I held the Lunar tonic in my hand like a lifeline.

This… was something I had saved for over a year. I had bartered furs for it. Brewed herbs for the sick in nearby packs. Hunted alone in the deep woods when Alpha Lucas refused to send a warrior with me. This was mine, something I clawed at — with every shred of strength left in me before I could finally afford it.

A small vial of the lunar elixir—rare and sacred to she-wolves. Meant to heal the soul and restore strength during a full moon.

But I said nothing as Alpha Lucas snatched the vial from my trembling hands and gave it to Heidy without hesitation.

As always.

After becoming his mate, I was no longer allowed to run with my pack. No longer allowed to fight, to hunt, to train. Alpha Lucas claimed a true Luna stayed in the Pack House, not on the battlefield or anywhere else.

I hadn’t shifted in over five years.

As the daughter of a powerful Alpha—I had once been feared. Trained by warriors. Gifted with powerful bloodlines, blessed by the Moon Mother herself.

Now, I was nothing more than a ghost in my mate’s territory. A housebound Luna in name only.

My claws dulled. My wolf is silent.

Firewood, moon salt, meat, herbs, charcoal ink, healing salves, and even tea leaves were all costs Alpha Lucas expected me to manage with no coin of my own. Every money I asked for was accompanied by a scoff, a reminder that I was a burden. A leech.

I lived like this for twenty years.

Pleasing. Shrinking. Swallowing every insult like ash.

I didn’t want to go on like this.

I walked back to my room—the once beautiful room now dull and cold—and sat at the old wooden desk.

My fingers trembled over the computer keyboard as I typed, word by word, the severance document.

A Mate Bond Severance.

Tears burned down my cheeks, each dropping a silent howl of despair that no packmate would hear.

I didn’t even realize Alpha Lucas had returned until I heard the door creak open.

He entered with the grace of a man who knew he owned everything in his path.

His eyes landed on my tear-stained face, and he sighed, irritated.

“Crying again?” he said. “Claire, must you always be so dramatic? It’s just a damn supplement. Why does it matter so much to you? Or are you jealous of Heidy again?”

I stayed silent.

That angered him.

A low growl rumbled in Lucas’s chest, his irritation boiling over. He stalked toward me like a predator closing in on a wounded mate, then backhanded me across the face—sharp, deliberate, and thick with dominance. It wasn’t just a slap; it was a warning from a wolf who knew no mercy.

His hand grazed my cheek like he couldn’t be bothered to use his strength on me anymore.

“Look at yourself,” he sneered. “Fat. Bloated. You haven’t shifted in years. There’s no muscle left. So why waste rare and expensive tonics on you? Heidy earns 137,000 a year. You? You’ve earned nothing.”

My chest tightened.

I didn’t tell him I’d gained weight because I was overworked, or that I only ate what was left after everyone else had fed. I served the warriors, cleaned the pups, tended the sick, cooked the meals, and mended the tunics.

I didn’t tell him I wore the same wolf-hide cloak for ten winters.

Never bought myself armor.

Never ran under the full moon.

So this was what Alpha Lucas Barlowe meant by "seeking pleasure"?

He towered over me now, his Alpha dominance pushing down like a crushing fog.

“What are you doing?” he barked. “Come here.”

He expected me to help him undress. To kneel and pull his boots off like I always did.

For two decades, I obeyed.

But not tonight.

Tonight, I sat frozen, staring blankly ahead, my fingers clenched around the shard.

“Claire,” he growled, his voice lowering. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

I looked at him, and for the first time in years, I saw him clearly—not as the mate who once whispered false promises into my ear, but as the male who broke me piece by piece.

“When you were young,” he hissed, “you were so cute. Sweet. You used to smile and beg me to play with your hair. What are you doing now? You’re nothing but an old she-wolf. A useless Luna.”

I didn’t flinch when he grabbed my collar and yanked me to my feet.

But deep inside, my wolf stirred.

Just a twitch.

A flicker.

--

Years ago, under the blood moon, he said to me:

Marry me, Claire Wildfang. I will be the wolf who charges forward, and you will be the one who holds the Pack. We’ll rely on each other, be each other’s harbor in the storm. Hand in hand, we’ll run through life’s wild hunt.”

At the time, Lucas had just ended things with Heidy.

Was it love? Or just bitterness?

I was too young to tell the difference.

