The healer's ward was silent at midnight. Maren had left hours ago, after checking my vitals one last time and pressing a warm compress into my hands with a look that said everything her mouth couldn't. The packhouse beyond the medical wing had settled into its usual rhythms—patrols changing shift, the distant murmur of late-night conversations in the common areas, the creak of old wood.
I lay in the narrow bed, staring at the ceiling.
My body ached. Bruises bloomed across my ribs and shoulders in shades of purple and yellow. My head throbbed where it had struck the stairs. But none of that mattered.
The emptiness inside me was louder than any physical pain.
I pressed my thumb against the inside of my wrist. The pressure was sharp. Grounding.
And then I did something I hadn't done in three years.
I opened the mind-link I'd closed the day I chose Tristan over my birthright.
The channel activated like a door I'd left unlocked, waiting. I reached through it, tentative at first, then stronger.
*Grandfather.*
The response came within seconds.
*Alina.*
His voice in my mind was exactly as I remembered—measured, deep, carrying the weight of a man who had ruled longer than most wolves lived. But beneath the authority was something else. Relief. Grief. A patience that had stretched across years.
*I'm listening,* he said quietly.
I closed my eyes.
*I want to come home.*
Silence. Not the silence of hesitation, but the silence of a man who had been waiting so long to hear those words that he needed a moment to steady himself.
*Tell me what you need,* he said finally.
I told him. Not everything—not the miscarriage, not the stairs, not the way Tristan had looked at Giselle instead of me. Just the essentials. I needed extraction. I needed it quiet. I needed to leave without Silverfang knowing until I was already gone.
*How soon?* he asked.
*Days,* I said. *Not weeks. I can't stay here much longer.*
Another pause.
*Crownveil loyalists will be at the border before dawn,* he said. *I'll arrange a decoy crossing. When you're ready, they'll be waiting.*
*Thank you,* I whispered.
*Alina.* His voice softened, just slightly. *You were always meant to come home. I'm sorry it took this long.*
I didn't answer. I couldn't.
I closed the link and lay in the dark, listening to my own breathing.
The decision was made.
Now I just had to survive long enough to leave.
The next morning, I rose before dawn. My body protested every movement, but I ignored it. I dressed in my usual Luna attire—tailored slacks, a silk blouse, my Crownveil crest pinned at my collar where it had always been, hidden in plain sight.
I went downstairs.
The packhouse was stirring. Omegas were preparing breakfast. Warriors gathered for the morning briefing. I moved through them with the same calm composure I always wore, answering questions, confirming schedules, reviewing the supply contracts that needed my signature.
No one asked about the bruises.
No one mentioned the stairs.
It was as though the entire pack had collectively decided that if they didn't acknowledge it, it hadn't happened.
I spent the morning in my office—the small, efficient room off the main hall where I'd managed Silverfang's alliances for three years. I opened the bottom drawer of my desk and removed a single file folder. Inside were documents I'd kept separate from the pack's official records: copies of treaties I'd negotiated, correspondence with allied Alphas, notes on territorial disputes I'd quietly resolved.
Evidence.
I slipped the folder into my diplomatic bag and moved on to the next drawer.
Over the next three days, I dismantled my presence in the packhouse one piece at a time. A drawer of personal correspondence. A box of books from my shelves. The spare set of formal Luna attire I kept in the office closet. I packed everything into shipment crates labeled as diplomatic materials bound for allied territories—a routine I'd established years ago, so no one questioned it now.
I worked methodically. Quietly.
And I watched.
Giselle had grown bolder.
She no longer bothered with the pretense of restraint. She issued orders to the Omega staff openly now, her voice carrying the expectation of obedience. She rearranged the sitting room furniture. She requested specific meals. She walked through the packhouse as though she already wore the Luna crest.
And then the photos started circulating.
I first heard about them from a visiting Beta—an ally from the eastern territories who pulled me aside after a morning meeting, his expression uncomfortable.
"Luna," he said quietly. "I thought you should know. There are images circulating. Of the Alpha. And... someone else."
I kept my face neutral. "What kind of images?"
He hesitated. "Intimate ones. And stories. About the bond between them. About you."
I nodded slowly. "Thank you for telling me."
He looked like he wanted to say more, but I turned and walked away before he could.
By midday, the whispers had spread through the packhouse. I caught fragments as I passed—murmured conversations that stopped when I entered a room, glances exchanged behind my back, the kind of carefully neutral expressions that pack members wore when they were trying very hard not to take sides.
Giselle had leaked everything. The affair. The timeline. Fabricated details about how cold I'd been, how distant, how I'd driven Tristan into another woman's arms.
She was rewriting the narrative.
And Tristan—Tristan did nothing.
I saw him twice that day. Once in the main hall, reviewing patrol reports with Rolf. Once in the Alpha's office, door half-open, Giselle perched on the edge of his desk while he worked.
He didn't look at me either time.
That night, I sat alone in the guest room I'd claimed as my own and opened my diplomatic correspondence. There were messages from allied Alphas—carefully worded inquiries about the rumors, offers of support that were really requests for clarification, a few blunt questions about whether Silverfang's alliances were still stable.
I answered each one with the same measured professionalism I always used.
And then I drafted one final message.
It was addressed to no one. It had no recipient line, no formal greeting.
It was a rejection letter.
I wrote it in the traditional format, every word precise and legally binding.
*I, Alina Crownveil, Luna of the Silverfang Pack, reject you, Tristan of Silverfang, as my mate.*
I stared at the words for a long time.
Then I signed it.
I folded the letter carefully and placed it in an envelope. I set it on the desk beside my Luna crest—the silver pendant I'd worn for three years, the one that marked me as Tristan's mate and Silverfang's Luna.
I would leave them both on his desk the night I disappeared.
Outside, the moon rose over the packhouse, cold and distant.
Inside, I pressed my thumb against my wrist and waited for dawn.
