Chapter 2: The Bride Who Left

Meredith

I walked through the front door of the mansion still wearing the wedding dress Alarick had left me in, no veil, no bouquet, and no groom trailing behind me. The staff froze when they saw me, their eyes widening as they took in the ruined train dragging across the marble floor and the tear stains I hadn't bothered to wipe away.

I didn't stop to explain or acknowledge their stares. I went straight upstairs to the room we’d shared since I moved into Bloodmoon three years ago, my heels clicking against the steps with each determined stride.

The door clicked shut behind me, and I pulled my suitcase out from under the bed with more force than necessary.

Thud.

I threw it onto the mattress and started packing. Clothes first, then shoes, then everything else I could reasonably fit without caring about organization or neatness. The room was full of him in ways that made my throat tight. Framed photos on the dresser showed us laughing at pack gatherings, his jacket still hung on the back of the chair where he'd left it this morning, and the cologne bottle he always forgot to cap sat on the nightstand, filling the air with his scent.

I kept packing anyway.

My hands shook as I folded a sweater and shoved it into the suitcase, but I didn't let myself stop moving. If I stopped, I would think too much about what I was leaving behind. If I thought too much, I might convince myself that staying and waiting for him to come back was easier than walking away for good.

My phone sat on the bed next to the open suitcase, its screen dark and silent. I glanced at it once, then picked it up and unlocked the screen with my thumb.

No calls. No messages. No missed notifications of any kind.

Nothing.

Deep inside me, my wolf stirred once, weak and restless, then went quiet again.

My chest tightened, and I hated that the silence still hurt after everything he'd done. Part of me had hoped he would realize what he'd thrown away, that abandoning me at the altar in front of his entire pack might finally be the line he couldn't cross without consequences.

But Alarick didn't call, and the longer I stared at that empty screen, the clearer it became that he wasn't going to. I wasn't going to wait around for him to decide I mattered enough to check on.

I tossed the phone back onto the bed and turned toward the dresser, my reflection catching in the mirror. I looked like exactly what I was: a bride who'd been left behind. The thought made something hot and angry curl in my stomach.

The Luna bracelet sat in its velvet box on top of the dresser, silver links gleaming under the bedroom lights and engraved with the Bloodmoon crest that I would never wear. Alarick had given it to me two years ago, back when I still believed we'd actually make it to the altar and that his promises meant something.

I picked up the box and stared at it for a long moment, my thumb brushing over the clasp while memories I didn't want flooded back. The night he'd given it to me, he'd told me I would be the best Luna Bloodmoon had ever seen.

I'd believed him then.

I set the box back down on the dresser and walked away without looking back. I didn't throw it across the room or shove it into a drawer. I simply refused to take it with me, and that felt like enough.

I zipped the suitcase shut and dragged it off the bed, the wheels hitting the floor with a dull thunk that echoed through the quiet room. I pulled it toward the door and took one last look at the space that had been mine for three years. The bed we'd slept in, the closet that still held half his clothes, the window seat where I used to wait for him to come home. None of it felt like mine anymore.

The staff was waiting when I came down the stairs, and they weren't even pretending not to watch this time. They lined the hallway with dusters in their hands and concern on their faces, but I saw the disbelief there too.

Whispers followed me down each step, low enough that they thought I couldn't hear but loud enough that I caught every word.

"She'll be back by tonight."

"The Alpha will calm her down when he returns."

"She has nowhere else to go, afterall."

The words stung more than they should have, mostly because they were right. I had always come back before. Every time Alarick disappointed me, every time he chose Clover over me, every time he promised things would be different, I forgave him and stayed. They had no reason to believe this time would be any different.

But it was.

I stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked directly at the head housekeeper, an older woman named Margaret who had worked for Alarick's family for decades and had watched our entire relationship unfold from the beginning. She had the grace to look uncomfortable under my gaze.

"Tell Alpha Alarick I left," I said, and my voice didn't waver the way I'd been afraid it would. "Tell him that I left the house, the wedding, and the woman who used to forgive him behind."

Margaret's mouth opened slightly, but nothing came out. She looked like she wanted to say something, maybe try to convince me to stay or assure me that Alarick would fix everything, but the words seemed to die in her throat. The other staff members had gone completely silent.

I didn't wait for her response or anyone else's attempt at placating me. I walked past her, through the foyer with its high ceilings and expensive artwork, and out the front door into the afternoon sun that felt too bright for the day I was having.

Hayley's car was already waiting in the driveway, her beat-up sedan looking out of place among the luxury vehicles that usually lined this space. She must have heard what happened at the wedding because she was out of the driver's seat before I even reached the bottom step, her red hair blazing in the sunlight and her expression twisted with the kind of fury I'd only seen a handful of times.