“You’re gentle. Strong. Smart. Loyal,” he said. “Heidy’s too wild. She doesn’t get me. But you, Claire… you’re everything I need.”

Years ago, I believed him.

I gave up on myself. I gave up my alpha father’s pack. Gave up freedom.

Twenty years of being the perfect Luna. The perfect mate. The perfect fool.

Now I saw it for what it was.

Alpha Lucas Barlowe mated with me with a clear plan — a calculated trap from the start. His sweet words were bait — honey layered over poison.

He needed someone who would support him while he and Heidy clawed their way up the ranks of the Council of Alphas.

He needed someone to carry the burden so he could chase his ambitions. A stepping stone. A housekeeper. A weak Luna who wouldn’t challenge him.

He needed someone to waste.

And I let him.

I was deep in thought when suddenly, my phone vibrated in my pocket, its glow slicing through the shadows. I hesitated.

How many moons had passed since anyone remembered I existed?

How long had I been forgotten — cast aside like a lone wolf past her prime?

It’s already been so long, that I don’t even remember anymore.

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and froze. A photo had been sent to me through the pack’s secure Airdrop network — a wedding photo.

It wasn't just any wedding, but Alpha Lucas and Heidy’s. There they stood, side by side under the blue moon, dressed in ceremonial wolf-hide robes embroidered with silver threads that shimmered like starlight — the sacred garb of fated wolfmates in our pack.

The air around them seemed to pulse with ancient lupine energy, the kind only alpha bonds could summon during moon-blessed unions.

Attached to the photo was a wedding invitation stamped with the blood-red wax seal of the Sharp Fang Pack’s High Council. The invitees were named: my son, my daughter-in-law, and the elder alpha Aric Barlowe.

But not me. Of course not me.

The wedding date was next Wednesday.

It wasn’t just any day. It was the same night Lucas and I had once marked for a joint border run and council negotiations — On the same date, the moon had claimed our firstborn pup, Stephanie, twenty years ago. The night she was lost to the curse that haunts our bloodline like a howling ghost.

Lucas was going to mate with Heidy beneath the blue moon — on the anniversary of our daughter’s death.

My hands trembled uncontrollably as I stared at the image glowing coldly on my screen.

Suddenly, the heavy wooden door creaked open and my son strode in, his footsteps sure and predatory, the gait of a young wolf ready to dominate. He clapped my shoulder with a wolf’s confidence.

“Mom, my mate’s friend is getting bonded next Wednesday. We’re all invited — even Grandpa. You should pick out some dresses in the next two days. It’s a high-rank pack bonding. You don’t want to shame the bloodline.”

I swallowed hard and nodded silently, dread pooling in my gut. My son’s words were a blade twisting deeper, right through my tether to the pack.

As he left, Alpha Lucas and I were left in a suffocating silence. I hesitated, then raised my eyes to his — searching for any flicker of the wolf I once loved.

“Next Wednesday… are you going on that border trip?” I asked quietly.

Lucas blinked, momentarily unmasked. Then he nodded.

Making the last shred of hope in me shatter like a bone under a fang.

That night, I tossed and turned, trapped beneath the weight of unshed tears and a gnawing ache in my chest. Lucas had always been too intolerant of my restlessness, shoved me aside, and retreated to his side of the bed, leaving me alone with my pain.

At dawn, my body betrayed me — my internal clock pulling me awake at exactly 4:30 a.m., as it had every moon rise since the day Stephanie’s heartbeat vanished from the pack bond. I used to sleep late, before the mating, before this cage.

Silently, I slipped out of the house, carrying a basket of fresh-picked roots and greens, the morning mist curling around me like a spectral pack.

Passing through the eastern clearing, I saw Elder Alpha Aric speaking with two elder wolves of the council. His voice carried over the cool air, proud and sharp like a claw unsheathed.

“My goddaughter is getting bonded next Wednesday,” he boasted, holding up a photo on his phone. It showed a sleek ceremonial wolf-hide dress, trimmed with glinting moonstones. “I didn’t sleep all night choosing it.”

One elder scoffed. “By the moon, since when do you have a goddaughter? What about your daughter-in-law, Claire? Haven’t seen her in moons.”

Elder Alpha Aric waved the comment away, venom dripping from his words. “Claire? Don’t speak her name. She was just the daughter of an Alpha of a crumbling pack— and barely that. My goddaughter is the Alpha’s secretary. Capable, loyal, and wise. She’ll be the one to care for me when I’m grey and toothless.”

