I shook off his hand and walked toward my den chamber like a dead woman walking.

He didn't follow. Behind me, I heard Corvina coaxing him: "Theron, go check on her, please. I'd hate for her to be upset because of me."

"Let her cool down. She loves me too much to stay angry. She'll come around."

Each word landed like a stone. Every step I took felt like dragging my feet through wet concrete. My wolf, who had been clawing at the edges of my ribs since I'd walked in on them, went eerily still. Not calm. The kind of still that comes before something breaks.

And the last five years with Theron began replaying in my mind, scene by scene, like a film I couldn't pause.

I'd met him seven years ago.

His pack had just been established, barely more than a handful of wolves holding contested territory. I hid the fact that I was the sole surviving heir of the Silvercrest bloodline and quietly funneled every alliance, every resource, every territorial connection my family had into building him up. From an Alpha with nothing to his name to one of the most powerful pack leaders in the region.

After we were mated, he treated me like I was the center of his universe.

When I got sick, he sat at my bedside and refused to leave, his wolf pressed against mine through the bond like a warm hand holding me steady.

When I was hungry, he cooked for me himself, making the oatmeal I loved, the kind that was easy on my stomach.

Every time we went out, he held my hand and never let go.

Every Moon Blessing Day, every anniversary, he showed up on time with a gift and a smile.

Then Corvina moved in, and everything changed.

She was his blood-brother's widow. That was the reason. She had no pack, no one else, so he brought her into our territory.

At first it was just small courtesies. Checking in on her. Making sure she was comfortable in the guest quarters. Then came the late-night summons. Her legs were swollen. Her feet were numb. She needed him. Again and again, she pulled him out of our bed in the middle of the night, her Omega distress pheromones threading through the halls like smoke under a door.

On our mating anniversary, he left me sitting alone at the feast hall and rushed to the Healing Hall to sit with her through a prenatal examination.

I got jealous. Of course I did. But every time, Theron would take my hands and say with absolute conviction: "Her mate saved my life once. His widow and his pup, how can I just abandon them? Seraphina, you're the kindest wolf I know. You understand, don't you?"

Because I loved him, I trusted him. I trusted us. I trusted what we'd built.

Until I saw him in bed with her.

Then I knew exactly how wrong I'd been.

If he wanted to warm another woman's body, he could have her. I was done.

When morning came, I wiped the dried tears from my face and made two calls on the communicator.

The first was to the Healing Hall. "I need to schedule a procedure. As soon as possible."

The second was to my mother. "Mom, Theron cheated on me. I'm dissolving the bond and coming home. Father's been wanting to hand the pack leadership over to me, right? I'll be there soon."

Lady Elara's voice didn't waver. "I told you from the start. You two come from different bloodlines. Mating with him was never going to end well. Come home. As for the pup, if you want to keep it, keep it. The Silvercrest line could use an heir."

I hung up and tore the writ in my hands clean in half.

Fifty billion gold moons. My father had transferred it to me. It was supposed to fund Theron's territorial expansion into the northern borderlands.

He would never see a single moon of it now.

I dug out our mating contract and was about to call the Pack Council's bond-dissolution office when my communicator buzzed twice. A message appeared in the spirit network group that Theron's inner circle had created to welcome me into their fold years ago.

Congrats, sister! The big day's finally here!

Congrats, congrats! It's been a long road! We're heading to the Healing Hall right now to celebrate with you and Theron.

I frowned, about to ask if they'd sent this to the wrong thread, when a third message appeared.

You idiot, wrong group! This is the FIRST mate's group. The little Luna is in the other one! Delete it, quick!

All three messages vanished in seconds.

My fingers tightened around the communicator until my knuckles went white.

A dull ache spread through my chest. Then a sharper one twisted low in my belly, and somewhere beneath my ribs my wolf stirred, pressing outward against my skin with a slow, grinding pressure, like something trying to surface through stone.

It had never occurred to me that there was another group. A second one. One I wasn't in.

Every time Theron's pack brothers saw me, they smiled and called me their Alpha's mate. Warm. Respectful. Familiar. They lowered their gazes in deference. They tilted their heads when they greeted me.

