Too Late to Regret

The silver bars of the pack manor were never meant to keep enemies out—they were built to keep me in. For three years, as Alpha Lucian’s recognized mate, I owned nothing. Not the clothes hanging in my wardrobe, not the sacred moonstones passed down from the pack's lineage, and certainly not the freedom to walk beyond the pack boundaries. Lucian called it "discipline." "You were wild," he would say, his hand resting heavy and cold on my shoulder whenever I questioned the endless stack of requisitions. "A wolf without restraint cannot rule a pack. I am teaching you how to be a Luna. Once you learn proper procedure and submission, we will hold the ceremony." So, I submitted. I filled out forms to request wool blankets in the winter. I waited three days for approval to access basic medicinal herbs from the pack stores. I lived like a beggar in my own home, holding onto the belief that Lucian was simply protecting the Pack’s traditions. Until Jenna stopped breathing properly. Our four-year-old daughter’s skin burned with the dreaded Ash Fever—a rare, black-vein rot that only the sacred waters of the High Sanctuary could cleanse. Standard herbs were useless. With Jenna wrapped in a thin blanket, I sprinted to the administrative quarters. "She needs the Sanctuary pools! Now! Sign it!" The elder looked away with pitiless eyes. "The Alpha has issued a strict protocol lock. No pack assets may be accessed without his direct signature. Requisition denied." "She is the Alpha's daughter!" I screamed, tears scalding my cheeks. "She will die!" "Rules are rules, Elena. Learn your place." After two long days of waiting and following all the ‘procedures’, Lucian finally had someone deliver a small bottle of sacred water. “Too late.” I said, “She doesn't need it anymore.” My daughter is already gone.