All Chapters of Not Their Luna: A Female Alpha Story: Chapter 181 - Chapter 190

Rhett I wake up alone.Not physically—Brynlee is still on her side of the bed, curled away from me with her silky hair spilling across the pillow. But the emotional distance between us feels like a chasm that no amount of physical proximity can bridge.Last night's conversation plays on repeat in my head, each word cutting deeper than it did in the moment. Maybe you'd be better off without someone who can't figure out how to be a proper mate anymore. The pain in her voice when she said it was real, but so was the resignation. Like she's already decided this isn't going to work and she's just waiting for me to accept it.I fought so hard to bring her home. Moved heaven and earth to find her, risked dimensional collapse to pull her back from whatever void she was trapped in. And now she's suggesting that maybe I should have left her there.The thought sends such a wave of raw agony through me that I have to get out of bed before I wake her up with my breathing.In the bathroom, I splash

Brynlee The mate bond slams back to life at two o'clock in the afternoon like someone flipping a switch.One moment I'm folding laundry in blessed silence, resigned to another day of feeling disconnected from my own life. The next, I'm drowning in sensation as our bond roars back to overwhelming intensity.Rhett. His presence floods my consciousness so suddenly I have to grab the edge of the dresser to keep from falling over. I can feel his location, his emotional state, the complex mixture of guilt and confusion and something that feels dangerously close to resignation.But there's something wrong with what I'm sensing. He's not where he said he'd be.This morning, he mentioned running errands after dropping Maya at school. Simple, mundane tasks that shouldn't generate this kind of emotional complexity. But the location I'm picking up through our bond isn't the hardware store or the bank.He's at Café Luna. And he's not alone.The realization sends my wolf into immediate territorial

RhettThe house feels like a tomb after Brynlee leaves.Maya comes home from school to find me sitting at the kitchen table, staring at the note Brynlee left explaining that she's gone to stay with her sister for a while. "To give everyone space to figure out what they really want," the careful handwriting says. "I'll call about visitation schedules once things settle."Visitation schedules. Like we're humans who can just get divorced. We both know it’s not that simple. "Where's Mommy?" Maya asks, setting down her backpack and looking around the kitchen like Brynlee might be hiding somewhere."She went to visit Aunt Olivia," I tell her, because it's easier than explaining that our family is falling apart again just two weeks after I brought her mother home from the dead."When is she coming back?"I don't know if she is, I think but can't say. "We're still figuring that out, sweetheart."Maya's face crumples, and I realize she understands more than I've been giving her credit for. "Is

BrynleeThe highway stretches endlessly ahead of me, gray asphalt disappearing into gathering dusk like a metaphor for everything uncertain in my life. I've been driving for two hours, my hands gripping the steering wheel with mechanical precision while my mind cycles through the same devastating conversation on repeat.Maybe some space would be good.Rhett's quiet admission echoes in my head with the finality of a death sentence. He didn't fight when I suggested leaving. He didn't argue when I said I'd make it easy for him. He just... accepted it. Like my absence was a relief rather than a loss.Maybe it is. Maybe Harper was right that he'd be happier without the burden of trying to love someone who came back wrong.The road sign for Glass Lake appears in my headlights—thirty miles to go before I reach Olivia's house and have to explain why my relationship is falling apart two weeks after my miraculous rescue. The thought of admitting failure to my sister, of seeing pity in her eyes,

Rhett I barely sleep after my conversation with Kaden, and by dawn I'm on the road to the last known location of Brynlee's phone. The GPS tracker I installed on our family plan shows her car stopped on Highway 27, about thirty miles outside Glass Lake. She's been stationary there for over twelve hours.That's not normal. Even if she'd decided to sleep in her car instead of driving exhausted, she would have moved by morning. Unless she couldn't.Kian paces restlessly beneath my skin, equally agitated by our mate's prolonged absence. The bond has been silent since yesterday's fight, which means I can't sense her emotional state or general wellbeing. For all I know, she could be hurt, trapped, or worse.Find mate, Kian demands. Track. Hunt. Protect.My wolf's urgency matches my own, but I force myself to think rationally as I drive. Panic won't help Brynlee. Professional tracking skills will.The problem is, my skills are rusty.Six months of grief and barely functional survival have dul