Beyond The Moon's Promise: [The Forsaken Luna]

The moving truck sat in the driveway waiting to devour the last seven years of my life.

I picked up another box labeled Kitchen Misc. in my own handwriting from years ago and tried not to think about how pathetic it was that everything I owned would fit into seventeen boxes and four garbage bags.

"Mommy, can I bring Mr. Whiskers?"

I turned and find my son holding his stuffed wolf, the one Damien had given him on his third birthday. Back when I still believed in fairy tales, when I thought the Moon Goddess had blessed me with a mate who would actually choose me.

"Of course, baby." I forced brightness into my voice, the same fake cheerfulness I had perfected over the past seventy-two hours. "Mr. Whiskers goes everywhere you go."

Ezra's face lit up, and for a moment,the weight in my chest eased. Five years old, and he still looked at me like I was everything to him, but he didn't understand why we are leaving home. He didn't understand why daddy wasn't here to say goodbye. He didn't know that Daddy was three miles away, probably still in bed with her. With Vivienne. With the woman whose scent had been clinging to my mate's skin for months.

Jasmine and vanilla. They're so cloying and suffocating.

I'd been such a fool.

"Mrs. Thorne?"

I flinched at the name. At the title that no longer felt like mine. The moving company supervisor stood at the truck's rear, clipboard in hand, his weathered face carefully neutral. He was human—couldn't smell the breakdown of my bond with Damien, couldn't sense the way my wolf whimpered and clawed inside me, desperate to understand why her mate had rejected us.

"It's just Sera," I said, my voice rougher than intended. "Just Sera."

He nodded, tactful enough not to comment on the lack of wedding ring on my finger. I'd thrown it in the river two nights ago, watched it sink into the black water under the full moon. The Moon Goddess hadn't stopped me. Maybe she'd finally realized her mistake.

You were never meant to be Luna, Vivienne's voice echoed in my memory, sharp and victorious. The Goddess doesn't make mistakes, Sera. Damien was always meant to be mine.

"We're about loaded up," the supervisor continued. "Should reach Pinehaven by sundown. You sure you don't want to ride with us? That's a long drive for you and the little one."

I glanced at my decade-old sedan, packed to the roof with the things that hadn't fit in the truck. "We'll be fine. I need... I need my own wheels."

What I needed was an escape route. A way to run if Damien changed his mind about letting me leave. Not that he would. He'd made his choice crystal clear when he'd stood in our bedroom—his bedroom now—and told me that the bond between us was a mistake. That the Moon Goddess had corrected her error by sending him his true mate.

Five years. Five years of marriage, of trying to be the perfect Luna, of ignoring the way his eyes never quite softened when he looked at me. Five years of telling myself that love would grow, that the mating bond would deepen with time.

And then Vivienne had walked into our pack's territory six months ago, and I'd watched my husband fall in love for the first time in his life.

Just not with me.

"Mommy?" Ezra tugged on my jacket. "Why are you crying?"

I swiped at my cheeks, startled to find them wet. "Just dust, baby. Let's get you in the car, okay?"

As I buckled him into his booster seat, I caught movement in my peripheral vision. My wolf surged forward, instinct overriding common sense, and I knew—knew—who was approaching before I even turned around.

Damien stood at the end of the driveway, hands shoved in his pockets, looking every inch the Alpha he was born to be. Tall, broad-shouldered, with dark hair that fell across his forehead and eyes the color of amber. He was beautiful. He'd always been beautiful.

He'd never been mine.

"Sera." My name sounded wrong in his mouth. Uncertain. "I didn't think you'd actually leave."

The laugh that escaped me was sharp enough to draw blood. "What did you expect, Damien? That I'd stay and play house while you build your life with her?"

He flinched. Good. I hoped it hurt.

"The pack—"

"The pack chose their Luna." I slammed the car door harder than necessary, putting metal between me and my son's too-perceptive ears. "They bowed to Vivienne at last week's gathering. I was there, remember? I watched them pledge loyalty to their true Luna while I stood in the corner like a ghost."

"You'll always be Ezra's mother—"

"Don't." The word cracked like a whip. "Don't you dare try to comfort me. You've made your choice. The Goddess has made hers. I'm just the fool who didn't see it coming."

His jaw tightened. "I never wanted to hurt you."

"But you did it anyway." I moved toward the driver's side, done with this conversation, done with the way my traitorous heart still stuttered when he was near. "Goodbye, Damien."

"Wait." He crossed the distance between us in three long strides, and suddenly he was too close, his scent—pine and smoke and winter mornings—overwhelming my senses. "Ezra. I want to see him. I want to be part of his life."

The audacity of it stole my breath.

"You want to see him?" I repeated slowly. "You want to be part of his life? The life you're letting us walk away from? The pack you're keeping him from?"

