Chapter 1

Kaelira POV

“Shift.” She murmured. 

The healer didn’t look at me. Her fingers hovered above my wrist, where my pulse should be steady. Instead, it fluttered, uneven and weak.

I closed my eyes. No brush of fur against my mind. No low hum beneath my ribs or heat curling down my spine.

Just… emptiness. The healer exhaled slowly. That sound tells me more than her words ever could.

“She hasn’t surfaced in days,” I said, keeping my voice low. “She hasn’t done that before.”

The healer’s hand tightened around mine. “Not like this.”

I forced myself to look at her.

“She is withdrawing, Luna.”

The word tasted bitter.

“Withdrawing?” I repeated.

“She hasn’t responded to your call in months. You haven’t shifted in nearly a year. If she continues retreating…” The healer swallowed. “Your body will begin to fail.”

A pause.

“You may not survive another year.”

The words settled in my chest like stones. I nodded once.

Of course. Seven years as Luna. Seven years untouched by fate.

Seven years barren….

I rose from the cot slowly, smoothing the front of my gown. The pack healer bowed her head, waiting for my collapse. For tears. For a breakdown befitting a fragile Luna.

She won’t get one.

“I won’t die,” I said calmly.

She didn’t argue.

The corridors of the Alpha wing feel colder than usual.

The guards bow as I pass. Their eyes flickered briefly to my stomach before snapping back up.

They tried to hide it but they never did.

Seven years.

No heir.

The whispers started in the third year.

By the fifth, they stopped pretending. Barren Luna, Unblessed, Useless.

My wolf used to snarl at that.

Now? Nothing.

I paused outside Darius’s office.

I remembered the night our marriage was announced. My father stood tall beside Alpha Magnus. The alliance was sealed with wine and contracts.

And me. A political bridge wrapped in silk.

Darius had looked at me then, measured and assessed .

Not claiming, recognizing, just calculating. 

The mate bond was supposed to feel like fire. Ours felt like pressure. Heavy and artificial. Like something forced between my ribs instead of blooming inside them.

I pushed the doors open without knocking.

Darius didn’t look up immediately.

He signed a document, sealed it, and handed it to a guard.

Only then did he lift his eyes to me.

They are as controlled as ever. Dark and Impenetrable.

“Kaelira.”

No warmth or distance either.

Just… ownership.

“We need to talk.”

He leaned back in his chair. “You look pale.”

“I was at the healer’s den.”

A flicker, Brief and gone.

“And?”

“My wolf is withdrawing.” Silence stretches between us.

He didn't rise, didn't cross the room or reach for me neither.

“She said if it continues,” I added, “I may not survive the year.”

He folded his hands on the desk.

“You are overthinking.”

A hollow laugh escaped me before I could stop it.

 “Am I?”

“You have been under stress. The pack has been unstable. Wolves respond to emotion.”

“My wolf isn’t responding at all.”

His jaw tightened slightly. “It will correct itself.”

“It hasn’t shifted in months.”

“You haven’t made the effort.”

My nails bit into my palm.

“You think I haven’t tried?”

His gaze sharpened “Control yourself.”

I took one step closer to the desk.

“Mark me.”

The words landed between us. His expression didn’t change.

“Kaelira!”

“Seven years, Darius.” My voice remained steady. That surprised me. “Seven years and you’ve never marked me.”

“It isn’t necessary.”

A slow, dangerous quiet filled the room.

“Not necessary,” I repeated.

“You are my mate, the alliance stands. The mark changes nothing politically.”

“I’m not talking about politics.”

His eyes flickered, annoyed now.

“The pack does not need theatrics.”

My chest tightened.

“It isn’t theatrics to want a real bond.”

“You have one.”

“No,” I whisper.

The words trembled through the air.

“We have an agreement.”

He rose then, finally. Tall and imposing. The Alpha every wolf bows to.

He walked around the desk, stopping a breath away from me.

“You are my Luna.”

“On paper.”

His eyes darkened.

“Do not diminish your position.”

“My position?” My laugh was soft, brittle. “They whisper about my infertility in the halls. They watch my stomach whenever I walk past. They count the years.”

“That is not my concern.”

The words hit harder than any slap.

Not his concern??

I studied his face carefully.

Seven years.

Seven years sharing a bed that felt like ice.

Seven years of him turning away before dawn.

Seven years of waiting for something to ignite.

It never did.

“I want a divorce.”

The silence that followed was sharp enough to cut skin.

His gaze went completely still.

“No.”

It isn’t loud.

It doesn’t need to be.

“You don’t get to decide that alone,” I said.

“I do.”

My wolf should be snarling right now.

Should be clawing at the surface.

Instead.. A strange recoil rippled through me. At the word he said next.

“You are my mate. This marriage stands!.”

Mate.

The moment the word left his mouth, something inside me twisted violently.

Not pain but rejection.

My breath stuttered.

That wasn’t how a wolf reacts to her true mate.

That is how prey reacts to a trap.

Darius watched me carefully. “Do not let insecurity drive foolish decisions.”

“Insecurity?” My voice dropped. “You have never marked me. Never claimed me. Never once looked at me like I was chosen.”

His silence confirmed everything.

“This is an alliance, Kaelira. Act like it.”

There it is.

Not a union.

A contract.

I straightened slowly.

“You may refuse the divorce,” I said quietly. “But you cannot force my heart to remain.”

His jaw tightened. “Your heart is irrelevant.”

I nodded once.

That answer was final.

I turned and walked toward the door.

Each step felt distant. My wolf was quieter than she has ever been.

I reached the hallway. The doors closed behind me.

And then..

A sound.

Soft.

Feminine.

A laugh.

It drifted from the direction of Darius’s private chambers.

Not the office.

The chambers!

My steps faltered.

The guards at the end of the corridor gazed straight ahead, as if they heard nothing.

The laugh came again. Low and intimate:

Familiar with the walls.

My pulse pounded in my ears.

My wolf should be raging.

Should be clawing, howling, demanding blood.

Instead…There is nothing.

Not anger, jealousy, or pain. Just a vast, endless silence.

I reached inward one last time. I searched for her.

For the presence that has been with me since childhood.

For the warmth that once filled my bones.

“Say something,” I whispered under my breath.

Anything.

A growl?  A flicker? A pulse? 

But all I feel is emptiness. Cold, still and even that disappears.

My wolf didn’t retreat, She didn't sleep, She didn't hide.

She vanished completely.

And I know, with terrifying clarity, I am no longer bonded to anything at all.