Shattered bonds

The bedroom door clicked shut behind me, the sound echoing through the cavernous suite like a final gavel falling in a courtroom.

I set the splintered wooden mobile and the folded yarn blanket on the vanity, my fingers tracing the uneven knit of the wool. My hands were violently shaking. Tears blurred my vision, hot and stinging, but I refused to let them fall. Not anymore.

Heavy, hurried footsteps pounded outside in the corridor before the latch clicked and swung wide.

Dominic strode in, bringing with him the scent of cedar, burnt ozone, and the faint, sickening trace of Vivian’s musk. He looked worn out, his jaw shadowed with rough stubble, but his gray eyes held a burning frustration that made my stomach coil.

“What is wrong with you today, Daciana?” he demanded, closing the door firmly behind him. He ran a broad, calloused hand down his face, sighing in deep agitation. “I have been fighting at the border for weeks. I survived rogue ambushes and led our warriors back safely. Yet from the second I stepped foot inside our territory, you have done nothing but pick fights, create scenes, and humiliate me in front of the pack.”

A bitter, dry laugh ripped straight from my chest. I turned around to face him, leaning my back against the vanity to keep my trembling legs from giving out beneath me.

“Humiliate you?” My voice rose, each syllable dripping with venom. “You rode into the courtyard with another woman on your arm. You announced to our people, to the council, and to me that she is carrying your pup! And you have the audacity to accuse me of humiliating you?”

Dominic took a long step forward, his hands outstretched in an attempt to pacify me. “Daciana, please. I already explained to you what happened. It was an accident. The final night of the campaign, the victory feast—I had too much mead. I lost control. I woke up beside her. It meant nothing to me. Nothing!”

“It meant enough to plant a child inside her, Dominic!” I yelled, the dam breaking completely. All the five years of suppressed fear, self-doubt, and silent grief came crashing to the surface. “You made vows to me before the Moon Goddess! You swore that I was your one and only, your true mate, your Luna! And now you bring your mistress into my home. You give her the nursery I spent three months preparing with my own two bare hands! What comes next, Dominic? Tell me! Will she move into this bed next? Will she wear my Luna pendant? Will you stand aside while she takes my title and strips me of every single thing I have left?”

Dominic’s expression darkened, the gentle patience he usually feigned vanishing into the rigid authority of an Alpha. His broad chest rose and fell heavily as his aura expanded, pressing down on the room like a suffocating blanket.

“Watch yourself, Daciana,” he warned, his voice dropping into a dangerous, gravelly baritone. “Do not push me. You know as well as I do that the council has been breathing down my neck for years. Five years, Daciana! Five years of marriage, and our house remains silent! No heir, no future for the Whiteridge lineage! The elders look at you and see a failure of duty. They look at you and see an Omega without a wolf, unable to give this pack what it desperately needs!”

The words felt like a serrated blade tearing open my ribs. I stared at him, my heart seizing in agony.

“A failure of duty,” I whispered, tasting the copper tang of blood where I had bitten the inside of my lip. “Is that what I am to you now?”

Dominic softened slightly, realizing how brutal his words had landed, though he refused to back down. “Vivian is a warrior. Her bloodline is ancient and strong. The pup she carries will be born an Alpha—strong, healthy, and capable of leading our warriors. It solves every political crisis we face. Isn't that a blessing for both of us? Once she delivers, the child belongs to you. You will raise it as the official Luna.”

The cruelty disguised as logic was sickening. He genuinely believed he was solving a problem. He truly thought I would cradle Vivian's offspring, wipe its tears, and smile at pack banquets while Vivian walked around as the honored mother of the future Alpha.

I looked directly into his eyes, swallowing the hard lump in my throat. My voice dropped to a calm, steady whisper that cut through the heavy air.

“I’m pregnant too.”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Dominic froze. His gray eyes widened for a fraction of a second, scanning my face, before his expression melted into a patronizing, pitying smile. He let out a soft, exasperated breath and shook his head.

“Sweetheart... don't make jokes like that,” he said gently, taking a step toward me and reaching for my cheek. “Not right now. We have tried for five years. We have visited every pack healer and fertility specialist in the territory, with no result. You’re upset, and your emotions are running high. Are you sure you aren't just letting your desperation trick you?”

His hand hovered near my skin, but I pulled away, refusing his touch.

The silver gift box with the positive test was resting right behind me on the nightstand, only inches from my grasp. I could have thrown it in his face. I could have made him look at the two unmistakable pink lines that proved a miracle had finally taken root in my womb.

