All Chapters of In Search of Liberation: Luna In name Only: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The night dragged like a curse. Moonlight pooled against the bedroom floor, throwing faint silver bars across the carpet, bars that looked too much like the ones Jason might still be staring at in the dungeon below the Range compound. Michelle couldn’t stop pacing. Her bare feet whispered over the rug; her hands twisted together until the skin over her knuckles turned white. She moved from wall to wall like an animal trapped in a cage too small to hold her rage.Every few steps she stopped, pressed her palms against her temples, and tried to breathe through the chaos in her mind.Think. There has to be a way out.Running was pointless. The mate mark at her neck burned whenever she even imagined leaving the borders. The invisible link between them, the ancient curse of the Moon, tethered her to Patrick’s will. It didn’t matter that she hated him; the bond answered to dominance, not affection. As long as he was Alpha, every thought of defiance sent an ache through her veins like molte

The roar of voices filled Patrick’s mind before the morning light had even broken through the curtains. It wasn’t noise from outside , it was the pack link, chaotic and frantic, howling through the shared psychic bond that connected every wolf within Range territory.Alpha, Alpha! the voice came, sharp and panicked. Beta Jason has escaped! We can’t find him. He’s gone, Alpha!Patrick’s eyes snapped open. For a moment he thought he had misheard, but the echo came again, a chorus of nervous minds all confirming the same thing. He’s gone. The cell’s empty.His body tensed beneath the sheets. Then, in one fluid movement, he sat upright, his chest rising and falling with sudden fury. “What?” he barked aloud, his voice echoing through the room. “How in the hell, ”But before the thought could finish, his gaze shifted to the other side of the bed. Michelle lay there, sleeping soundly , or pretending to. Her wrists were bound loosely with silver cuffs, enough to suppress her strength but no

The atmosphere in the bedroom was thick enough to choke on. Michelle could feel the tension before Patrick even opened his mouth. His presence always altered the air, heavy, oppressive, laced with dominance so ingrained it had become part of the walls.The mate mark pulsed the moment he drew near, a phantom hand tightening around her lungs, reminding her that her body still recognised him as Alpha even if her heart and mind rejected him entirely.Patrick growled, low and deep, a sound coated in authority and threat. The sound rippled through the bond, slamming into her nervous system. Pain shot through her mark, white and sharp, radiating down her spine.Michelle gasped and instinctively cowered, not because she feared him as a man, but because the bond forced submission when dominance was exerted.It was the sickest part of the mate bind, your body bowed, even as your mind screamed.Patrick saw the pain ripple through her and took satisfaction from it. His eyes glinted, not with love

Patrick drove like a man possessed.The tyres of the Range Pack’s black SUV tore across the gravel, scattering dust behind him as he sped toward the administration building. The early morning sun had just begun to break over the treeline, staining the clouds gold and red, but there was no beauty in it today. Not for him.Michelle’s words were still echoing in his skull.“I will defy you. If you kill me, everything goes to charity. I’d rather die than continue like this.”She wasn’t bluffing. He had seen it, in her eyes, in her stance, in the numb steadiness of her breathing. She meant every word. The threat of death didn’t frighten her anymore. He had pushed her so far that fear had burned itself out.And now he was the one left afraid.Because once a Luna stops fearing an Alpha, The Alpha loses everything.He gripped the steering wheel tighter, his knuckles whitening. The mate mark pulsed faintly under his skin, reacting to her defiance, to her emotional withdrawal, to the harden

Patrick slammed the office door shut behind him and went straight to the filing cabinet. His movements were harsh, frantic, nothing like the careful, measured Alpha persona he liked to project. He dragged out folders, deeds, legal binders, the things he had ignored because he always assumed the victory was assured.He found the file marked LEESON ESTATE – ALPHA TRANSFER CLAUSE.The seal of Michelle’s father, Alpha Steven Leeson, stared back at him like a ghost.Patrick ripped it open.His eyes moved fast. Faster. Then froze.The clause was written in plain, brutal language:Should the Luna, Michelle Leeson, perish without producing heirs, the pack and its lands revert to the Alpha Committee for reassignment.Should the Alpha mate be found unfit, guilty of abuse, neglect, coercion or pack endangerment, the mate bond may be forcibly dissolved by Council decree.All personal wealth held jointly or in trust reverts to charity.Patrick’s stomach dropped.Everything he thought he owned