CHAPTER 5

Marie’s POV

Alpha Astance

The silence following my words was sharp enough to draw blood. I watched as the last flickering embers of warmth in Johnson’s eyes died out, replaced by a gaze so glacial it felt like a physical frost settling over the room. His expression turned cold, not the heat of a burning fire, but the absolute zero of a void.

"I thought we already reached an agreement, Marie," he said, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous rumble.

 "We discussed the necessity of this arrangement. We discussed the debt we owe to Doreen for her family’s sacrifice."

A laugh bubbled up in my throat, jagged and bitter, tearing its way out before I could stop it. I laughed until my ribs ached, until the sound turned into something that felt more like a scream.

"Agreement?" I choked out, my eyes burning with a rage so pure it blinded me.

 "You mean the surrender you forced upon me? She wants to relive her first love, so I have to stand in the shadows and watch you fall in love with her all over again. She wants to experience marriage just once before she dies, so you handed her the wedding I spent months preparing, down to the very lace on the tablecloths. She wants to see the world, so you pack your bags and take her travelling everywhere, leaving me here to manage your pack and keep your secrets."

"We have been married for five years, Johnson," I whispered, my voice trembling with the weight of half a decade of invisibility.

 "Five years. And in all that time, we never had a wedding. Not one day where I was truly yours in the eyes of the world."

I remembered the early days, the way the pack elders had sneered at me. I was an orphan of an unknown bloodline, a stray picked up from the fringes of the territory. They had opposed our union with a ferocity that bordered on hatred. Because of their prejudice, there was no ceremony, no white dress, no sacred vows whispered before the Moon Goddess. Just a cold legal filing and a bond that Johnson treated like a chore.

But I had worked. I had bled for this pack. For five years, I served as Luna, navigating the cutthroat politics of the intercontinental rankings. I had stayed up until dawn reviewing trade agreements and strengthening our borders until we rose to the top three. Only a few months ago, the pack finally relented. They saw my value. They proposed a ceremony to finally honour the woman who had helped build their empire.

I had spent half a year preparing every detail. I had picked the flowers, the music, the vows. Just for him to turn our ceremony into a means of bargaining.

Thinking of this, the final thread of my hope snapped. There was nothing left but a hollow, echoing disappointment.

"I am serious, Johnson," 

"I have already signed the divorce papers. They’re right there. You sign them, and then you reject me. You use that Alpha authority you’re so proud of and you sever the link."

I looked at him, my heart a flatline. 

"Whatever you want to do with Doreen after that has nothing to do with me. Be her lover, be her husband, be her shadow. I don't care. Just let me go."

Johnson didn't reach for the papers. Instead, he laughed, a dark, mocking sound that chilled my marrow. He looked at the agreement, then back at me, his eyes narrowing as a new thought seemed to strike him.

"And what about the child, Marie?" he asked, his voice thick with a sudden, possessive venom.

 "What about the child you’re carrying? Are you really so selfish that you think you can just walk away and take my heir with you? You think I’d let a bastard of my blood grow up outside these walls?"

The mention of the child felt like a ghost limb twitching. I felt my hand instinctively move toward my stomach, but I stopped it halfway. 

I opened my mouth to speak, the words ‘The child is gone, Johnson’ hovering on the tip of my tongue. He has fallen so badly in love with Doreen that the birth of his child evaded his memory so quickly. 

Without another word, without a glance at the divorce papers or the woman whose soul he had just finished trampling, he turned around and sprinted out of the room. I heard his heavy footsteps pounding up the stairs, heard the frantic way he called her name as he reached the upper landing.

I stood in the centre of the vast, empty living room. The silence returned, but this time it didn't feel heavy. It felt hollow. I was a ghost in my own house, a shadow in the life I had built.

I sat down on the edge of the sofa, my body feeling unnaturally light. I looked at the fireplace, where the embers had finally turned to grey ash. There was no more warmth to be found here. There was no more Marie the Luna, no more Marie the Mate.

I reached for my own phone. My fingers were steady as I scrolled through a contact list I hadn't touched in years. I bypassed the pack members, the elders, and the business associates. I stopped at an account at the very bottom, one without a name, just a string of encrypted digits that I had memorised a lifetime ago.

I hit dial. The ringing tone was low and rhythmic. It was picked up on the third ring. No one spoke on the other end, but I could hear the familiar, steady breathing of someone who had been waiting for this call for a very long time.

"Astance," I said, my voice finally firm, the ice in my heart lending me a strength I hadn't known I possessed. 

"Do the words you said back then still count?"