He Called Her His Luna, So I Broke Our Bond

Adrian came home close to midnight smelling of champagne, cold rain, and Bianca's rose-and-amber perfume. Two buttons at his collar were open, and burgundy lipstick marked the skin near his collarbone.Through the bond, his wolf brushed mine with practiced warmth. A greeting. A habit. A door he expected me to open because I always had.This time, I kept my wolf still."Still up?" he asked with an easy smile. "Waiting for me?"He used to pull me into his arms the second he came home. That night, he only loosened his cuffs and went straight into the bathroom.A few minutes later, I heard Noah crying.He was sitting on his bed with his tablet in his lap. Sophia had posted a story in the pack children's group: a pink baby grand piano, a new tablet, a custom ballet dress, and Adrian's hand in the corner, adjusting a ribbon like he had all the time in the world.The caption read, "Thank you to the best Alpha-dad in the world for remembering every wish."Noah wiped his face with his sleeve. "

Liv met us outside the Oslo terminal, took one look at my face and Noah's swollen eyes, and asked nothing. She took a suitcase from me, wrapped her scarf around Noah's shoulders, and drove us into Skadi territory.It smelled of snow, pine, clean stone, and wolves who didn't know me as Adrian's Luna. The quiet should have frightened me. Instead, it gave my wolf room to breathe.The townhouse Liv had arranged stood on a narrow street lined with pale facades and bare trees. When she opened the door, the lights came on all at once.Noah stopped in the entryway.A deep blue piano stood in the living room beside a new scooter, a boxed racing set, and a birthday cake with his name written in white icing.I knelt beside him. "Happy birthday, baby. I know I'm late."His lips trembled before he threw himself into my arms. "You did all this for me?""Yes." I held the back of his head. "I should've done more sooner.""No," he said, crying into my shoulder. "This is the best birthday ever. You're h

That night, Adrian let memory do what shame hadn't managed yet.Ten years earlier, Matteo had just died and Blackwater was drowning in grief, debt, and Council threats. Adrian had gone down to the river cliffs drunk enough to shift wrong and break his own neck. He had stood above the black water with no real reason to step back.I had been there by accident, a temporary legal strategist sent by Vito's firm to keep the Council from tearing the pack apart. When Adrian slipped, I grabbed him. When he fought me, I cursed him. When he nearly went over again, I wrapped my coat around both of us and sat with him until dawn because I was too stubborn to leave a grieving wolf to die just because he had made a spectacle of wanting to.Later, when he pursued me, Vito objected. So Vito tested me with a hostile negotiation, a pack scandal, and a medical fund no one wanted to touch. I solved all three. After that, there was no keeping me outside the door.Over the years, Adrian had stopped noticing

Adrian never contacted me directly again after Oslo. The calls stopped. The messages stopped. Six months later, Vito sent a brief note through pack lawyers confirming that the public Luna recognition had been dissolved, Matteo's trust had been restored under separate management for Bianca and Sophia, and Noah's interests would be protected independently from the severance proceedings.It was formal, clean, and free of apology. That was how old wolves like Vito admitted defeat.I signed where I needed to sign and sent the papers back.A year after I left Blackwater, a pack attorney arrived in Oslo with a sealed envelope, a revised will, and a letter in Adrian's handwriting.I almost refused to take it. Then I saw the way the attorney held the documents and understood this wasn't another attempt to drag me into a conversation. It was an ending.The letter was short.Evelyn, By the time this reaches you, I'll already be gone.I told no one about the wolfsbane sickness until it became impo