Instead, I kept my hands folded over my stomach, staring at him with a gaze that had gone completely hollow.

“If I am truly pregnant,” I said, every word measured and cold, “will you send Vivian away?”

Dominic stopped. The easy smile fell from his lips.

He didn't answer immediately. The heavy silence stretched between us, thick and suffocating, ticking by like a death sentence.

Finally, he looked away, his jaw hardening into stubborn lines.

“No,” he murmured, his voice tight. “Vivian is carrying my blood. She is the daughter of my Beta, a warrior who bled for our territory. That child is my responsibility, Daciana. I will not throw my own flesh and blood out into the cold, regardless of whether you are carrying or not.”

The last lingering trace of warmth in my chest died. A cold, barren frost swept through my veins, freezing my shattered heart into stone.

It didn't matter.

Even if I gave him a child, it would never erase the divide between us. To Dominic and his entire pack, I was nothing more than a fragile, wolfless Omega. I couldn't shift, I couldn't tear out the throats of rogue wolves, and I couldn't provide the raw, brutal martial power they worshiped. Vivian and her child would always be there, a living, breathing reminder of my inadequacy and Dominic's betrayal.

I stood up straight, lifting my chin to look the Alpha of Whiteridge in the eyes.

“Then let’s divorce,” I said clearly. “Divorce me, Dominic. Set me free.”

The air in the room shattered.

A ferocious snarl tore from Dominic’s throat. His eyes flashed from slate gray to a brilliant, predatory gold as his inner beast surged to the surface. The temperature plummeted, and the terrifying weight of his Alpha command slammed into me, shaking the glass panes of the windows.

“Never!” he roared, stepping into my space until he towered over me, his hands gripping my shoulders with bruising force. “You are my Luna! You belong to me! You took the vows before the Goddess, and you will die as my Luna! Strip that ridiculous word from your mind, Daciana, because I will tear this world apart before I ever let you walk away from me!”

Tears finally escaped, trailing down my cheeks as I looked up at the man I had loved for half a decade. “Dominic, please... let me go. I don't want this life anymore. I don't want your title. I don't want to live trapped in the shackles of a position that only brings me misery. Let me leave!”

Before he could answer, a sharp, urgent knock rattled the bedroom door.

“Alpha!” Gamma Michael’s voice sounded muffled through the thick wood. “The Beta is downstairs with the elders. They demand to speak with you immediately regarding Vivian and the future heir's formal status.”

Dominic flinched, his golden irises slowly shifting back to gray. He stared down at me, his chest heaving, his fingers loosening their grip on my arms.

“We are not finished with this conversation,” he said coldly, stepping back toward the door. “I will go down, deal with the Beta, and settle the council. When I return, I expect you to have calmed down and regained your senses. You are not leaving this pack, Daciana. And you will never speak of divorce again.”

He stepped through the door, pulled it shut behind him, and before I could even take a breath, the heavy iron bolt on the outside slid into place with a loud, sickening clank.

“Dominic!” I screamed, throwing myself against the wood and rattling the brass knob. “Dominic, open this door! You cannot lock me in here!”

There was no reply. Only the heavy sound of his boots marching down the hallway and descending the stairs.

Minutes stretched into agonizing hours. The afternoon sun drifted lower, casting long, bloody shadows across the master suite. My throat burned with a raw, parched ache, and a dull cramp began to throb in my lower belly from sheer emotional exhaustion.

I pressed my face against the crack of the door, calling out weakly. “Is someone there? Please... I need water. Just a glass of water.”

Footsteps approached slowly. A burly warrior stopped outside the door, his shadow blocking the sliver of light beneath the frame.

“Quiet down in there, Omega,” the guard sneered, his voice laden with undisguised contempt. “The Alpha has locked you away for your insolence. A barren Luna who dares defy her master and cannot even provide an heir does not deserve to waste the pack's water or food. Stay quiet, or I'll report your rebellion to the elders.”

His heavy boots marched away, leaving me alone in the suffocating silence.

My knees gave out completely. I slid down the hard wood of the door, curling into a ball on the cold floorboards. My mouth was bone dry, my head spinning in nauseating waves of vertigo.

Pressing one trembling palm against my stomach, I whispered a silent prayer to the Moon Goddess to protect the tiny life inside me.

Darkness crept in at the edges of my vision, heavy and inescapable. As the room tilted into blackness, the cold floor received my limp body, and my consciousness slipped away.