Chapter 3

I drove to the Werewolf Council after Ethan left.

Had a new bond-breaking agreement drafted—clean, final.

I took my time on the way back and even bought myself an ice cream.

Sweet, cold, quiet.

It melted slowly on my tongue, the sweetness curling through my chest like a balm, quieting something raw and restless inside me.

Even when I walked into the house and found the room wrecked by Lucas and Mia, my mood didn't shift.

Not today.

Not after everything.

But they weren't pleased.

Lucas pouted, fists clenched. "Bad mommy! You ate it without us!"

Mia joined in, high-pitched and accusing. "I want ice cream too!"

I swallowed the last bite slowly, deliberately—like it was the last piece of sweetness I'd ever allow myself.

My expression didn't waver.

"If you want some," I said, my voice cool and even, "ask your new mom to get it for you."

There was no anger in my tone—only a hollow finality, sharp as ice.

A truth spoken not in spite, but surrender.

They froze. Then stomped and screamed.

"Bad mommy! I hate you!"

"Give it back or I'll never forgive you!"

Then—

They spat at me.

Their faces twisted with fury, no trace of the sweet pups I once held in my arms.

And I laughed—quietly, bitterly—at the cruel irony of it all.

The pups I bled for, broke for, once lulled to sleep with lullabies, now stood before me like strangers, baring their teeth.

I had given everything for them. My body. My choices. My years.

All for them to grow up and love. Safe.

But I had forgotten—

A home that disrespects the mother cannot raise pups who respect her.

Ethan's scorn had taken root in them.

My pups—born from pain and love—had become the sharpest blades turned against me.

My wolf stood motionless inside me, silent and stripped raw.

She did not howl. She didn't fight. She only watched, as if mourning something that had already died.

I sighed.

Then he turned and went to pack.

When I entered the bedroom, I found my clothes and bags drenched in red paint, bleeding like mockery across every piece of myself I had left.

Lucas stomped on a photo of me with a snarl.

"Bad mommy! I hate you!"

I looked at the little monster he'd become.

Not the pup I once cradled in sleepless nights, but a reflection of Ethan's disdain—warped, cruel.

And I felt nothing.

No grief. No anger.

Just a bone-deep emptiness, carved raw by seven years of trying and being told I was never enough.

I turned to leave.

As I reached the stairs, I felt a shove.

The world tilted—then pain, sharp and sudden, exploded through my body.

A blinding white in my skull, then red. Everywhere. Blood was soaking into the wood beneath me like a quiet betrayal.

Trembling, I looked up—

And met Lucas and Mia's eyes. Cold. Unrepentant. Strangers in the faces I once kissed goodnight.

"That's what you get," Lucas sneered, his voice sharp as broken glass. "You didn't share the ice cream."

Mia raised a vase over her head. Her smile was hollow. Her eyes were as black as the moonless sky.

"Why aren't you dead yet, Mommy? If you were gone, Aunt Isla could be our real mom."

The vase crashed down beside my head, shattering.

Something in me shattered. Something I had kept caged for too long.

My wolf screamed. Not with rage, but with grief. With betrayal. With a mother’s howl torn from the soul.

She surged up from the depths, raw and feral, slamming against the walls of my chest, clawing, writhing.

All the years of silence, all the tears swallowed in the dark—now flooding out in a wave of pain I could no longer contain.

This was no longer numbness. It was agony. It was clarity. It was the death of hope.

Finally, the noise dragged Ethan out of his study.

He looked around at the chaos, then at me, bleeding on the floor.

His frown deepened.

"Lyra, what are you doing now?"

I hadn't even spoken yet before Lucas and Mia ran into his arms, sobbing on cue.

"Daddy, Mommy's so mean! She wouldn't let us eat ice cream, and she tried to hit us!"

"We were scared and tried to run away… and she fell!"

"Lyra!"

Ethan's voice was thunder.

"What is wrong with you?!"

"These are your pups! Your blood! And you'd hurt them over some childish jealousy with Isla?! Do you even have a mother's heart left? Or have you lost that part of yourself, too?"

"You want a bond severing? Fine. Let's end it now. You don't deserve to be their mother!"

He grabbed the nearest documents and flung them at me.

Paper slapped against my face, sharp and cold.

I clenched my fists, disbelief searing through me like wildfire.

Eight years of bond, and Ethan never let me forget—

In this house, I was nothing.

And yet… that fragile, pitiful ember of love nestled deep in my chest had kept me tethered, clinging desperately to a lie.

Not anymore.

Not for a man who never loved me.

Not for a home that ground me down and spat me out hollow.

My wolf whimpered, aching and wounded, but ready to break free.

I staggered upright, trembling fingers seeking the Bond-breaking agreement buried in my bag—

Then darkness swallowed me whole.

My body surrendered.

I collapsed into silence.