Home / Eighteen Seconds to Lose His Luna / Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

All Chapters of Eighteen Seconds to Lose His Luna: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

After sending the message, I watched the screen for a moment. Julia replied a few minutes later. [Ms. Quinn, I’ve accepted your instructions.] [Tomorrow, I’ll confirm the terms of the mate-relationship termination agreement and the withdrawal of your Luna registration.]I sent back one word. [Okay.]A nurse entered to replace my IV bag. She glanced at the empty chair beside the bed. “No one is staying with you?” I shook my head. She did not ask anything else. She lowered her gaze and adjusted the drip. “Press the call button immediately if the abdominal pain gets worse or the bleeding increases. Wolves heal faster than humans, but you were badly hurt. Don’t underestimate it.”I murmured an acknowledgment。I had been sitting in the back seat when the crash happened. The impact sent the car sliding sideways for more than thirty feet. Airbags and shattered glass blocked my sight. I was trapped against the seat and could barely hold my phone. Before I lost consciousness, I heard only the r

Chapter 2

After answering Sloane, Declan turned toward the bedroom. I watched him walk away and asked, “Do you always see her messages that quickly?”He stopped and looked back. “Sloane is my executive assistant. Most of what she sends me concerns pack business. Of course I check.”“I see.”The night before, Sloane had contacted him because she had twisted her ankle during training.Impatience entered Declan’s voice. “What are you trying to say, Mara?”I held his gaze for a few seconds. “Nothing.”The bedroom door closed. I slowly looked away. My chest still felt tight, but I no longer had the energy to follow him and explain.Julia called the next morning. “Ms. Quinn, I need to confirm your current mate registration and property arrangements.”I explained the situation. The home Declan and I shared belonged to the Hawthorne family, and our vehicles were registered to the pack. My design studio had always operated independently and had no financial connection to Declan or the pack.Three years e

Chapter 3

Over the next three days, Declan finally seemed to notice that something had changed.He usually left at eight, and I used to prepare breakfast thirty minutes beforehand. At noon, I asked whether he had eaten. If he was not home by eleven at night, I sent at least two messages. For three days, I did none of those things.On the fourth evening, he came home before eight for the first time in months. As soon as the door opened, he looked toward me at the desk. “Is your phone broken?”I was checking a studio contract and did not look up. “No.”“Then why haven’t you sent me a single message today?”My hand paused. “I've been busy with the studio. There was nothing I needed to tell you.”Declan stiffened, displeasure crossing his face. “I use Do Not Disturb because I can’t be interrupted while handling pack affairs. Don’t use it to take a shot at me.”I looked up from the contract. “I never asked you to spend every moment with me, Declan. I called because I was in an emergency department an

Chapter 4

On Saturday morning, I returned to the pack medical center for my final examination. The doctor checked my injuries and recovery before handing me a new report. “The external injuries have mostly healed, but you’ll need more time to recover from the anemia. For the next month, avoid intense training and forced shifts.”I nodded. “Are my complete medical and accident records ready?”The doctor studied me briefly, then passed me a document envelope. “Everything is inside. The report clearly states that the accident directly caused the pregnancy loss.”I accepted the envelope. The accident had not been my fault. I had not lost the pup because I had been careless. But knowing that could not undo what had happened.I went directly from the medical center to Julia’s office. She was waiting for me with two copies of the termination agreement and an application to withdraw my future-Luna registration. She slid one copy across the desk. “Everything follows the terms we discussed. Because you an

Chapter 5

Declan’s eyes continued down the page. The applicant’s signature on the mate-relationship termination agreement was clear. Mara Quinn.Sloane saw it too. “Mara isn’t truly ending the mate relationship over what happened these past few days, is she?”Declan’s face turned cold. “Get out.”Sloane faltered. “Declan, I only—”“Get out.”When the office door closed, Declan looked at the documents again. The unfinished sentence from the previous night echoed in his head. Our mate relationship... Mara had intended to tell him in person. He had decided that she could not possibly have anything urgent to say and left with his car keys.He opened the medical report. The time of the crash, the emergency admission, the surgery, and the twenty-seven attempted calls were all documented. She had not used the pup to threaten him. She had invented nothing. She had simply told the truth, and he had accused her of joking in front of his entire family.Declan snatched up the papers and hurried from the off

