How Does Paper Moon End?

Seven years. For over 2,500 days, Ella Winters endured everything. As a looked-down-upon Omega Luna, she stayed quiet and served the Blackwood pack without complaint. Until her five-year-old son, Noah, made a birthday wish: "I want Chloe to be my new mommy." Her husband, the powerful Alpha Damien, just stood there and said nothing. That was it. Ella snapped her silver seal, releasing seven years of hidden power. She took her sweet daughter, Lily, and left for good. One year later, at a grand pack gathering, Alpha Damien finally corners her. With his usual arrogance, he commands, "You’ve thrown your tantrum for long enough, Ella. Come home." Ella just sneers. "Are you insane? We already rejected each other." Damien’s voice drops. "Without my protection, what could you possibly do in a year?" Ella smiles faintly. "Be with my new mate." Instantly, the noisy room goes dead silent. That night, Damien goes crazy. He calls her 108 times, completely losing his mind. But the submissive girl who once loved him more than life itself is never coming back.

After bearing my fated mate's pup, I sank into severe postpartum depression. By day, as Luna of the Blood Moon Pack, I had to hold myself together. By night, I let despair drown me. Time and time again, I picked up the silver dagger, ready to end it all. It was Alpha Raymond Kirk who held me, who told me over and over: "It's all right, Aurora. No matter what you become, our pup and I will always be here." For five whole years, I held it back. I didn't want to be a burden to anyone. Then one day, the pup cut his finger and let out a cry. I broke. I cut my wrist again. Raymond finally snapped. He shoved a fistful of calming herbs into my mouth. "How long are you going to keep this up? Are you trying to drive me and our pup insane?" "If you don't want to live, why don't you just die?" I swallowed in silence. And just like that, a thought came to me. Every night, Raymond murmured a girl's name in his sleep. She could replace me. She could be the mother our pup deserved. As for me—I should return to the Moon Goddess.

This year marked the sixth Unclaimed Moon Damian and I had shared together. As the future Alpha of Moonridge Pack, Damian always believed this tradition would make our bond stronger. Every year, for one month after our anniversary, we suppressed our mate bond through an old pack ritual, stayed out of each other's lives, and gave each other complete freedom. If either of us found someone better, we were supposed to wish them happiness. If not, he would reclaim me when the month ended. Champagne sprayed through the hall as wolves laughed and cheered around the betting table. "Here's to our Alpha being unclaimed again. Another year of freedom." "The betting is open. Put your chips on the left if you think he'll reclaim her. Put them on the right if you think this is finally over." Through the haze of cigar smoke, I sat alone on a leather sofa, watching everything unfold as if none of it had anything to do with me. Damian slipped an arm around Vivian's waist. As he passed me, he lowered his voice and said, "Don't overthink it. You'll always be my only Luna." "When Unclaimed Moon ends, I'll come back to you." I rested a cold hand against the slight curve of my stomach, my expression unchanged. Damian, this year, I placed my bet on the end. I would disappear from your world completely. The claim you were always so sure I would never reject would be the one thing I walked away from tonight.

It all seemed like a naughty prank at first. You know, the 'disappearing' trick lovers usually pull on each other to see who misses the other most? Yes, that was what Katniss thought at first until months passed and still, Noah was absolutely no where to be found.... Witty, beautiful and bubbly. Just a few adjectives to describe Katniss Costello's interesting and charming character. A young lady who had it all; from affluent parents to wealth and popularity to a quite amazing love life she shared with Noah Rogers, her then soon to be husband. Her life seemed to have come to a shattering halt after reality dawned on her that Noah might never return. She barely talked. Barely smiled. Barely went out, always bed ridden, gloomy and depressed. Void of all emotions. Indeed the shadow of her previous self. Her parents took advantage of the absence of her fiance and deemed it fit to have her married off to a proud, rich and arrogant son of their friend. She strongly opposed to the arranged marriage for few wisps of hope that he might return still laid in her heart. It was the motivation and inspiration she had to wait for him and when he does return, she'd still be here...waiting. When the pressure from her parents was getting too tough and unbearable, she wanted to get rid of it all, get rid of the emotional pain, get rid of the weight that was becoming far to heavy to carry. All she wanted was freedom, but there was only one way to do that... That night, underneath the Blue Moon, standing on the deck above the Ballad River where she wanted to end it all, there she met Asher Holden and that was the onset of her rollercoaster love life.

Seven days before our bonding ceremony, I overheard my mate joking with his friends. He had already moved our bonding from the snowfield altar I chose to the coastside grounds because Lyra liked the sea. But that was not the part that made them fall silent. What shocked them was that he had also prepared a Luna crown for her. One of them laughed nervously. “Changing the bonding site is one thing. Maybe Serena will forgive that. But the Luna crown? That’s different. For a woman, that crown means everything. Aren’t you afraid she’ll leave?” My mate only smiled, calm and certain. “It’s just a crown. Serena won’t care.” “She loves me. When has she ever refused me anything? She’s not going to throw a tantrum over something this small.” And for the first time, I realized he was right about one thing. I had loved him enough to forgive too much. But not anymore. So when the bonding day came and he stood at the coastside grounds calling for me again and again, I only watched the snow fall outside the window and thought: He was right. I did not make a scene. I did not demand an explanation. I just walked away without a word. He thought that meant it was nothing. He would only understand later that a woman who leaves in silence is not giving you another chance—she is leaving you with nothing but regret.

Luna gave up everything for a man who never deserved her — her wolf, her strength, her identity. After thirteen years of sacrifice, she finds her husband in their bed with another woman on their anniversary. When his own son asks for her to be replaced, something in her doesn't break. It clicks into place. She was Phantom once — the most feared operative in HexaTech Industries. She buried that woman to become a wife. Now she's digging her back up. Luna walks away with nothing but a divorce petition and one email. What follows is not a breakdown. It is a resurrection.