I lowered my gaze and tried to slip away unnoticed.

Until...

“Elder Alpha, is that Claire?” one of the elders called out.

Aric looked at me, his eyes cold as a winter forest.

“Come here,” he snapped, beckoning like a predator eyeing weakened prey.

My face burned with shame as he barked orders, “I’m attending the bonding ceremony. This dress — eleven thousand silvers — you’ll transfer the funds. And don’t disgrace the bloodline. You’re fat and slow. I barely acknowledge you as the Luna of my pack.”

His hand snatched my phone, using Alpha Lucas’s secondary pack alpha card to pay for the dress before shoving me toward the market stalls.

“Move faster! Morning meals don’t cook themselves. Do you want to starve your Alpha? Useless, unfilial she-wolf.”

I staggered beneath the weight of his words, my shadow stretching thin across the dawn-lit stones, bloated and broken.

Back home, I prepared the morning meal with trembling hands. When my son and daughter-in-law finally descended, they barely touched their food, scowling with distaste.

“This slop isn’t fit for wolves!” My daughter-in-law spat, flinging her chopsticks aside like claws.

Alpha Lucas’s footsteps echoed down the stairs. He didn’t even glance at me as he swiped his pack alpha card. Slamming his phone down on the table, he growled, “You dumb, useless mutt spent eleven thousand silvers again? Always feed yourself and waste resources. Claire, do you even care about our status in the pack?”

I opened my mouth, my lips trembling, desperate to defend myself.

But just as I tried to speak, he cut me off. “I don’t want to hear your howling. I’m off to the High Council’s meeting,” he snapped, grabbing his coat and stalking out with a snarl.

I stood frozen, then slowly retreated upstairs, a prisoner in my own home.

Over the next days, I kept the whole house spotless and toiled like a she-wolf under punishment. Lucas barely acknowledged the change — using it as fuel to work harder, snapping less at me only when his tempers had already been spent at the office or during patrols.

The night before Alpha Lucas and Heidy’s mating ceremony, an eerie calm settled over the whole pach house, it was thick like the mist before a full moon rises. The air felt heavier as if something unseen was holding its breath, waiting for the shift of fate.

Lucas—normally cold like a battle-scarred wolf hardened by years of dominance—acted strangely gentle toward me, surprised me with rare gentleness — perhaps a pitiful scrap of guilt beneath his perfectly groomed exterior.

“You’ll be alone here tomorrow, you can't go with us,” he said in his usual cold voice, but softer now, as though throwing a bone to a wolf that had stopped snarling. “If you're bored, go shopping. I'll take care of all the expenses.”

I could hear the command behind the feigned concern — the tone of a man who no longer saw his mate as a woman or even a wolf, but as an obligation.

A fading scar on his reputation. A burden to be managed.

“Get some rest. We’ll rise before dawn.”

I remained silent and nodded, I curled into the farthest edge of our stone-carved bed, my back to him. My waist ached from the long day of chores, but it was my soul that throbbed like a raw wound, festering in silence.

I stared up at the high ceiling of the Alpha wing, watching the moonlight shift across the ancient carvings — ancestral wolves howling at twin moons.

I once dreamed of running beneath those moons, of becoming the Luna of an Alpha mate as strong as I.

But dreams had long since withered in this cold Pack House.

I didn’t want to live like this anymore. Not as a Luna in name, a slave in truth.

I was born to Alpha Marcus of the Wildfang Pack — feared across the northern ridges for his ruthless command and wisdom. I was his only daughter.

A pure-born wolf.

And yet…

Here I was—mated to a weak, ruthless Alpha of the Sharp Fang Pack, a male who had long forgotten I was his Luna. Every chance he got, he fed me nothing but cold disdain and subtle humiliation. I was the daughter of a powerful Alpha, born to be a Luna, not to be wasted in a pack that saw me as nothing more than a decoration… or worse—a failed bond.

At exactly three in the morning, Lucas shook me awake.

“Get up,” he ordered. “Help me prepare.”

He rarely woke early. He never asked for help unless he wanted to remind me of my place.

I said nothing as I helped him into his suit — deep charcoal, lined with silver thread meant to reflect the blue moonlight. A ceremonial pin adorned his lapel: the sigil of his bloodline — a wolf’s Fang in front of a wolf skull. It was the symbol of the Sharp Fang Pack, an ancient rival of my own.