"I'm going to rip his throat out," she said, and from the way her hands clenched into fists at her sides, I believed she might actually try.

"Don't." I dragged my suitcase toward the trunk, my arms already aching from hauling it down two flights of stairs. "Just help me get out of here before he comes back."

Hayley grabbed the suitcase from me and threw it into the trunk with more force than was strictly necessary, the car rocking slightly from the impact. "He left you at the altar, Mer. He doesn't get to just walk back in here and apologize his way out of this one."

"I know." I climbed into the passenger seat and pulled the door shut, the sound final and absolute. "That's why I'm leaving."

Hayley slid into the driver's seat and started the engine, the old car rumbling to life beneath us, but she didn't pull out of the driveway yet. She turned to look at me instead, and her expression shifted from anger to something sharper and more clinical. Concern mixed with professional assessment.

"Your scent is off," she said carefully.

I frowned and turned to face her. "What?"

"Your wolf." Hayley leaned closer, her nose wrinkling slightly as she caught whatever it was she was detecting. "She's weaker than she should be. How long has this been going on?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." I buckled my seatbelt and stared straight ahead at the mansion I was leaving behind. "Can we just go?"

"Meredith." Hayley's voice dropped into her doctor tone, the one she used when she wasn't going to let something slide no matter how much I deflected. "How long have you been feeling unstable?"

I didn't answer right away because I didn't want to admit it out loud. My wolf had been quiet for months now, her presence reduced to a faint hum in the back of my mind instead of the solid, constant weight it used to be.

I'd thought it was stress or exhaustion from constantly worrying about when Alarick would disappoint me next, but I hadn't wanted to admit it might be something worse. I hadn't wanted to face the possibility that loving him was literally making me weaker.

"A while," I said finally, the admission feeling like defeat.

Hayley cursed under her breath and gripped the steering wheel hard enough that her knuckles went white. "It's the bond. Alarick's bond."

"We were never fully bonded." I kept my eyes on the mansion, watching as one of the staff members peeked through the curtains before quickly pulling back.

"No, but you were close enough that his rejection hurt you anyway." Hayley put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway, gravel crunching under the tires. "Every time he chose Clover, your wolf felt it as rejection. Every broken promise weakened the bond. He didn't just break your heart, Meredith. He broke your wolf."

The words crushed the air out of my chest. I'd known something was wrong, had felt my wolf retreating further and further away with each of Alarick's betrayals, but hearing it said out loud by someone who actually understood wolf physiology made it undeniably real.

"How bad is it?" I asked, my voice quieter than I wanted it to be.

"Bad enough that you need a stable bond soon, or your wolf might not recover at all." Hayley glanced at me as she turned onto the main road, her expression grim in a way that told me she wasn't exaggerating for effect. "Alarick could still fix this if he marked you properly and actually committed to the bond, but I'm guessing that's not an option you're willing to consider."

"No." The word came out sharper than I intended, carrying all the anger and hurt I'd been holding back since he answered Clover's call at the altar. "I'm not going back to him. Ever. I'd rather lose my wolf completely than let him mark me now."

Hayley nodded slowly, like she'd expected that answer and had probably hoped for it. "Then you need another Alpha, and you need one soon. Your wolf can't sustain herself like this indefinitely."

I stared out the window as the Bloodmoon territory blurred past us, familiar streets and buildings that I'd called home for years now feeling like they belonged to someone else's life. The houses grew smaller and more spread out, the trees thicker and wilder, and the scent of Alarick's pack faded with every mile we put between us and the mansion.

Another Alpha.

The only option left was the one I'd been running from for five years, the path I'd abandoned because I thought I'd found something better with Alarick.

The arranged marriage.

My father had set it up before I ever met Alarick, back when alliances and bloodlines mattered more to him than anything resembling love or happiness. I'd rejected it because I thought I'd found something worth choosing instead, something real and lasting.

I thought Alarick was worth the risk of defying my father's plans.

I was wrong about that.

"I'm going home," I said quietly, the words feeling strange in my mouth after years of considering the Bloodmoon mansion home instead.

Hayley didn't ask if I was sure or try to talk me into other options that didn't exist. She just kept driving, her hands steady on the wheel and her presence solid beside me.

I watched Bloodmoon disappear behind us in the side mirror, the mansion shrinking into nothing more than a distant shape on the horizon, and I let myself accept what came next.

The life I'd built with Alarick was over, finished the moment he chose Clover over me one final time. The future I'd imagined, the one where I became his Luna and we led Bloodmoon together, was gone like it had never existed at all. All that was left now was survival, and if that meant facing my father and the arrangement I'd once rejected, then that's what I would do.

I had run from my father's arrangement once for love. This time, I was running back to it to survive.