Erasing the Luna

Rhea Moonmere wakes up to cold sheets and silence.For a moment, she stays still beneath the heavy black coverlet, caught between sleep and morning, while her hand reaches across the wide bed for the warmth that should be there. Maddox often rises before dawn when council matters trouble him, but he never leaves without touching her first. Sometimes he presses a kiss into her hair, and sometimes he closes his hand around hers for one quiet breath before the Alpha in him returns, and he walks out to carry the weight of the Obsidian Pack.This morning, the space beside her is empty and cold, without the fading warmth of his body in the sheets, the trace of his fingers at her waist, or the low murmur of his voice against her ear telling her to sleep longer because the halls are cold.Rhea opens her eyes, and the first thing she notices is the hearth.The fire is dead.Maddox hates waking up in a cold room, and he complains about it with the same severe expression he uses in council, as i

The guest chamber did not remember her either.Rhea knew it the moment the door closed behind her, because the air was cold and empty, carrying only the scent of old linen, unused wood, and stone that had not been warmed by anyone’s life. There was no lavender oil near the hearth, no shawl folded over a chair, and no trace of Maddox’s scent caught against the pillows because he had come looking for her after another late council night.There was nothing of her here, and nothing of them.When the lock clicked outside, the sound was soft, almost polite, but it still turned the room into a prison.Rhea stood in the center of it with her bruised wrist pressed against her chest and one trembling hand at her neck. The skin beneath her fingers was smooth. Too smooth. Maddox’s mark should have been there, dark silver and shaped like a crescent broken by a wolf’s claw. He had placed it low, where only he could find it easily, because he once told her it belonged close enough to protect and pri

By late afternoon, the Obsidian Pack House began dressing itself in lies.Rhea heard the preparation before she understood exactly what was happening. The blue sitting room sat close enough to the Alpha wing that sound traveled through the old stone in strange ways, softened but still clear enough to hurt. Footsteps moved constantly beyond her door, and servants passed with trays, linens, polished silver, and formal table settings while someone farther down the corridor gave quick instructions about candles for the great hall. Another voice asked whether the eastern doors should be opened for the council families, and the careful tension in every answer told Rhea this was more than an ordinary meal.A formal supper.She stood near the sealed window with the dark wool robe wrapped around her, listening as the house prepared for guests while pretending nothing inside it had broken. Less than one day ago, she had woken in her husband’s bed. Now the pack was arranging flowers and silverwa

Rhea woke to warmth that did not belong to the room.For one fragile moment, she did not open her eyes. She stayed still beneath the heavy blanket, breathing in the faint trace of cedar, storm, black pine, and male wolf woven through the wool as if the night had left a secret behind. Maddox’s scent surrounded her softly, less powerful than it had been when his arms were around her, but still close enough to make her body remember.He had held her.The thought came carefully, almost afraid of itself.He had sat on the rug with her against his chest while the damaged bond stopped tearing through her ribs. His hand had closed around hers. His heartbeat had struck beneath her cheek, uneven and real, and for a few stolen breaths, her body had known peace.Rhea let herself remember it, though she knew she should not.She remembered the warmth of him, the rough control in his breathing, and the way his arm had tightened when she told him he could let go. She remembered the deep quiet that en

Maddox did not sleep after the private dinner.He told himself it was because of council pressure, because of the elders watching him too closely, because of Isolde’s warnings, because of Scarlett’s silent questions, and because of the woman locked in the blue sitting room who moved through his house like a wound nobody could name. He told himself many things through the night, but none of them explained why every time he closed his eyes, he saw Rhea.The first flash came near midnight.He was standing by the window in the Alpha suite, staring out at the black pines while the moon hung thin and cold above the mountains. The room behind him was silent. His bed remained untouched. The fire burned low in the hearth, and every shadow seemed to carry her scent though she had not been there.Then the world shifted.Rain fell through dark trees.Rhea stood beneath them, laughing, her hair soaked and clinging to her face while moonlight