Chapter 4

My car flew down the highway, the road stretching into the distance.

The world outside was a blur—mountains, sky, everything smearing into a stream of color.

Just like my life at the academy, torn out by the roots, and the eighteen years that came before it.

I didn't cry. I didn't even feel much sadness.

There was just a hollow space inside me, like someone had carved out a piece of me and left the wound exposed to a cold, numbing wind.

My phone had been vibrating on the passenger seat for a long time. I didn't pick it up.

I knew it was Damon. No one else would be trying to reach me so desperately.

I leaned my head against the window, looking at my reflection in the glass.

The butchered, animal-chewed hair was ugly and ridiculous, but it also gave me a sense of clarity I'd never had before.

How much had I given, how much had I endured, just to maintain my relationship with Damon?

He was arrogant and always getting into trouble. I was always there to clean up his messes.

He slacked off in training and failed his tactics class. I stayed up all night helping him study and analyze battle strategies.

He got into fights with Alphas from other packs. I stepped in to smooth things over.

The first time he had his heart broken, I stayed up all night with him, listening to him pour his heart out.

Everyone always said, Elena, you're so good to Damon.

And Damon would always say, Elena, what would I do without you?

I thought it was proof of our closeness.

Now I saw the truth. I was his glorified Beta, a convenience to be summoned and dismissed at will.

Even becoming fated mates didn't change that.

When he needed an offering to please another Alpha's daughter, to secure a more powerful alliance, I was the most convenient, most compliant, and most "forgiving" tool he had. He sacrificed me without a second thought.

To him, eighteen years of history was so cheap it could be used as the punchline for a joke.

The car's Bluetooth suddenly rang. The caller ID read: Isabella Luna.

Damon's mother. The pack's Luna.

I hesitated for a second, then answered.

"Elena, dear."

Her voice was soft and elegant, carrying the natural authority of a Luna.

Just like every time she'd shown her "concern" for me over the past eighteen years.

"Damon told me you left the academy?"

"Yes."

"Oh, dear child, what have you done?" she chuckled, but her tone was laced with condescending exasperation. "Damon is an Alpha, and he has never been this worked up. It was just a little incident last night, wasn't it?"

Her tone was like she was scolding a pouting wolf pup.

She also called that public humiliation a "little incident."

"Isabella, it wasn't a little incident."

"Elena, you have to understand, the games between Alphas and their alliances are complex." Her voice grew even softer, as if she were talking to a clueless child. "Last night's ceremony was simply to strengthen the bond between our packs."

"So my hair had to be cut?"

"Hair grows back, dear," she said dismissively. "But a pack alliance affects everyone's future."

Everyone's future. Not including mine.

"You can't be so emotional about this, Elena," she continued. "You are Damon's fated mate. The future Luna. You need to see the bigger picture."

"Chloe is the daughter of the Red Rock Alpha. Her family controls the main trade routes in the North," Isabella explained, her tone patient and condescending. "We need her family's support."

"So I was supposed to be the sacrifice?"

"That's a bit dramatic, don't you think?" she laughed. "It was only symbolic, you know that. Alphas need these kinds of rituals to confirm their alliances. Come back now. Damon is very worried about you."

I listened to her silently, every word another tiny needle piercing my already numb heart.

So, in their eyes, it was all just a harmless game.

My dignity, my humiliation, my pain—it was all meaningless.

"I'm not coming back."

There was a moment of silence on the other end.

"What did you say?" Isabella's voice was sharp with disbelief.

"I said, I'm not coming back," I repeated. "I have withdrawn from the academy. Permanently."

"Elena!" Her voice turned shrill, losing all its earlier warmth. "Do you have any idea what you're saying?"

"I know exactly what I'm saying."

"Don't you forget your place!" Her voice turned sharp, laced with cold fury. "You are just a Beta. Without the pack, without us, you are nothing."

Nothing.

So that's what they really thought of me.

"You're being disrespectful! And incredibly selfish!" she continued to scold. "By doing this, you're not just hurting Damon, you're hurting the entire pack! If your parents knew..."

"Luna," I cut her off again. "I'm a little tired. I'll explain things to my parents later."

"Hey! Elena! Don't you hang up on me! You explain yourself right now!"

I didn't listen to another word of her hypocrisy. I just hit the 'end call' button.

I looked out the window. The sky was growing dark.

In the distance, the city lights began to twinkle, like a spilled tray of jewels, sparkling and far away.

There was no place for me there anymore. And that was fine.

A new beginning felt clean. It was better than drowning in the poison they called a bond.

As for how Damon and his family would deal with this storm, that was no longer my problem.