Chapter 1
Selene’s POV
The scroll was still warm when I took it into my hands, the wax seal of the Council glinting under the faint morning light.
“Miss Hartwell,” Elder Lee said, bowing his head with deference, “the mate–severance scroll has been delivered to Alpha Blake’s estate. The seal is intact.
It’s ready.”
I tightened my grip, feeling the stiff parchment bite into my trembling fingers.
“Thank you, Elder Lee,” I murmured, forcing steadiness into my voice.
“That’ll be all.”
He bowed once more and disappeared into the woods, leaving me standing alone on the threshold of the Blake manor–the gilded cage that had trapped
me for the past three years.
The mark on my neck pulsed faintly under my scarf, the last echo of a bond that once felt sacred. Now it only felt heavy, suffocating, cruel.
Inside me, my wolf stirred uneasily.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Too sure,”
” I answered.
“Even if it breaks the pack laws?”
“The laws broke me first.”
I didn’t have time to argue with my own soul.
Not today.
I stepped back inside the manor, my boots echoing hollowly against the polished stone floors. Every surface gleamed, immaculate and cold, untouched by
warmth.
Just as I reached the main hall, the front door swung open.
His scent hit me first-
woodsmoke, leather, and that familiar spice of power.
My body tensed involuntarily, instinct trying to betray me, to pull me toward what it thought was safe.
But I stayed rooted to the spot.
Julian Blake stood there, tall and commanding, filling the doorway with his presence. His silver eyes softened when they met mine.
“Selene,” he said, his voice a blend of velvet and command. “I’m sorry. The Alpha Summit in Black Hollow dragged on longer than expected. I didn’t
mean to vanish on you.”
He stepped closer.
His hand, calloused and warm, reached out toward my stomach-
toward the place where a heartbeat used to dance beneath my skin.
“How’s the pup been treating his mother?” he asked.
His voice was tender.
Almost enough to make me scream.
“Julian,” I said, my tone flat.
He froze.
I never called him that.
It was always “Alpha” when I was angry, or “old wolf” when I teased him, or nothing at all when I wanted him most.
He didn’t move.
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Good.
Before he could say anything else, I withdrew the scroll from my coat and flipped to the last page, covering the text with my palm.
I held it out to him.
“You once promised that when our pup was born, you’d give me a gift,” I said.
“I’ve decided what I want.”
“Sign this for me.”
He frowned but didn’t question me.
Didn’t even glance at the parchment.
Without hesitation, he drew the ceremonial dagger from his belt, sliced a clean line across his palm, and pressed his bleeding hand to the scroll, sealing it by blood.
Blood for blood.
Bond for bond.
My stomach twisted painfully.
“You’re not even going to read it?” I whispered.
“For all you know, I could be naming myself Alpha and sending you into exile.”
He laughed-
a soft, rueful sound.
He cupped my cheek with his uninjured hand, the touch featherlight.
“If you did,” he said, “it’d be well–earned.
What’s mine is yours.
You and the pup… you’re everything to me.”
Everything:
The word tasted like ash.
“He lies so beautifully,” my wolf growled, low and bitter.
“Let him,” I replied, hollow inside. “It’ll be the last time.”
Before I could speak, his phone buzzed sharply between us.
He grimaced, silencing it quickly-
but not before I caught the name that flashed across the screen.
Claire Lancaster.
My chest went tight.
Breathless.
The same Claire who had returned to the territory just three months ago.
The same Claire whose scent he had carried back with him after every supposed business trip.
The same Claire he had left me for.
“Pack business,” he muttered, slipping the phone into his pocket. “I need to take this.”
Then, casually, like it meant nothing,
“You called me a lot while I was away. Was it something important?”
I stared at him.
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Seventy–eight times.
I had called him seventy–eight times while I bled out on the side of the road.
While our pup–our pup–slipped away inside me.
While the pain stole my breath and my strength and my soul.
And he had turned off his phone.
Because he didn’t want to miss a sunrise with her.
I swallowed down the scream that wanted to tear its way out of me.
“No,” I said, my voice steady, almost bored.
“It wasn’t important.”
He gave me a nod, turned away, and disappeared into the study.
Leaving me alone again.
Alone in a house built for memories that were never mine to keep.
I looked down at the scroll still clutched in my bloodstained fingers.
The severance was complete.
The bond was broken.
Inside me, my wolf whimpered once-
then fell silent.
“You still have a choice,” she whispered weakly.
“No,” I said. “I had a choice. And he made it for me.”
I turned my gaze to the closed study door.
Julian Blake, if you love her so much…
Then may the Moon Goddess bless you both.
Because you will never again feel my soul brushing yours.
Never again taste my scent in your lungs.
Never again hear my heart beat for you.
I stepped away from the door, my shoulders squaring against the weight of what I was leaving behind.
I was done.
This was the end of us.
And the beginning of me.
