Lucas voice tore through the stillness like claws taking flesh.
“Trying to get Dad and I to notice you like this? Do you think pretending to leave will make us be you to stay? Dream onl
His aura flared
The was young, but he was already laced with Alpha fury, his wolf shimmering just beneath the surface of his skin
“It you’ve got the guts, then leave for real. Don’t ever come back!”
The blade in his hand glinted under the moonlight filtering through the manor windows- nc longer just a kitchen knife, but a threat, backed by a boy too young to understand the savagery of his wolf’s anger.
The same woll Lonce cradled against my chest when nightmares took him.
I dodged
Barely
The blade missed my heart, but agony bloomed as it grazed my cheek. My breath hitched at the familiar sting of open flesh.
Blood spilled down my jaw, warm and steady, soaking my shirt and dripping onto the polished stone floor of the pack house.
Red
Rich
A she wolf’s blood – a bond once sacred, now desecrated.
Lucas froze. His wolf blinked behind amber eyes, panic overtaking rage.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you…” he stammered, voice breaking.
“I just wanted to scare you. I didn’t think… Are you okay?”
I didn’t answer.
I slapped him.
The sound cracked through the air like a whip in a training yard. His head snapped sideways, a bright red mark blooming on his pale cheek. He looked at me as if I were a stranger–like he didn’t recognize the woman who’d cooked his meals, healed his wounds, taught him to shift.
It was the first time I’d ever laid a hand on him.
And the last
Lucas’s face contorted.
He screamed – not with guilt, but with the entitled fury of a wolf who’d never been denied.
Footsteps thundered down the stairs.
“What the hell is going on?”
Alpha Marcus’s growl preceded him.
He stopped mid–step when he saw the blood dripping down my neck.
His eyes narrowed, nose twitching slightly – he scented it.
Not just the blood. But the pain. The betrayal.
The shifting tides of dominance and loyalty crack wide open.
“Did Lucas do this?”
Before I could answer, Lucas rushed forward and clung to his father’s waist.
“I didn’t mean to! I just wanted to scare her off, so she’d leave and not come back!”
Nick’s eyes flicked from me to the knife, and back again.
I braced for his judgment. His usual lecture. His disappointment – always reserved for me, never the boy.
But this time, something shifted.
“I’ll take you to the doctor,” he said, voice low.
“Don’t bother. I’ll stop at the border clinic before I leave the territory.”
I yanked my hand from his grasp.
“I left the divorce decree by your door. Sign it.”
His eyes widened.
A flicker of pain no, insult
flashed across his face.
“How long are you going to stay mad at me?”
I let out a breath that felt like smoke after a burn.
“I’m not angry, Alpha. I just want out.”
His jaw clenched.
“Why?”
I didn’t answer.
Because the truth would slice deeper than the knife Lucas held.
Because saying it wouldn’t undo the years of silence, the absence of touch, the ghost I’d been made to live as under Luna Kaela’s shadow.
He stared at me – a male finally realizing the she–wolf he’d taken for granted was leaving.
For real.
I picked up my suitcase.
‘Brianna, if you walk out that door, don’t bother coming back.”
I paused, hand on the iron latch of the Alpha’s gate.
His voice was sharp, dangerous, carrying the weight of an Alpha’s command.
But it no longer held power over me.
“If you stay…”
4:55 pm G
He added, softer now.
“Ava will help raise Lucas. She can take care of his needs
take care of his needs his meals, his moods, his education
You’ll just need to be… there. His mother. My Luna. In name, if nothing else.”
Of course.
It was never about love. Never about me.
Just the image.
The Nightshade wolves prided themselves on tradition.
Only one mating bond in a lifetime. Divorce wasn’t just rare it was a stain.
An unspoken disgrace.
To sever the tie meant dishonor to the bloodline, the Elders, and the entire pack.
But I was ready to be that stain.
I was done living as a ghost in Kaela’s memory. Done being a Luna in title only. A caretaker. A placeholder. A body to fill the space between silence and duty.
And Marcus knew it.
He may survive rogue attacks, border wars, and pack mutiny – but he would not survive the scandal of his Luna walking away.
Not without a fight.
And yet…
I didn’t look back.
Because I wasn’t his fight anymore.