And the whole time, behind my back, they'd already given Corvina a title of her own.

How ironic.

I yanked the bedroom door open and stormed out. The moment I reached the main hall of the den, one of the house wolves hurried over, her head lowered, eyes averted. "Luna Ironmaw, you're awake! The second Luna went into labor suddenly. Alpha Ironmaw took her to the Healing Hall!"

I stopped dead. My wolf, who had been coiled tight and restless beneath my ribs since the moment I'd seen that group chat, went utterly still.

"'Second Luna'?" The words came out quiet. Dangerously quiet. "Who told you to call her that?"

I grabbed the ceremonial stone vase beside me and hurled it to the floor. It shattered across the slate, fragments spinning into the walls. The sound cracked through the den like a bone breaking. My chest heaved. The house wolf flinched so hard she nearly dropped to her knees, her wolf's submission rolling off her in waves.

"It was Ms. Thornveil's instructions," she whispered, throat bared. "She said Alpha Ironmaw agreed that she's also the lady of the den. You're the first Luna, and she's the second..."

She was still talking when I snatched my keys and drove to the Healing Hall.

By the time I arrived, Corvina had already delivered.

The scent hit me before I reached the room. Scorched iron and dry cedar bark, Theron's scent, threaded so tightly with that cloying honeysuckle-and-vanilla sweetness that they'd become almost indistinguishable. My stomach turned. My wolf pressed against the inside of my chest, not growling, not whimpering. Just pressing. Like she was trying to brace me for what came next.

The room was packed. Nearly all of Theron's inner circle had crowded inside, laughing and talking over each other like it was a celebration. Their combined scents filled the corridor, warm and boisterous, the smell of pack wolves at ease. As if this were a bonding ceremony. As if this were something to honor.

"Theron, does your mate even know Corvina's had the pup?"

"Don't bring her up." Theron was leaning over the bassinet, teasing the sleeping newborn with one finger. The pup smelled of milk and new wool and a faint trace of pine, clean and innocent and entirely unaware of the wreckage his arrival had caused. A soft, doting smile tugged at the corner of Theron's mouth. "This pup's gorgeous."

"Seriously, Theron. If you look closely, he even looks a little like you!"

"Keep it down. If Seraphina hears that kind of talk, she'll overthink everything."

Corvina lay propped against the Healing Hall pillows, her makeup still flawless, not a strand of hair out of place. She didn't look like a she-wolf who'd just labored through a birth. The honeysuckle scent was thicker here, almost suffocating, layered so heavily it made the air feel syrupy. "Overthink what? Whether she agrees or not, I'm keeping my promise. This pup will carry the Ironmaw name and be added to the pack bloodline registry."

"But you'd have to sever the mate bond with Seraphina first. That doesn't feel right..."

"It's not a big deal. Once the pup's registered under my name, I'll sever the bond with Corvina and re-bond with Seraphina. Simple. If she won't agree, I'll just do it without her knowing."

Corvina sniffled, dabbing at the corner of her eye with practiced delicacy. "Seraphina is so kindhearted. She'll say yes. I'd be so grateful to her. Honestly, however long I get to carry the Luna title, even just on paper, I'd be more than happy."

"Relax. You all know how devoted she is to Theron. Remember when she went to that alliance summit and sang for those visiting Alphas just so Theron could secure the territory pact?"

"And that time Theron was brought to the Healing Hall for a gut infection? She thought it was something serious. Got on her knees and begged the moon-healer, then knelt outside the healing chamber for hours until the treatment was over. She's bound to him body and soul. She'd never leave. A little thing like this is nothing compared to losing Theron."

"Exactly what I was thinking."

Theron's lips curved. He pulled Corvina closer against him, his arm tightening around her shoulders. His Alpha aura settled over the room, warm and satisfied, the aura of a wolf who believed he owned everything in it. "No matter what it takes, I'll give Corvina and this pup a home."

I stood in the doorway and watched the man I'd loved for seven years hold another woman in his arms.

My fingers curled at my sides until my nails bit into my palms.