When I left our room, the lower halls were already alive with murmurs and the clicking of heels. My son and daughter-in-law — both spoiled and slothful wolves who usually slept past noon — were up and dressed in silks and gold.

“Mother,” my son called out, handing me a list. “Pack our bags. We’re leaving early. And don’t forget the ceremonial silks.”

I bowed slightly, as trained, then slipped into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. My hands worked on instinct — slicing root vegetables, mixing wild garlic into the stew — while my mind drifted. My daughter-in-law’s loud voice cut through my thoughts.

“I won’t eat. I have to be ready to stand by Luna Heidy’s side.”

Luna Heidy…

The name and how she addressed my best friend, sent invisible chains tightening around my chest.

I bit down on my tongue. Heidy and I were the same age — both unmated when we were younger — yet now she stood at the threshold of power, and I was being erased.

“I won’t eat either,” my son added. “I’ll accompany my mate.”

Alpha Lucas approached with calculated indifference, his palm landing on my shoulder like a clawed weight. “Eat alone.”

I stared at the untouched plates of food. The breakfast I had prepared for four was now just for me.

The doorbell rang. I moved to open it.

Heidy stood there, dressed in a blood-red ceremonial robe — a cheongsam fitted to perfection, with the crest of the SharpFang Pack shimmering on her chest. Her lips were stained wine-dark, and her eyes gleamed with triumph.

Behind her, two Betas waited in an elegant SUV. The magic curling around it pulsed with authority.

My daughter-in-law rushed forward, gushing with false cheer.

“You’re so beautiful today, Luna Heidy!”

I sneered inwardly. That snake was no best friend of mine.

Heidy smiled demurely. “You look radiant too, Jasmine. But we mustn’t be late. I’m here to collect Alpha Lucas for his trip.”

They moved quickly, and the entire household was abuzz with final preparations. Just as Jasmine bent down to grab her bag, we all heard a sharp tear. The back of her dress ripped wide open, threads unraveling like cursed vines.

All heads turned. And then… every accusing gaze landed on me.

My son’s voice was sharp. “Mother, didn’t you prepare that dress? Didn’t you check it?”

My stomach dropped.

Yes, I had selected the ceremonial threads, and overseen the final fitting. But I hadn’t touched the gown since Jasmine tried it on. I stepped back, trying to explain.

“There must be a mistake. I stored it safely. I—”

Before I could finish, Alpha Lucas shoved me — hard.

“What did you do?! Jealous of the wedding, are you? You’ve sunk so low you’re sabotaging the new bond!”

I stumbled back, my spine slamming into the stone pillar. Pain cracked up my back like lightning. The world swam around me.

Neighbors began to gather outside the open door — wolves from other families, curious eyes glowing yellow and green in the hallway shadows.

“I didn’t do it,” I gasped, rage and shame mixing in my throat. “I would never—”

Alpha Lucas sneered down at me. “You dare deny it? You had one job. And now you’ve humiliated the whole pack!”

Heidy placed a gentle hand on Lucas’s arm, her voice sickeningly sweet. “Let it go, darling. She didn’t mean it. Maybe she’s just too old now… her hands don’t work like they used to.”

A knock came from the doorway.

A young shop attendant bowed deeply. “I-I’m terribly sorry! There was a mix-up. We accidentally delivered the defective dress— The stitching was faulty from our end. Please forgive us. It wasn’t her fault.”

I looked up from the floor, pain blooming in my chest.

Lucas didn’t apologize. He didn’t even look guilty.

Instead, he smirked.

“Didn’t you study design in college?” he said, his voice like a dagger dipped in poison. “Didn’t you use to craft dresses worthy of Luna courts? Now you can’t even tell when a seam is cursed. You’re pathetic.”

Heidy swept past me, linking arms with Alpha Lucas, with my husband. My daughter-in-law changed dresses swiftly and followed after them.

As the door slammed shut, I remained slumped against the stone floor.

Alone.

Outside, the Pack House, cars rolled away. Inside, the silence roared louder than a thousand howls.

I couldn’t move.

My coccyx throbbed. My pride bled.

I couldn’t get up, I couldn't move…

The house felt like a prison, the walls crowding in as I lay on the cold stone floor. All I could hear was my own heartbeat, the slow, steady pounding echoing like distant war drums across the territory. And the truth clawed its way through at last—I was nothing.

Just a broken she-wolf, cast out and forgotten by her own pack. The same pack my wolf once ruled with pride and strength.