for a stalk of Wolf-Bane Neutralizer. I had spent six months cross-breeding it to make it potent enough to save a wolf from poison.
I gripped the stem.
And I pulled.
The roots ripped out of the soil with a soft tearing sound.
I didn't stop there. I moved to the next pot. And the next.
I wasn't harvesting them. I was evicting them.
I pulled up the Mint. I tore out the Golden Root. I dumped the soil over the railing, watching it scatter in the wind like dark rain.
Every plant I uprooted felt like I was pulling a memory of Damien out of my heart.
*Rip.* That was the time he forgot my birthday because he was "training."
*Rip.* That was the time he told me I was too soft to understand politics.
*Rip.* That was the moment he marked her.
My hands were covered in dirt. Sweat dripped down my back.
I reached the corner. The Stardust Flower. It was glowing faintly, a beautiful, iridescent blue. It was the rarest plant I owned. It was said to be able to mend a fractured soul.
I didn't destroy this one. I carefully dug it out, preserving the root ball. I placed it in a specialized travel container.
This one was coming with me. I would need it to heal myself.
I stood up. The balcony was bare. Just empty ceramic pots and scattered dirt. It looked desolate. It looked like a graveyard.
It was perfect.
I went back inside and washed my hands. The water turned brown and swirled down the drain.
I walked to the calendar.
I looked at the date of the "Moon Pool Ritual." The day Seraphina would desecrate the holy waters.
I took the red marker and drew a massive X over the date.
It wasn't just canceling a date. It was canceling a future.
I checked the countdown.
Five days until they returned.
Eight days until I left.
I sat on the sofa in the empty, silent apartment. I felt a strange sensation.
It wasn't sadness. It wasn't anger.
It was lightness.
Without the weight of hope, I was finally free.