Something deep inside me made a sound. Not my voice. My wolf. A low, thin keening that vibrated through my bones and never reached the air, the kind of sound a wolf makes when it finally understands that the bond it has been pouring itself into has been hollow for a long, long time. I felt it in my sternum, in the backs of my teeth, in the place behind my ribs where the mate bond lived. The bond that should have been a golden thread between us. It had been fraying for years, I realized. I just hadn't wanted to look at it. And now, standing in that doorway with the scent of scorched iron and honeysuckle filling my lungs like poison, I could feel every remaining thread pulling taut, ready to snap.

He had it all figured out. He'd been planning to give Corvina a home all along.

Well then. Who was I to stand in his way?

I stepped into the doorway and spoke quietly. "A boy? Congratulations."

The moment I appeared, every face in the room went white. The laughter died. The warmth in the air curdled. I could smell the shift, the sharp spike of unease cutting through the easy camaraderie like a blade through cloth. Every wolf in that room felt it: the Luna had heard everything.

Theron released Corvina instantly and crossed the room in three quick strides. His scent shifted, the acrid edge buried beneath something deliberately softened, the way an Alpha smooths his aura when he's trying to manage a situation. His voice turned gentle, almost tender. "What are you doing here? You're carrying a pup. You should be resting at the den."

"I heard everything you just said."

I looked up at him. My wolf was silent now. Perfectly, terribly silent, the way a forest goes silent before a storm breaks. I held his gaze and did not lower mine.

"You want to sever our mate bond so you can register Corvina's pup under the Ironmaw bloodline."

"Seraphina, I just feel sorry for her. You know she has no pack. I'm only doing this because she was Fenris's mate. He was like a blood-brother to me. He saved my life..."

He scrambled to explain, the words tumbling out with that practiced urgency I'd heard a hundred times before, the voice he used when he needed me to be understanding, to be patient, to be the good mate who swallowed her pain so he could have what he wanted. I cut him off, my expression blank. "I agree. Let's sever the bond."

"Really?"

His eyes lit up. He hadn't expected me to say yes that easily.

And there it was. The truth of it, laid bare in the fraction of a second before he remembered to rearrange his face. Not relief that I understood. Not guilt. Not even surprise, not really. Joy. Pure, uncomplicated joy, bright as a flame in his eyes, there and gone in a heartbeat. The joy of a wolf who had just been handed exactly what he wanted without having to fight for it.

My wolf did not keen again. She did not howl, did not snarl, did not throw herself against the cage of my ribs. She simply lay down. Quietly. The way a wolf lies down when it has decided that something is dead and there is no longer any reason to stand guard over the body.

I held his gaze and felt nothing at all.

His friends all wore expressions that said they'd seen this coming a mile away.

"Really."

I nodded. "Have the dissolution documents drawn up and signed for me. Theron, the pack you lead now is one we built together. If we're severing the bond, I'm taking half the territory. That's fair, isn't it?"

"More than fair. Take all of it if you want. It's just a formality anyway!"

He shot his packmates a cocky look, and the whole group burst into applause and low howls of approval.

"Theron, you absolute legend! Living the dream with a she-wolf on each arm. Can't even be jealous!"

My eyes were ice. He didn't notice.

Something deep in my chest stirred, a cold, quiet thing. My wolf, who had been silent for so long, pressed against the inside of my ribs. Not in grief. In focus.

Corvina said she was hungry. She wanted some bone broth.

Theron rounded up his packmates and left immediately to get it for her. On his way out, he turned back to me. "Sera, are you hungry? Want me to grab you something?"

"I'm fine. Don't bother."

"Then take good care of Corvina for me, will you? She said her chest is sore from the milk coming in..."

The door clicked shut. Just the two of us now.

The room changed the instant they left. The air thinned. Corvina's scent, that honeysuckle and warm vanilla layered over something cloying and faintly chemical, spread without restraint, no longer tempered by the performance she put on for Theron. It was the scent of a she-wolf who had stopped pretending.

She turned to me with a look that was pure provocation.

