Goodbye, Night Howl

Ava's POV

I was starting to feel lightheaded.

Not from the bond. Not from the tension crackling between the two most powerful men in the room. Just from the sheer, impossible absurdity of my life.

Four days ago I had been crying into my pillow in a one-room apartment, eating leftovers from the café and convincing myself that being invisible was the same thing as being safe.

Now two men were squaring up over me in front of my entire pack.

*Is this real?*

I pressed my fingers discreetly into my palm just to check.

It hurt. So yes. Apparently real.

Sebastian's eyes hadn't left me since Jackson grabbed my arm. I could feel the pull of the bond between us — strange and new, nothing like what I had felt with Jackson. That had been desperate, fragile, a drowning person reaching for something solid.

This felt like standing near a fire. Warm. Consuming. Impossible to look away from.

My body responded to him and I hated that it did. The bond between me and Jackson hadn't been severed yet. It made no sense. None of this made sense.

"There is no need for conflict."

Elder Thomas moved through the crowd with the careful authority of a man who had navigated pack politics for decades. Every head turned.

"Over the years, our people have recorded cases of one female being bonded to two mates simultaneously. It is rare, but it is a natural occurrence within the moon goddess's design."

A sound left my mouth before I could stop it. Something between a gasp and a laugh.

Of course it is.

"In such cases," Elder Thomas continued, "the female is given three months. Both males compete for her heart. At the end of that period, she chooses one and formally rejects the other. No earlier."

Elsie scoffed from somewhere behind me. Loudly. She didn't bother pretending otherwise.

Sebastian turned to face Elder Thomas with an expression that could have frozen a river.

"Those rules don't apply to me." His voice was quiet and final. "I am not a werewolf. And I will not wait three months to claim my mate."

"I understand your position, Your Majesty." Elder Thomas held his ground with admirable composure. "But Ava is of this pack. She must abide by our laws."

Something ignited in my chest.

I let it burn for exactly two seconds before I opened my mouth.

"One of you?" I said.

The room went quiet.

I stepped forward, away from the wall I had pressed myself against, away from the corner I had learned to occupy — and I let every person in that room look at me properly for the first time.

"Since the day I failed to shift, not one of you treated me as though I belonged here. You called me a rogue. You laughed at me in the street. You let my own family throw me out." My voice didn't shake. I was surprised by that. "And now — *now* — when it serves you, I am suddenly one of you?"

Silence.

Sebastian's eyes found mine across the room and something in them — approval, maybe, or recognition — made my spine straighten further.

"She is right," he said. "She is an outcast in your pack and every person in this room knows it." He looked at Elder Thomas without blinking. "Do not stand in front of me and pretend otherwise."

"It doesn't matter!" Jackson's voice cracked through the room. "Her parents are pack members. That makes her pack. This is her home and she is *my* mate —"

"Stop."

The word came out of me like something that had been building pressure for years.

I walked up to Jackson before I could think better of it — close enough to look him directly in the eye — and I felt the room collectively hold its breath.

"You are pathetic," I said.

His mouth opened. Closed.

"Ava!" My mother's voice from behind me. "He is your Alpha —"

"I don't care." I didn't turn around. "He rejected me. He told me to stay away from this pack. He told me to leave the city so his important guest wouldn't have to look at me." My voice cracked on that last part and I hated it, but I kept going. "And now — the second someone else wants me — he cares. He suddenly wants me back."

I shook my head slowly.

"You don't love me, Jackson. You just don't want to lose."

"Ava." His voice dropped. The anger drained out of it, replaced by something raw. "I made a mistake."

The laugh that left me was short and humourless.

"So did I." I held his gaze. "I let myself hope. I thought that one word from you meant everything was going to change." I swallowed. "I won't make that mistake again."

I turned to face the room — my parents, the elders, the pack members who had watched me be humiliated for years and said nothing — and I let the silence stretch for one long moment.

Then I looked at Jackson one last time.

"I, Ava Wellington, accept your rejection."

The effect was immediate.

Jackson's hand flew to his chest. He staggered, the full force of the severed bond hitting him like a physical blow, and somewhere behind him my father's men caught his arms to keep him upright.

"No —" He lurched forward. "You cannot —"

Sebastian stepped between us before Jackson's hand could reach me. One smooth, immovable step. He didn't touch Jackson. He didn't need to.

The message was clear.

*She is not yours anymore.*

"It is done," Sebastian said to the room. "We leave in an hour."

He looked at me — just me, briefly, like a promise — and walked out with his men behind him.

******

The room exhaled.

And then, because apparently this family could not go thirty seconds without reminding me of who they were, my mother raised her hand.

My father caught her wrist before it landed.

"Have you lost your mind, Sonia?" His voice was low and furious. "She is the Lycan King's mate. He will burn this entire territory to the ground if you touch her."

My mother lowered her hand slowly.

I watched it happen and felt something strange — not relief, not satisfaction. Just a tired kind of clarity. The only reason my mother wasn't hitting me right now was fear of consequences. Not love. Not regret.

It had never been love.

Elsie stepped into the silence my mother left behind.

"Don't let it go to your head," she said, her voice sweet and sharp as broken glass. "You don't have a wolf, Ava. His people will find out. His advisors will force his hand. And when he realises he's made a mistake —" She smiled. "You'll be back on the streets where you belong."

I let her finish.

Then I looked at her — really looked at her, the way you look at something you're leaving behind — and I smiled.

"Be careful, Elsie." I kept my voice light. "You really don't want to make an enemy of a queen."

Her smile faltered.

"Wolf or not, I am leaving this place as the mate of the most powerful man alive." I glanced at the room — one full, final look at every person who had made the last four years what they were. "Which is more than any of you will ever be able to say."

I turned to go.

"Ava."

Jackson's voice. Quiet now. Stripped of the alpha command and the jealousy and the performance of it.

Just his voice.

I stopped, but I didn't turn around.

"He's dangerous. You don't know him — not really. I just —" A pause. "Please be careful."

I almost softened. Almost.

"I will," I said. And then — "Goodbye, Jackson."

I felt his hand close around my arm one last time. Light this time. Not possessive.

He leaned close enough that only I could hear him.

"I will come for you, Ava. I made the mistake of letting you go once. I won't make it twice." His voice was steady and certain in a way that made my chest ache against my will. "This isn't over."

I pulled my arm free gently.

"Goodluck," I said.

And I walked out without looking back.