"He's my son—"

"He called her Mommy." The words ripped out of me, jagged and raw. "Three days ago, when I came to get him from your parents' house, he ran to Vivienne and called her Mommy. Do you know what that did to me? Do you have any idea what it feels like to hear your child—your baby—call another woman by the name that's supposed to be yours alone?"

Damien's face went pale. "Sera, I didn't know—"

"Of course you didn't know. You've been too busy playing Alpha and Luna with your true mate to notice that your son is already forgetting who I am." I yanked open my car door. "You want to be part of his life? Then you should have fought for us. You should have rejected the bond with Vivienne and honored the vows you made to me. But you didn't. So now you live with the consequences."

"I can't reject a true mate bond," he said, and there was something like anguish in his voice. "You know that's not how it works—"

"Then I guess the Moon Goddess really does have a brutal sense of humor." I slid behind the wheel, hands shaking so badly I could barely grip the steering wheel. "Because she gave me a mate who was never really mine, and a son who'll grow up wondering why his mother wasn't good enough to keep his father."

I started the engine before he could respond, before I could see whether my words had landed or bounced off the armor of his certainty. The moving truck pulled out ahead of me, and I followed, refusing to look in the rearview mirror.

Refusing to see if Damien watched us go.

"Mommy?" Ezra's voice was small from the backseat. "Is Daddy coming to the new house?"

"No, baby," I whispered, tears streaming freely now. "Daddy has to stay here."

"Because of the pretty lady?"

My heart cracked clean through. "Yeah. Because of the pretty lady."

"Oh." A pause. "Will we come back to visit?"

I took a breath. Another. Forced the words past the lump in my throat. "Maybe someday."

Never, my wolf snarled. Never again.

We drove in silence for twenty minutes before my phone buzzed. I shouldn't have looked—knew I shouldn't—but I couldn't help myself.

VIVIENNE: So glad you finally accepted reality. Damien needs a Luna who actually belongs in his world. Your son will be well cared for when he visits. Try not to embarrass him with whatever pathetic life you build in that backwater town.

My vision blurred red. My wolf surged forward, all teeth and rage, demanding I turn the car around and show that sanctimonious bitch exactly what kind of Luna I could have been—

Another text.

VIVIENNE: Oh, and Sera? Tell Ezra his new little brother or sister says hello. I'm sure he'll adjust to being a big brother. Children are so resilient.

The phone slipped from my fingers.

Pregnant. Vivienne was pregnant with Damien's child.

The child I'd never been able to give him after Ezra. The "weakness" the pack elders had whispered about when they thought I couldn't hear. The final proof that I'd never been the right choice.

I pulled over to the shoulder, barely getting the car in park before I doubled over, sobs tearing through me like claws. In the backseat, Ezra started crying too, frightened by his mother's breakdown, and that—more than anything—snapped me back.

I couldn't fall apart. Not now. Not when my son needed me to be strong.

I twisted to look at him, this perfect little boy with his father's eyes and my stubborn chin. "I'm sorry, baby. Mommy's okay. We're okay."

"Promise?" His voice wavered.

I reached back and squeezed his hand. "I promise. We're going to be more than okay. We're going to be happy."

The lie tasted bitter, but I'd learned to swallow worse.

I pulled back onto the highway, leaving Damien's territory behind, and tried to ignore the way my wolf howled in anguish. Tried to ignore the mating bond stretching and fraying with every mile, a phantom limb that still ached even after amputation.

Pinehaven was four hours away. Four hours to figure out how to be a single mother in a town where no one knew me. Four hours to plan a life that didn't revolve around being someone's unwanted mate.

Four hours to pretend my entire world hadn't just imploded.

I'd barely made it twenty minutes when my wolf suddenly went utterly, unnaturally still.

The feeling hit me like lightning—a presence so powerful it made my hands tighten on the wheel. Not Damien's familiar warmth, but something else. Something ancient and overwhelming and other.

I scanned the highway, searching for the source, and that's when I saw him.

A massive black wolf stood on the ridge overlooking the road, silhouetted against the setting sun. Too large to be natural. Too still to be real. His eyes—silver, not gold, not amber, but silver—locked onto my car as I passed.

And in that split second of connection, I felt it.

Recognition.

Power.

Hunger.

Then he was gone, melting into the shadows like he'd never existed at all.

My wolf surged to life, alert and awake in a way she hadn't been since the moment Damien told me about Vivienne. Every instinct I had screamed that what I'd just seen was important. Dangerous.

Impossible.

Because silver-eyed wolves were a myth. A legend whispered around pack fires to scare young cubs. They didn't exist in the real world.

They couldn't exist.

"Mommy?" Ezra's voice cut through my spiraling thoughts. "What was that big doggie?"

I checked the rearview mirror, but the ridge was empty. "I don't know, baby."

But as I drove toward our uncertain future, one thing became crystal clear:

Whatever I'd left behind in Damien's territory, it wasn't the only danger in my world.

And something told me my fresh start in Pinehaven was about to get a lot more complicated.