CHAPTER 4

Marie’s POV

Departure

The silence in the pack house living room wasn’t peaceful. It was a physical weight, thick with the scent of expensive sandalwood and the metallic tang of my own simmering desperation. Outside, the Montana woods were a void of blackness, but inside, the floor-to-ceiling windows reflected the carnage of a broken bond.

Johnson stood by the hearth, the dying embers casting jagged shadows across his face. He looked every bit the Alpha, broad-shouldered, immovable, and utterly cold. To anyone else, he was the pinnacle of leadership, a pillar of strength. To me, he was a wall of granite I had been throwing myself against until my hands were bloody and my spirit was shredded.

"Do it, Johnson," I said, my voice cracking like dry parchment. I took a step toward him, my bare feet sinking into the plush cream carpet. The warmth of the room felt mocking against the frost radiating from my soul.

 "Reject me. Tear the tether. I’m standing here, waiting for the blow. I wouldn’t be begging if the Moon Goddess hadn't been so cruel as to hand the power of rejection solely to the Alpha. I am trapped in this link, and I need you to sever it so I can finally breathe. So I can live."

Johnson didn't move. He didn't even look at me. He just gripped the edge of the marble until his knuckles turned a ghostly white, the stone groaning under the pressure of his Alpha strength. The bond between us, though frayed and poisoned, hummed with his suppressed fury. It felt like swallowing broken glass.

"You want to live, Marie?" he finally spat, the words dripping with venom. He turned then, his eyes glowing a predatory amber that pinned me to the spot. The sheer power he rolled off was meant to make me cower, but I was too tired to be afraid.

 "You dare to talk about survival after the stunt you pulled tonight? You’re making a pathetic fuss over a party, a celebration meant to unify the Northern Alliance and you turned it into a circus."

"It wasn't a fuss," I whispered, though my blood was beginning to boil, rising up to meet his heat. 

"It was a tantrum!" Johnson roared, the sound vibrating in my chest and rattling the crystal decanters on the sideboard. He took a predatory step toward me, invading my space until I could smell the sharp bourbon on his breath and the dark, earthy musk of his wolf.

 "Everything would have been fine. The treaties, the optics, the pack's reputation, it would have been seamless if you had just behaved regally for once in your life. If you had just played the role of the Alpha’s mate with a shred of grace."He sneered, his lip curling in a way that made my stomach churn.

 "But no. You couldn't handle not being the centre of the universe. You had to attract attention, to play the martyr, to claw for eyes like a starved child. You embarrassed me. You embarrassed the Crescent Moon pack."

"Embarrassed you?" I laughed, a sharp, hysterical sound that echoed off the high ceilings. 

"Johnson, I nearly lost my life! And you just stood there. Oh sorry, you saved the one already saved in your heart."

Johnson’s hand shot out, not to strike, but to grab my jaw, forcing my head up so I had no choice but to look into the abyss of his resentment. 

"I watched you fail. I watched you choose your ego over our stability. Your vile act, your little display of self-pity, ended up putting Doreen in a sorry state. My Luna is suffering because you don't know how to play your part."

The word Luna felt like a physical slap, a jagged blade driven into the centre of my chest. Doreen. Always Doreen. She was the one he chose in his heart, even if the Goddess had chosen me for his blood. She was the fragile flower, and I was the weed he couldn't stop from growing in his garden.

"I—" I started, my voice trembling with the weight of the things I wanted to scream. I wanted to tell him that Doreen’s 'distress' was a carefully curated performance, a weapon she used to keep him chained to her side. 

"Don't," Johnson cut me short, his voice dropping to a deceptively calm, terrifying register. He released my jaw with a shove, as if the very touch of me had become toxic. He began to pace the length of the rug, a restless predator in a gilded cage. 

"Don't even try to justify it, Marie. Don't look for excuses in the dirt you’ve kicked up."

He stopped and turned back to me, his silhouette framed by the dying fire.

 "Remember who we’re talking about here. Remember that Doreen has only a year left. One year of life before the sickness takes her, and you’re spending your energy trying to make her feel like an outcast in her own home. You’re making her final days a misery because you can't stand the sight of someone being loved more than you are."

He looked at me with a pity that burned worse than his rage. 

 "Why are you being so petty? Is your pride really worth more than the peace of a dying woman? You’re acting like a scavenger circling a wound, waiting for her to drop so you can claim a throne you haven't earned."

The air in the room felt like it was being sucked out, leaving me gasping in a vacuum. The betrayal wasn't just in his words; it was in the bond. I could feel Johnson’s disgust through the link, a slimy, cold sensation that coated my heart like oil on water. He saw me as a villain for wanting to exist. He saw my need for freedom, my plea for rejection, as a personal attack on the woman he actually loved.

I looked at him, really looked at him, the man I had once thought was my destiny, the man I had once prayed would see me and realised he wasn't a hero. He wasn't a leader. He was just a jailer with a crown, a man so blinded by a dying light that he was willing to suffocate the living.

I straightened my spine, pulling the tattered remnants of my dignity around me like a shroud. I didn't care about the party. I didn't care about the regal mask they wanted me to wear while I bled out internally. I didn't care about the Northern Alliance or the optics of an Alpha’s broken home.

I looked Johnson dead in the eye, my gaze as cold and unforgiving as a winter moon. The desperation was gone, replaced by a terrifying, hollow clarity.

"How long Doreen has to live on Earth has nothing to do with me