The world froze around me. Lose her again?

Callum’s words echoed in my mind, tearing at my sanity. My heart thundered in my chest as the air thickened, making it hard to breathe. I wanted to rush forward, to scream, to demand answers. But my body felt like stone, rooted to the spot. My wolf stirred inside me, howling in anger and confusion. What did he mean? How could he have lost her before? Was Riva more than just a passing fascination?

My hand trembled as I took a step forward, ready to confront him—ready to rip apart whatever fragile thread remained between us.

But then everything started spinning.

The world tilted violently, and I swayed, clutching at my stomach. A sharp, searing pain shot through me, doubling me over as my vision blurred. The voices of the festival, once so vibrant, became muffled, distant echoes. I could barely make out Callum’s voice calling my name, but it sounded so far away, so disconnected from the storm raging inside me.

My knees buckled, and before I could stop myself, I collapsed.

The ground rushed up to meet me, and then... nothing.

---

When I awoke, the scent of herbs and pine filled the air. My body felt weightless, as though I was floating in the aftermath of a nightmare. I blinked, trying to clear the fog in my mind. The soft crackle of a fire and the dim light of the healer’s quarters greeted me. The familiar scents of healing salves and dried herbs clung to the air, wrapping around me like a blanket.

I shifted, wincing at the soreness in my body. My head pounded, and my limbs felt heavy. For a moment, I thought I was dreaming—that everything I had seen and heard was just some twisted nightmare conjured by my doubts and fears. But the ache in my chest, the gnawing emptiness, told me otherwise.

“Luna... you’re awake.”

The soft voice pulled me from my thoughts. I turned my head and saw Eira, the pack’s healer, standing by the bed. Her eyes, normally warm and filled with hope, were now clouded with sorrow. She hesitated, her hands twisting together in front of her.

My mouth was dry, but I managed to rasp out a single question, my voice trembling. “The baby...?”

Her expression told me everything before she even spoke. My heart plummeted to a place I didn’t know existed, a pit of darkness so deep I wasn’t sure I’d ever crawl out.

“I’m so sorry,” Eira whispered, her voice thick with grief. “You lost the baby, Luna.”

Her words shattered me. It felt like the ground beneath me had disappeared, leaving me to free fall into an abyss of pain I couldn’t escape. I pressed a hand to my stomach, my chest heaving as a sob tore from my throat. The life I had been so desperate to hold onto, the hope I had clung to in the face of Callum’s betrayal—it was gone. Gone before I could even protect it.

“No...” My voice broke. “No, no, no...”

Tears blurred my vision as I curled in on myself, my hand resting over the now hollow place where my pup had been growing. I wanted to scream, to shift into my wolf and run until my legs gave out, until the pain inside me was nothing compared to the physical exhaustion. But I couldn’t move. I couldn’t do anything except drown in the overwhelming loss that swallowed me whole.

Eira knelt beside me, placing a gentle hand on my arm. “Your body went through too much stress, Luna. Your wolf did everything she could to protect you and the baby, but sometimes... sometimes even the Moon Goddess’s blessings can’t stop fate.”

The Moon Goddess. I had always believed in her plan for me—for Callum, for our pack, for the future we were supposed to build together. But now? Now, it felt like the Goddess had turned her back on me. What kind of fate was this? To lose my mate, to lose my child?

“Does Callum know?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.

Eira’s lips tightened. “No…”

Something inside me snapped at that. Callum—the mate who had looked at another she-wolf with softness and love while I had carried his child, while I had planned our future—didn’t know, he didn’t care.

A growl built in my throat, low and dangerous. My wolf stirred, itching to be let out, to confront him, to make him pay for the agony he had put me through. But there was a part of me, the human part, that was too broken, too exhausted to face him. Not now. Not yet.

“I don’t want to see him,” I murmured, wiping the tears from my face. “Not now.”

Eira hesitated. “Luna... he’s your mate. He deserves to know—”

“I said no!” I snapped, my voice sharper than I intended. I clenched my fists, forcing myself to calm down. “I can’t... I can’t face him right now, Eira.”