"Well, well. I have to say, I'm impressed. Your mate is bedding another wolf, talking about dissolving your bond to register someone else's pup under his bloodline, and you don't even flinch? That's some next-level doormat energy."

I watched her in silence.

Her lips curled. One by one, she undid the ties of her healing gown.

"You know what the difference between us is, Seraphina?"

The figure she revealed made my brow tighten.

"Your body? Let's see how long that lasts after you're done nursing."

"Oh, I won't be nursing. You think these are natural? Why would I ruin them? You know what Theron told me?" She tilted her chin up. "He said you're boring. No fun at all. And your body doesn't compare to mine. I'm an E cup, sweetheart."

So even her chest was fake.

Theron really had no standards.

"Are you done?"

"Not even close. I'm telling you to get lost. Stop standing between us, or I'll make your life a living hell. My mate is dead. I need a new one, and Theron is the Alpha I picked. I'm never letting him go—"

Before she could finish, my hand was already in the air.

The slap cracked across her face.

The sound rang through the Healing Hall room like a thunderclap. Sharp. Clean. Final. My wolf surged to the surface so fast my vision flickered gold at the edges, and for one heartbeat the room smelled like ozone before lightning, cutting straight through the cloying sweetness of Corvina's manufactured scent.

"You hit me?!" She froze, one hand flying to her cheek. She lunged to hit me back, but I caught her arm and swung again.

"You—"

"Yeah, I hit you." My voice was steady. Low. The kind of steady that five years of silence had forged into something harder than iron. "That first one was for being shameless enough to seduce another she-wolf's mate."

A second slap landed clean. The crack echoed off the stone walls, and I felt my wolf settle into my spine like a blade sliding into its sheath. Not raging. Not desperate. Present. For the first time in years, fully and completely present.

"That one's for climbing into a bonded Alpha's bed when your own mate hasn't been dead five moon cycles and you were carrying his pup to term."

Then a third. I put the weight of my bloodline behind it. Not the meek, muted Omega who had swallowed wolfsbane tinctures to keep her scent small and her wolf quiet. The daughter of the Silvercrest line. The Alpha-blooded Omega whose wolf had been caged so long it had forgotten the shape of its own teeth.

"And that's for destroying a pack bond and not feeling an ounce of remorse."

Three slaps. She stood there, stunned stupid.

The red marks bloomed across her cheek like brands. My hand didn't shake. My breathing didn't waver. My wolf sat behind my ribs, calm and watchful, and for one crystalline moment I understood what it felt like to stop being afraid.

Then she screamed, clawing her way off the bed. "Seraphina, I'll kill you!"

She shoved me hard. I hit the ground, and a sharp pain shot through my lower abdomen. Dread flooded through me instantly. Cold, immediate, animal dread that had nothing to do with Corvina and everything to do with the life I was carrying. I gritted my teeth and dragged myself up, bracing against the wall to stay on my feet. My wolf whimpered, curling inward, pressing protectively toward the place where the pain bloomed.

She swung at me, her palm connecting with my face. "You hit me? You think I'm someone you can push around? Those three slaps? I'm paying them back double!"

She raised her hand for a second strike, but footsteps echoed in the hallway outside.

Her arm froze mid-swing.

The shift was instantaneous. So fast it would have been impressive if it weren't sickening.

In one fluid motion, she snatched the pup from the bassinet, dropped him onto the floor from a low height, then threw herself down beside him, curling over the infant and wailing as if the world were ending.

The pup's screams tangled with hers, filling the room. The tiny thing reeked of milk and new wool and a faint ghost of pine, Fenris Greyfang's blood crying out from a body too small to understand what had just happened to it.

I stood there clutching my stomach, my body locked in place. I couldn't process what I'd just witnessed.

Corvina had hurt her own pup.

He'd just been born, and she'd thrown him on the ground without a second thought. No wolf, no matter how broken, no matter how far fallen, did that. Even rogues guarded their young. Even the mad ones. The instinct was older than language, older than pack law, older than the Moon Goddess herself.

And Corvina had snuffed it out like a candle flame between her fingers, because footsteps were coming and she needed a story to tell.