Chapter 14 Trash the Unwanted

Angel’s Perspective

I had not planned to return to the packhouse.

In truth, I had avoided it deliberately, the walls still echoed with the memories and version of me who once believed love alone could make a marriage whole. But that morning, I found myself standing at the iron gates anyway.

I told myself I was here to settle things. Talk to Bastien and fix loose ends. Nothing more.

The packhouse was already awake. Servants moved quietly, heads lowered. Wolves bowed as I passed, calling me Luna out of habit. The title felt strangely hollow now, like a costume I had outgrown but had not yet fully removed.

I found Bastien near the entrance hall.

He was fully dressed in a formal suit, dark jacket tailored sharply to his shoulders, hair carefully arranged. Too careful.

For a moment, I simply stared. A ridiculous and uninvited thought crossed my mind: He looked like a groom preparing to meet his wife. The irony almost made me laugh.

“Bastien,” I called.

He turned, surprise flickering across his face before smoothing into impatience. “Angel?”

“I was looking for you.” I tilted my head, letting my gaze travel over him with deliberate calm. “Why are you dressed like this? You look like you’re getting married.”

The words came out lighter than I felt.

“Huh?” he frowned.

“I have something to tell you,” I added quietly.

His brows knit together. He glanced at his watch, then away from me. “I don’t have time right now.”

The dismissal was swift just as it was cold.

“I have an urgent matter to attend to,” he continued, already stepping toward the door. “Lilian’s being forced into an arranged marriage and I need to stop it.”

The words landed heavily, and I couldn’t stop the ache in my heart. 

“I’ll make it up to you later, okay?” he said, as though that settled everything.

I looked at him for a long moment. So this was it. This was how little I mattered now.

“Okay,” I replied flatly.

On the surface, my composure held. But beneath it, my thoughts were screaming, colliding, asking questions I didn’t want to answer.

Why would it bother him if Lilian married another man? Why does it matter so much, when he himself already had a wife? The answer was cruel and clear.

Because he loved her. And he never loved me.

The memory of that kiss they shared at the company burned into my mind, flashing over and over again. The way he had saved her name as Baby on his phone and spoke to her like she was fragile. Everything Bastien did only pointed to one thing.

 I recalled the way Lilian had come to Dana’s house with that smug smile, telling me Bastien would soon be hers, sooner than later. And that even our wedding pictures were her own idea.

To imagine I had endured a lot for Bastien, and still his affection was somewhere else, felt like a dagger being driven into my heart.

I had told myself I was done caring. I had told myself I had already let go. But now, watching him walk past me without a second glance, the truth surfaced painfully: It still hurt.

But I neither begged nor cried. I had already made up my mind about him, about them. Maybe Bastien didn’t notice. Or maybe he didn’t care how his actions were inconsiderate. 

When the door closed behind him, I stood there for several seconds before moving, my feet carrying me somewhere familiar without conscious thought.

The Luna suite. Our suite.

The room looked exactly the same as it always had, elegant and untouched. As if time had politely waited for us to resume the illusion of a marriage. Our wedding photo still occupied the central wall.

I walked toward it slowly.

In the photo, I was smiling too brightly, eyes filled with hope. Bastien stood beside me, handsome, composed, already distant in hindsight. I raised my hand and touched the glass.

That girl had believed love was earned through patience.

I grabbed the frame and smashed it against the floor.

The sound was sharp and loud. Glass shattered outward, fragments scattering widely. I didn’t stop. One photo after another followed, I lifted the frames and broke them, the pieces spreading across the floor.

I felt nothing at first, then a sense of relief.

I opened drawers, closets, and boxes. Shirts, cufflinks, gifts. Anything that carried his presence. One by one, I threw them into trash bags. My fingers trembled as I deleted photos from my phone, every smiling moment, every false memory, until the screen was empty.

When I finally stopped, the suite looked stripped bare of him.

Only then did I allow myself a small, cold thought.

The surprise I prepared for Lilian’s wedding…They’d never forget it.

Bastien’s Perspective

Hours later, as the car moved smoothly down the road, I communicated with some of my men through chat.

Beta sat beside me in the front seat, glancing at me through the rearview mirror after a long silence.

“Will Luna Angel be upset about this?” he asked carefully.

I scoffed lightly. “Angel loves me.”

The words came easily because I knew them for a fact.

“No matter what I do, she always understands. She’ll calm down.”

I believed that. I had always believed that.

Angel had loved me deeply. She had always come back, always soft, forgiving and waiting. I had grown accustomed to that certainty, the way one grows accustomed to air.

Just then, my phone rang.

Emily’s name, our gamma, flashed across the screen.

I frowned. “What is it?”

Her voice came through tense. “Alpha… there’s something you should know.”

She paused, then continued, “You know how Angel had taught herself specific recipes, allergen-free, for you and Finn. How she had researched everything thoroughly?”

I frowned harder. “I know that.”

“She shared them with Lilian,” Emily said quietly. 

Something twisted uncomfortably in my chest.

“And,” she added, hesitating, “Finn said Angel left the family group chat.”

I opened my phone abruptly. It was true. Angel’s profile was gone.

After hanging up the gamma’s call, I tried calling Angel’s number. It was busy. I tried again but I received the same response. 

I went to her profile, but it was empty, blank. She had blocked me. 

My jaw tightened as I reached instinctively for our mate bond. Nothing was all the response I got.The connection was gone. Severed.

A chill crawled up my spine. For the first time, unease outweighed my confidence.

But then I recalled her expression earlier on, calm and distant. She hadn’t cried. She hadn’t argued. She had simply said okay.

She’s just angry, I tried re-assuring myself. She’ll come around.

Lilian didn’t have much time left and I couldn’t let her be trapped in a marriage she didn’t want. Angel would surely understand that.

I sighed as the car slowed as we arrived at the wedding venue.

Inside, everything was lavish and prepared in a detailed way. The bright flowers, bright lights, easy music. When I saw Lilian, she stood in white, eyes red probably because she had cried for a while. She was still wiping her eyes by the time I had arrived.

A forced marriage was something she didn’t want, and I was here to make sure it didn’t go as planned.

I went towards the back where I could easily assess the whole place, and then slowly, I lifted my hand, alerting the men who had already arrived before me. They knew my plan and I was sure it would happen just as I had earlier planned.

“Take her,” I ordered.

Chaos erupted as my men suddenly moved forward. 

But then, concurrently, the lights went out and the music cut off. A gasp rippled through the room.

A single spotlight snapped on at the center of the stage.

And there she was.

Angel stood calmly beneath the light, dressed elegantly, eyes cold and expression unreadable. For the first time that day, my heart dropped.