Brianna’s POV
I had made my choice.
And this time, it was final.
No amount of growled commands, no wounded Alpha pride, and no haunted glint in his golden eyes could make me stay.
The bond, once warm and silken like moonlight through the trees, was now cold steel, broken at the center
I turned slowly, letting my gaze locked with his one last time.
There was a flicker there, something feral and aching, but I didn’t let it sway me.
“Til pass…”
Η
I said clearly.
“Except the first part.”
Then I turned away.
My boots echoed on the cold marble, each step ringing like a countdown. Behind me, the silence stretched until it snapped.
His voice cracked through it, raw and commanding, edged in pain and fury.
“I gave you a chance, Brianna. You throw it away, don’t expect me to open that door when you come crawling back!”
I didn’t stop.
Not when the weight of his words fell like stones.
Not when my wolf stirred beneath my skin, clawing in confusion, because it still remembered him, still recognized the scent, the voice, the pull.
But me?
I was done.
I reached the front gates, black iron laced with ancient protective runes that shimmered faintly under the moonlight. I took one long breath and stepped over the boundary line.
There was a physical snap it was subtle but sharp,
like a thread tearing free from the soul.
The moment I crossed it, the house, the territory, the pack… all faded behind me.
The Shadow Walker Pack and the Nightshade Estate were no longer my home.
I flagged down a passing cab, ignoring the stares of the human driver when he saw the single suitcase and the bruises I didn’t bother hiding. I slid into the back seat, my voice low but steady.
“Hartsfield Airport, please.”
The cab pulled away from the curb, and I didn’t look back.
I stared out the window as the woods blurred by, silent sentinels that had once whispered to my
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wolf-
trees we used to run through at dusk,
streams where I taught Lucas how to sense prey,
places I had bled and healed and learned to survive.
And still, I didn’t look back.
My fingers drifted down to my wrist, brushing against a worn, woven bracelet – my mother’s.
A charm crafted under a harvest moon, strung with strands of her fur and a single polished
moonstone.
I’d worn it for protection as a child.
Now, it was all I had left of her.
Of family.
Of a life, I never really got to live.
A lump formed in my throat, but I didn’t cry. I couldn’t.
Not when I was finally free.
And somewhere deep inside me, beneath the years of submission and sacrifice, my wolf stirred.
Tentative.
Weak.
But alive.
I am finally free….
Marcus’s POV
Back in the Shadow Walker Packhouse, the stillness was suffocating.
Marcus stood by the massive front window, his hands braced on the cold stone sill, his sharp amber eyes fixed on the road. He was watching. He was waiting.
She didn’t look back. Not once.
The moment she stepped beyond the pack’s boundary, a sharp, jagged pain ripped him.
It was like the last of their bond, once so strong and vibrant, had splintered into shards of glass cutting him from the inside out.
He could feel it in his wolf, too – an ache that went deeper than the flesh.
The fire in the hearth dimmed.
The shadows in the room stretched long and eerie, as though they were pulling away from him.
The air around him chilled despite the heat from the flames licking the stone hearth.
The Alpha in him bristled, restless, and unsettled. He wanted to chase after her, demand that she return, but there was a part of him something raw and primal that knew she was gone.
for good.
Ava noticed the shift instantly.
– –
With the grace of someone well–acquainted with manipulation, she glided to his side, her arm curling around his like a silk vine.
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“Alpha Marcus,”
she murmured sweetly, her voice thick with false sympathy.
“Don’t be upset. She made her choice. Let her go. You and Jayden deserve peace. I’ll make sure you have it.”
Her words were a carefully crafted comfort, laced with the promise of something she didn’t understand. She pressed closer, then bent slightly, reaching down to ruffle Lucas’s hair, the smile on her lips too rehearsed.
“Lucas, how about this? Aunt Ava will buy you all your favorite toys and candy. We’ll even go to the city tomorrow. Would you like that?”
Lucas’s face lit up, his joy infectious.
“Really?! I knew you were the best! Can you be my mommy now? You’re way nicer!”
Alpha Marcus’s jaw tightened at the sound of the boy’s words.
Children were simple. They didn’t understand the difference between love and indulgence. They only knew who said “Yes.”
Brianna had always been the one to say “No.”
No more toys until training was finished.
No candy after dark. No ignoring pack rules or disrespecting elders. No exceptions.
–
She was firm, and strict when necessary everything a true Luna should have been.
But Lucas didn’t understand that. He didn’t see the responsibility in her strictness, the way she shaped him into someone who could lead, someone who could hold his own as a future Alpha.
All he saw was someone who said “No” too many times.
Someone who the pack whispered about behind her back someone different.
Ava, on the other hand, gave him everything. No limits, no boundaries. Just endless indulgence. And now, with Brianna gone, there was no one left to say no.
That made Ava a goddess in the boy’s eyes
without question.
someone who could give him whatever he wanted
Lucas bounced on his heels, tugging at Marcu’s hand, his voice full of excitement.
“Isn’t this great? Now we can be with Aunt Ava forever. I’m gonna be the happiest kid in the
world!”
Marcus didn’t answer.
He should’ve felt lighter.
Relieved, even.
Free from the pressure of his responsibilities.
Instead, his chest was heavy, suffocating under the weight of silence that seemed to fill every
corner of the room.
Brianna’s last glance calm, resolute, final replayed in his mind on an endless loop.
It wasn’t a look of regret.
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She didn’t beg.
She didn’t plead
She just walked away
Marcus’s claws extended as his hands curled into fists, and before he knew, the glass window shattered beneath the force of his blow–glass cracking like bones beneath s predator’s strike.
Chapter 6
