Chapter 0004

•CATHERINE•

The night after Leo told me he loved another woman, sleep never came.

I lay awake listening to the house settle and wondered how long I had been living beside a stranger. Every memory felt rewritten now: his late nights, the distant smiles, the silences that stretched too long. I had called them stress, duty, and exhaustion. But maybe they’d all been signs of goodbye.

By morning, I told myself I’d face the day as Luna — not as the wife he discarded. Brian needed me to be steady.

I didn’t expect the first thing I’d hear to be my son’s voice saying—

“I want Mary to read my favorite story before getting up.”

I froze. “Brian—” I sat down beside him on the bed, trying to keep my voice steady. “Sweetheart, I’ve read you stories since you were a baby. You wanted no one else to do it, not even your father. What has changed?”

Brian was six now, and I had raised him since he was a newborn, pouring everything I had into loving him like he was my blood.

From the moment I first held him, I swore to protect him with everything in me. He didn’t let anyone else comfort him when he cried, but only me. The helpers tried, but he pushed them away, and secretly, that made me proud.

He was born with chronic asthma, and for two years, the pack’s healer worked tirelessly to keep him alive. I spent countless nights by his side, holding him through every wheezing breath, terrified I would lose him.

When he finally got better, I thought I had earned my place in his little heart forever.

But when he asked for Mary, my heart shattered.

“I want Mary,” he repeated, but if he had asked for someone else, it wouldn’t have hurt as much. But Mary? Of all people.

My stomach twisted. It felt like Mary was taking everything from me — Leo’s attention, and now my son’s love. The two people I lived for were slipping through my fingers, and I didn’t know how to stop it.

“I’ll—” I tried again, but he cut me off.

“Mary!” he screamed at the top of his lungs.

I jumped at his outburst, my heart pounding just as the door creaked open. Leo and Mary rushed in together.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” Leo asked, brushing past me without even looking in my direction.

Brian’s face lit up. “I don’t want my mom to read to me. Can Mary do it?”

Leo smiled softly, and Mary sat beside him, pulling a storybook from the nightstand as if she had been doing it all along.

I swallowed hard, my heart shattering beyond repair. It felt as if someone was stomping on my heart underneath their foot, and I couldn’t breathe for a moment.

I’d done everything I knew — loved, endured, forgiven — and still ended up the stranger in my own home.

They all seemed happy as Mary read him a story, pretending as if I weren’t in the room with them. I turned to the door and left because I didn’t want to break down in front of them.

Lila ran into me in the hallway, and I tried to smile so she wouldn’t see that I was on the verge of breaking down.

“Luna, I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Beta Luke asked me to tell you that there’s a council meeting tomorrow morning to review your innovation proposals before the festival.”

“Thank you, Lila,” I smiled at her. “I’ve been waiting for them to set a date. I’m glad they finally did.”

She nodded politely before walking off, leaving me standing there, hollow. I climbed the stairs to my room and shut the door behind me, leaning against it as tears finally spilled over.

The word family used to mean safety. Now it only reminded me of everything I’d already lost. Once as a child, and again now as a woman.

I wanted to call my parents so badly, just to hear their voices and fall apart in peace, but they died when I was two years old.

My uncle had raised me after my parents were killed in a rogue attack. He told me my mother had hidden me behind a moss-covered tree before she was shot, and my father had died fighting to protect the pack.

The rogue king had found me, marked me with a claw on my arm, and promised to come back for me someday.

My older sister was the one who found me that day and took me to our uncle and his wife.

I reached for the faint scar on my left arm and sighed. For the first time in years, I cried for them again and for everything I had lost.

I was about to head to the bathroom when the door opened. Leo walked in and frowned when he saw me. He didn’t even glance at me as he went straight to the closet and started packing a few outfits.

My stomach dropped. “Leo, what are you doing?”

He didn’t answer.

I wanted to know why he had thrown away all the years we had shared.

“Leo?” I stepped closer, my voice shaking. “What’s happening? What happened to—”

“I want a divorce.”

The words hit hard. My knees nearly gave out, and I pressed a hand to my stomach, gasping for air.

I saw the divorce coming, but I never thought it would come so suddenly. Leo was the love of my life, and I had done everything to be the woman he wanted.

“The papers are in your bedside drawer,” he added. “Sign them. You’ll get alimony and a clean start. The pack will always respect you for your service as Luna, but Mary will take your place.”

I stared at him, my chest heaving. “You brought her into our home, let her turn my child against me, and now you’re leaving me for her? How long has this been going on, Leo? How long have you been pretending to love me?”

He met my eyes, unbothered. “Does it matter if it’s been a year or five?”

“Five years?” I whispered, shaking my head. “You were with her while I was staying up every night taking care of our sick son? All the time I spent with Brian, finding ways for him to get better, you were with her! While I thought you were working late, you were screwing her instead?”

He didn’t answer.

I looked at him — at the man I had shared a bed with, built a life around, and felt nothing but emptiness.

“Then I hope she makes you as proud as you’ve made me ashamed,” I said quietly.

His jaw tightened. “Don’t forget, you’re not Brian’s mother! You have no right to take him away.”

My heart skipped a beat. "Could his mother be…?"

“It’s Mary.”

Tears welled up in my eyes.

His words hit harder than any physical blow.

I’d always known there were secrets surrounding Brian’s birth — that Leo had lost someone before me. But I never thought he’d use that as a weapon now.

Maybe it’s time for me to leave.