Chapter 6

Declan looked as though someone had struck him squarely in the chest. For a long time, he said nothing. The medical report crumpled slowly in his grip.“Why didn’t you tell me?”I was placing the last studio file into my suitcase. My hand paused. “I did.”Declan stared. “When?”“I called you twenty-seven times from the medical center. When you finally answered, I said the doctor had just told me something.” I faced him. “You didn’t let me finish.”The words I had begun that night seemed to return to him at last. Declan, I’m at the medical center. The doctor just told me...The remaining color vanished from his face. “I didn’t know.”“No. You didn’t.” I nodded once. “Because you never believed my affairs were important enough to hear to the end.”I did not describe every useless emotion. I gave him only the facts. “The truck hit the car hard enough to trap me in the back seat. Rescue workers pulled me out. I entered the emergency department alone. I signed the surgical consent forms alo

Chapter 7

I moved into a small apartment near my studio.It had only one bedroom and a living room too narrow for a long dining table. The curtains were plain ivory. But the lease, the entry permissions, and every object inside belonged to me alone.I placed my cup in the cabinet and organized my work materials in the study. That first night, I slept uninterrupted until morning. No one needed me to leave a light on. I did not have to guess when someone might come home. No message deserved hours of my attention.The next morning, I returned to the studio. The familiar scent of wood, fabric, and finishing materials greeted me when I opened the door.After becoming Declan’s publicly acknowledged mate, I had devoted most of my energy to the duties of a future Luna. I kept only a few design projects and several long-standing clients.My business partner, Naomi, stared when she saw me. “You finally decided to come back?”I placed a proposal on her desk. “I’ll lead the new collection.”Naomi opened it.

Chapter 8

After that day, Declan did not come into the studio again.He still sent messages every day. In the morning, he reminded me to eat breakfast. At noon, he asked how I was recovering. At night, he checked whether I had reached home safely. I sometimes saw them, but I rarely answered.It was not revenge. We simply had nothing left to say to each other.Once, he sent three messages in succession, followed by a fourth. [Reply when you see this.]I looked at those words and remembered how often I had sent the same request. Back then, he had never understood why waiting could hurt. Understanding now changed nothing.A week later, I went to Ironwood Holdings to collect design records from an earlier collaboration with my studio.The elevator doors had barely opened on the twenty-sixth floor when I heard an argument. Sloane stood outside the Alpha’s executive office, her eyes red. “You’re transferring me out of the Alpha’s office because Mara wants to end your mate relationship?”Declan’s voice

Chapter 9

Once the agreement was submitted to the Pack Council, a thirty-day confirmation period began. Declan did not come to see me during that month.Occasionally, he sent a message asking about my recovery. If I did not answer, he stopped instead of continuing to press. The respect I had once wanted most from him appeared only after I chose to leave.Rain fell on the day of the final confirmation. Declan and I sat across a long table in the Council’s mate registry and signed the last document. An official pressed the Council seal onto the page.[Public mate claim officially terminated.] [Mara Quinn’s future-Luna registration withdrawn with immediate effect.]Three years earlier, I had completed our mate registration in the same room.The same people. The same place. This time, neither of us smiled.I put the termination document into my bag. I felt neither the relief nor the grief I had imagined. It felt more like completing a task that had been delayed far too long.Outside the Council buil

Chapter 10

Six months later, my studio launched its new collection.The first production run sold out. By the time my team and I finally sat down, it was ten at night. Dozens of messages waited on my phone—from clients, colleagues, business partners, and friends I had not spoken to in years. I answered them one by one.Declan’s name was the last. [Congratulations.]I replied: [Thank you.]His answer came almost immediately. [Of course.]I did not reopen the conversation.At noon the next day, Naomi returned with two coffees and placed one on my desk. She studied me for a moment. “You finally look healthy again.”I smiled. “Was I really that bad?”“When you first moved out, you were as pale as the sheets at the medical center.”Her gaze dropped to my hand. I followed it. The pale line left by the mate ring had disappeared without my noticing.Naomi took the pen from my fingers. “Come on. Lunch.”“I still have two designs to approve.”“Approve them this afternoon.” She raised an eyebrow. “You used

SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP