“If you truly wanted a pup with Callista, you could have told me outright. I would have kept your secret from the Alpha and Luna.”  

       “Instead, you deceived me. You disguised suppression pills as fertility supplements and made me take them without my knowledge.”  

       “I can endure many things, but betrayal like this? I won’t forgive it.”  

       For five years, I had been Luna to Alpha Dashiell. At times, it felt like an illusion, a role we played for the Pack. We treated each other with polite detachment, yet there were fleeting moments when the bond between us seemed real.

       I remembered the nights he returned from Pack meetings, reeking of alcohol and exhaustion. He would collapse against me, his voice thick with longing.

       “Little Luna…” he would murmur, his breath warm against my skin.

       “Do you think we’re happy? I do.”  

       Then his arms would tighten around me, as if I was his anchor. I would try to get up and brew herbal tea to sober him, but he would pull me back.

       “Nothing clears my head better than having my mate beside me.”  

       “Just stay a little longer.”  

       At first, I had my doubts. Was he imagining another when he held me like that? But over time, I let those doubts fade. I let myself savor the warmth of his embrace, the steady cadence of his heartbeat. He would show small gestures of affection, fleeting but enough to keep me hoping. During grand Pack gatherings, he played the devoted mate to perfection, and for a time, even I was fooled.

       He would stand beside me in my parents’ den, his grip firm around my waist. “You’ve raised an incredible daughter, Elder. Choosing Ione as my Luna was the best decision I ever made.”

       I always knew it was an act, yet those words still managed to spark something fragile inside me—the desperate belief that perhaps the Moon Goddess had truly fated us. Maybe we weren’t lovers, but at the very least, we were bound by duty.

       And yet, despite all of that, he had betrayed me.

       Silently, mercilessly, he had let me consume those pills for three years.

       If not for my best friend’s discovery, I would have never known. I would have continued living in ignorance, unaware of the damage being done to me.

       His hands trembled as he held the doctor’s report, his expression unreadable. His voice came in a hushed murmur.

       “I was afraid you’d be upset.”  

       “I won’t give them to you anymore.”  

       That was all. No apology. No regret. Just two empty sentences meant to absolve him of guilt.

       A cold laugh escaped my lips. Was it really my sadness he feared? Or was he just terrified that if I had known the truth sooner, I would have refused to play my part in his grand deception?

       My wolf snarled inside me, baring her fangs at his selfishness.

       “You say that so easily, but do you have any idea what I went through? The sleepless nights, the endless doubts? How many times I lay awake, convinced something was wrong with me?”

       I snatched the report from his hands, my fingers curling around the damning evidence.

       “The Pack doctor confirmed it. The suppression pills have thrown my body into chaos. My hormones are beyond repair. I might never bear a pup.”

       I lifted my gaze, meeting his with unyielding fury.

       “You only ever wanted a pup with the she-wolf you love. Did you ever stop to think that I had the right to be a mother too?”

       “But it doesn’t matter anymore.” My voice wavered, thick with emotion. “We have no future, Alpha Dashiell. I reject you.”

       I had gone to the Pack doctor the moment I confirmed what was in those pills, hoping for reassurance. Instead, I had received a sentence worse than death.

       When the doctor told me that conceiving was nearly impossible, something inside me shattered.

       That was the moment I began to hate Alpha Dashiell.

       Now, that hatred burned brighter than ever.

       I turned away from him without another word, retreating to my bedroom and locking the door behind me. As I did, my computer screen flickered to life.

       A new email.

       Beta Zephyr Beaumont.

       He had waited for me for so long, across Pack borders, across the vast divide of severed bonds. Even after I had formally broken ties with him, he had never stopped reaching out.

       Every week, without fail, he sent me an email.

       And tonight was no different.

       I inhaled deeply, wiping the lingering tears from my face, then opened the message.

       Attached was a blurred image of a lunar eclipse—a symbol of a fated bond left incomplete, hanging in the darkness between what was and what could have been.