The healer nodded, her face etched with sympathy. “I understand.”

As she left the room, I lay back down, staring at the ceiling. The emptiness inside me was suffocating, but it wasn’t just from losing the baby. It was from the realization that my bond with Callum was fractured beyond repair.

I had lost more than a child that night. I had lost everything that had once made me whole.

And now, all that was left was a hollow shell of what I used to be.

The days after I lost the baby were a blur. Time didn’t seem to move the way it used to. Each hour bled into the next, with nothing but the suffocating weight of grief and betrayal to fill the silence. Callum was nowhere to be found when I needed him most. Not in the healer’s quarters, not at my side during my darkest moment. He hadn’t even noticed my absence at the festival or the pain that had knocked me off my feet.

And that was when it hit me—the stark, undeniable truth. He didn’t care. Not about the baby. Not about me. Whatever bond we’d once had, whatever love I thought we shared, it had withered away. In its place was something broken, something shattered beyond repair.

The whispers started soon after I left the healer’s care. The pack members weren’t unkind, but they weren’t blind either. They saw the way Callum spent his time with Riva, training her, talking to her, their heads bent together as if they shared secrets. It didn’t take long for the rumors to swirl. Alpha Callum and the new warrior. The strong, beautiful, fierce she-wolf who seemed to fill the space I had once occupied.

I withdrew further, retreating to the quiet of my chambers, far from the pack and their judgmental eyes. My duties as Luna—leading the females, overseeing pack matters, standing at Callum’s side—fell by the wayside. I couldn’t bring myself to care. What was the point of being Luna when my mate had already chosen someone else to stand beside him?

Each day, I felt the pack's attention shift from me to her. Riva was everywhere—on patrols, leading training sessions, laughing with the other warriors. And Callum? He was right there with her, his presence constant and unyielding. They moved together like they had known each other for years, like she had been the one meant for him all along.

I tried to ignore it, tried to convince myself that maybe I was reading too much into it. But every time I saw them together, the knife in my heart twisted deeper. My wolf whimpered inside me, confused and hurt. She didn’t understand why our mate was pulling away, why he was looking at another female like she was his future.

The final straw came one evening, just as the sun was setting behind the mountains. I had been walking through the woods, desperate for some fresh air, when I saw them. Callum and Riva were sparring, their bodies moving in perfect sync, every step and strike flowing effortlessly between them. It wasn’t the fight that hurt—it was the way they smiled at each other afterward. The way Callum’s hand lingered on her arm, his eyes soft and full of something I hadn’t seen in him in months.

Love.

That was the moment I knew. The bond between us was broken, and he wasn’t going to fight for it. He had already replaced me, whether he realized it or not.

I turned away before they could see me and made my way back to the pack house, my mind racing. I couldn’t stay here anymore. The pain was too much. The constant reminder that I had lost not only my child but my mate as well was unbearable. I needed to leave.

I stumbled into my room, my hands shaking as I packed a small bag with whatever I could carry. The tears that had been building for weeks finally spilled over, blurring my vision. I didn’t bother wiping them away. What was the point? There was no one left to comfort me, no one who cared.

My hand trembled as I wrote the note, the words stark and final:

Our bond is broken. I’m leaving the Frost Mountain Pack.

I hesitated for a moment, staring at the words on the paper. I had dreamed of a future with Callum—a future where we would lead the pack together, where we would raise a family, where our love would withstand any challenge. But those dreams were gone now, crushed under the weight of his indifference and betrayal.

With a deep breath, I left the note on the bed. I didn’t look back as I closed the door behind me. I couldn’t. If I stayed any longer, I’d crumble.

The air outside was cold, biting at my skin as I stepped into the night. My wolf whined, restless and uncertain, but I silenced her with a firm thought. We couldn’t stay. Not anymore.

The bond between Callum and me had been severed. He didn’t even need to say it. His actions had spoken louder than any words ever could.

I was no longer his mate. I was no longer his Luna. I was nothing.

And maybe that was what hurt the most.