Chapter 8

Ava's POV

The next day I went to Smith Corporation.

Inside, the lobby hummed with wolves in tailored suits. Their eyes slid over me like I didn't deserve to be in their midst.

I was dressed in plain dress, worn shoes, with no jewelry.

The receptionist’s nostrils flared faintly as she stared at me. Her smile tightened.

“Miss, you don’t work here, do you? Do you have an appointment?”

Appointment. The word stung. The receptionist couldn’t tell that I was Victor's luna. Victor and I had held a very private mating ceremony. Our union was never made public. Victor had said we would announce our union after our pup was born.

Instead, I’d been taken away in silver shackles before the announcement could be made.

To the world, Victor Smith was unmated.

Only the Smith family, the Stone, and a few trusted elders knew the truth: that I already carried his mark.

My fingers brushed my throat unconsciously, remembering the phantom burn of teeth that had once sealed our bond.

“I’m here to see Victor,” I said evenly. “Tell him Ava Stone is here.”

The receptionist’s gaze dropped to my clothes again. Suspicion hardened her scent.

She pressed a button. “Security, come to the front desk.”

Two guards approached. They had broad-shoulders. One grabbed my arm.

“Ma’am, you need to leave.”

My wolf snarled inside my ribs, furious at the disrespect, but I swallowed it. I hadn’t come to start a dominance fight. I’d come to end a marriage.

Just then, the elevator doors opened.

The world narrowed to one scent. The scent of Cedarwood and frost. It belonged to him, Victor.

Victor stepped out, surrounded by subordinates, his presence rolling through the lobby like winter wind over a frozen lake.

My heart lurched. My wolf surged forward, wanting to take control. I kept her under control. I shook of the security guard's grip and rushed towards him.

“Victor, we need to talk.”

He stopped.

His eyes landed on me and for a split second, shock cracked his composure. Then it sealed over with cold annoyance.

“This is my office, Ava” he said, his voice clipped, Alpha authority vibrating under the words. “Whatever it is can wait until I get home.”

Home.

The word hollowed me out. There was no home between us anymore.

“I waited for you last night,” I said. “You never came back. Your phone was off. You’re the one who won’t give me a chance to talk privately.”

I pulled the documents from my bag and set them on the marble table beside him.

It was the divorce papers.

“I’ve signed my part,” I said. My voice stayed steady, though my wolf whimpered. “Just sign yours so we can sever our bond. I’m not asking for anything. Not your money, not Jasper, nothing.”

My throat tightened around our pup’s name, but I forced the words out.

“You should be pleased,” I finished softly. “Isn’t this what you’ve always wanted?”

Victor’s gaze dropped to the papers.

Five years ago, I would have stood behind him with lowered eyes, the obedient girl who followed wherever her Alpha led.

Prison had burned that girl away. I stood straight now. Unbowed, claiming my right to leave.

But Victor didn’t reach for the papers.

Instead, his expression hardened, his eyes glowing with his wolf.

“Ava,” he said, his voice low and dangerous, “don’t try to pressure me with this. I’m not falling for your tricks.”

The words struck like claws.

Tricks, He thought this was tricks?

As if I still played games to keep him, as if I hadn’t already lost everything.

He stepped around me and headed for the exit.

I grabbed the papers and turned to follow, panic flaring within me, only for the guards to block me again. Their hands closed on my arms.

“Ma’am, you’ve been told to leave.”

They dragged me through the glass doors and shoved me onto the pavement outside.

The doors sealed behind me with a cold hiss.

I stared down at the divorce papers in my hands. The wind tugged at them, rattling the pages like dry leaves.

Even leaving him… was this hard.

For a moment, desperation whispered: Go to his grandmother. The old matriarch still held authority over the Moonshadow pack. If anyone could force Victor’s hand, it was her.

But I knew the truth.

His grandma, the Queen Luna would never allow the Alpha heir to sever a mating bond so easily, not when a pup and lineage were involved.

My thoughts tangled, grief and frustration knotting tight in my chest. I would have to let the council handle this. That was the only way. They would have to summon Victor and take care of it themselves.

Just then, a thought crashed through me. Thought of my daughter, June.

My head snapped up and I saw Victor’s black car gliding toward the curb.

Something inside me broke. I ran towards the car.

“Victor, stop!”

Victor's POV

The moment my car pulled away from the curb, I let out a slow breath and forced my attention back to the tablet in my hand. I had reports contracts and Pack territory disputes to look into. Things that actually made sense.

Not Ava.

The driver accelerated smoothly through the corporate district, until his scent spiked with alarm.

Then the brakes slammed.

My tablet slipped from my fingers and hit the floor with a sharp crack, glass spider-webbing across the screen.

My wolf’s ears pricked. I lifted my head and saw her.

Ava stood in the middle of the road, her hair whipping in the wind, her arms spread as she blocked the car like a deranged rogue challenging an Alpha.

Rage surged within me.

What kind of woman throws herself in front of a moving Alpha vehicle? In public? After humiliating him inside his own office?

Since she got out of prison yesterday, she had done nothing but infuriate me with her attention seeking actions. First she storms Laura's party, then she presented divorce papers, now this…

My driver, twisted in his seat, panic rolling off him. “Alpha, what should I—”

I stared through the windshield at Ava.

She didn’t move, she didn’t flinch.

She just stood there, eyes locked on mine through the glass like she’d already decided she would rather be hit than let me leave.

My anger snapped into place like armor.

I let ice flood my veins. “Drive through,” I said.

The driver froze. “Sir—”

“If she wants to keep blocking us,” I finished, my voice flat as winter, “hit her, she will survive. I’ll cover the medical bills if necessary.”

The driver swallowed. My command pressed down on him.

He turned forward. Ava still didn’t move.

The accelerator slammed down and the car surged forward……