CHAPTER 1: YOU CAN LEAVE AFTER ONE MONTH

The Nightfang Pack hall had never felt this cold before.

Moonlight spilled through towering crystal windows, washing silver light across the polished black floors and the massive stone pillars lining the chamber. Above, elegant chandeliers carved from moonstone glimmered softly, casting a pale glow over the hundreds of wolves gathered inside.

Everything about tonight was supposed to feel grand.

The annual Moon Festival was only days away, and the pack house had been decorated accordingly. Silver banners bearing the Nightfang crest hung proudly along the walls while servants moved carefully through the crowd with trays of wine and crystal goblets.

Music still echoed faintly from the musicians near the far balcony.

But no one was paying attention anymore.

Not after what Alpha Kael Ravencrest had just said.

Aurora Whitmore stood at the center of the hall, every muscle in her body locked tight beneath the weight of hundreds of stares.

“I will marry Selene.”

The words still rang inside her head, cold, sharp, final.

For a few unbearable seconds, silence swallowed the room whole. It was the kind of silence that came before disaster, heavy enough to suffocate everyone trapped inside it.

Then the whispers began.

“They can’t be serious…”

“What about Aurora?”

“She’s his mate.”

“The Moon Goddess chose her.”

Aurora heard every word clearly, though the sounds around her already felt distant somehow, as though she were standing underwater while the world carried on above her.

Across the hall, Kael Ravencrest stood tall beside the elders’ platform, his expression unreadable as always.

He looked exactly the same as he had every day for the past three years.

Untouchable.

Dark formal clothing framed his broad shoulders, and silver embroidery glimmered faintly beneath the moonlight. Power clung naturally to him, silent and overwhelming, the kind that made entire rooms submit without effort.

No one challenged Alpha Kael.

No one dared.

And tonight was no different.

Aurora stared at him, trying desperately to find something in his face.

Regret.

Hesitation.

Anything.

There was nothing.

Not even guilt.

Beside him stood Selene Vale.

Beautiful, graceful Selene, dressed in pale silver silk that shimmered beneath the chandeliers. Her long hair fell neatly over one shoulder, and her posture remained perfectly composed despite the chaos spreading through the room.

She already looked like a Luna standing beside her Alpha.

Aurora hated how effortless it seemed.

Then Selene smiled.

It was small, brief almost impossible to notice but Aurora noticed.

And suddenly, something inside her finally understood the truth she had spent years avoiding.

Selene had never been worried about losing Kael not even once because she had always known she already had him.

Aurora’s fingers curled tightly against the fabric of her dress to stop them from shaking.

Three years.

Three entire years.

Three years of hoping Kael would eventually look at her differently.

Three years of waiting for the distance between them to disappear.

Three years of pretending silence did not hurt.

She remembered the night of the Luna Choosing Ceremony vividly, the moonlight, the sacred flames, the way her heart nearly burst when Kael spoke the word mate before the entire pack.

Back then, she had believed fate meant happiness now she understood how cruel fate could truly be.

Kael finally looked directly at her.

“The mate bond changes nothing,” he said evenly.

His voice carried through the hall with terrifying ease.

“You are free to leave.”

A few gasps sounded nearby.

Aurora almost laughed.

Free?

There was nothing freeing about being discarded in front of an entire pack.

The humiliation burned hotter than fire beneath her skin, but she refused to let anyone see it. Refused to become the broken woman everyone expected her to be.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed several elders exchanging uncomfortable glances. Beta Rowan looked like he wanted to disappear completely.

No one knew where to look.

No one knew what to say.

And suddenly Aurora realized they were all waiting.

Waiting for tears.

Waiting for pleading.

Waiting for her to beg Kael not to abandon her.

A strange calm settled over her instead.

Slowly, she lifted her chin.

Then she smiled.

Not because she felt strong.

But because pride was the only thing she had left.

“Give me one month.”

The words slipped into the silence so softly that for a moment nobody reacted.

Kael’s brows drew together slightly.

“For what?”

Aurora met his gaze fully for the first time that night.

Her chest ached painfully beneath the pressure of it.

“To change your mind?” he asked.

There was no warmth in his voice. Only suspicion.

As though he already believed this was another attempt to hold onto him.

Aurora felt something crack quietly inside her.

Three years together, and this was still how he saw her.

She swallowed carefully before shaking her head.

“No.”

Her voice remained steady somehow.

“One month as your wife.”

Murmurs spread through the crowd again.

Aurora ignored them.

After tonight, none of these people mattered, only time mattered now, only the countdown.

She forced herself to continue.

“After one month, I’ll leave quietly. There will be no resistance from me.”

This time even the elders looked stunned.

Selene’s expression flickered for the briefest second before smoothing over again.

But Kael…

Kael simply stared at her longer than before as though trying to understand what she was planning.

Aurora lowered her eyes before he could see the truth hidden there.

Because if she kept looking at him, she might break after all.

And she could not afford to break not yet, not when she still had things she needed to do.

One month.

That was all she needed.

One month before everything changed forever.

The silence stretched painfully between them before Kael finally spoke.

“Fine.”

The single word sealed it.

Aurora’s heartbeat slowed strangely after that, almost numb beneath the storm raging inside her chest.

Around them, whispers exploded again, but they no longer mattered.

Nothing mattered anymore, not the humiliation not the pity, not even Selene standing beside him.

Because as Aurora stood beneath the silver lights of the Nightfang hall, one terrifying truth echoed through her mind over and over again.

Kael thought she was staying because she still loved him.

He had no idea she was preparing to leave him forever and when that day finally came aurora wondered if he would regret letting her go at all.