The scent of expensive bourbon and artificial lilies usually made me nauseous, but tonight, it smelled like freedom.
I adjusted the lace of my masquerade mask, the silver wire digging into my cheekbones. In the grand ballroom of the Blackwood Pack, power didn't just walk; it strutted. It growled. It wore diamonds and hid claws.
And in the center of it all stood Kaelen—Alpha-heir, my "fated mate," and the biggest mistake of my life.
Focus, Elara, I whispered to myself. One hour. One signature. Then you disappear.
I wasn't here to beg for his love. I was here to deliver a divorce petition and a resignation. As the pack’s lead "Enforcer"—the polite term for the person who handles the dirty work the Alpha doesn't want to touch—I knew where all the bodies were buried. Mostly because I’d put them there.
"You're late," a voice hissed.
I didn't turn. I knew that scent anywhere. High-grade sandalwood and arrogance. Kaelen stepped into my space, his heat radiating off him in waves. To any other she-wolf, that heat was an invitation. To me, it was a brand I was tired of wearing.
"I had to finish the report on the border skirmish," I said, my voice flat. "Business before pleasure, Alpha."
Kaelen gripped my elbow, his fingers bruising. "Don't 'Alpha' me tonight. Not when the Council is watching. You look... different."
"It’s called a dress, Kaelen. Most women wear them."
His eyes darkened—the wolf inside him stirring. "I like you better in leather. It reminds me of what you are. My weapon."
The word weapon twisted in my gut. Not wife. Not Luna. Just a sharp edge he could point at his enemies.
"I’m retiring the blade," I said, pulling my arm back. I reached into my clutch and pulled out a heavy, cream-colored envelope. "Consider this my two weeks' notice. And the end of our arrangement."
Kaelen laughed, a low, guttural sound. "You’re joking. The mate bond doesn't have a 'notice period,' Elara. You’re mine until the Moon Goddess says otherwise."
"Actually," a high-pitched, melodic voice interrupted, "I think the Goddess changed her mind."
My blood turned to ice. From behind a velvet curtain stepped my sister, Mira. She wasn't wearing a mask. She was wearing a smile that was far too sharp for her porcelain face. And around her neck was a mark—a fresh, angry red bite that pulsed with Kaelen’s specific Alpha energy.
The ballroom went silent. The music didn't stop, but it felt like the air had been sucked out of the room.
The mate bond in my chest—the golden thread that had tied me to Kaelen since I was eighteen—didn't just snap. It burned. It felt like someone had poured molten silver into my veins. I gasped, dropping the envelope. The paper fluttered to the marble floor like a dying bird.
Kaelen didn't even look at me. His hand instinctively went to Mira’s waist, pulling her flush against him. "Elara, wait—"
"You marked her," I whispered. The pain was blinding, a physical weight crushing my lungs. "In our house. On the night of the Equinox."
"The bond was fading!" Kaelen snapped, his guilt turning into rage. "You’ve become cold, Elara. A statue. Mira... she feels. She’s what a Luna should be. The pack needs a heart, not a graveyard."
I looked at my sister. The girl I’d protected. The girl I’d killed for when the Northern rogues tried to take our village. She looked at me not with pity, but with a terrifying, triumphant hunger.
"I’m sorry, sister," Mira lied, her voice dripping with honey. "But the Moon told me he was mine. You were just holding his place."
The crowd began to whisper.
The Enforcer has been replaced.
About time. She was always too dark for him.
Did you see her eyes? She looks like she’s going to snap.
I felt the shift then. Something deep inside me—something older than the pack, older than the "Enforcer" title—tore loose. If they wanted a graveyard, I would give them one.
"You want a heart, Kaelen?" I stepped forward. My mask fell off, clattering loudly. My eyes weren't the usual amber of a wolf. They were turning a void-black, the mark of a Shadow-Wolf—a lineage that was supposed to be extinct.
Kaelen flinched. He felt the sudden drop in temperature. The shadows in the corners of the ballroom began to stretch, crawling across the floor like ink.
"Elara, stop this," he commanded, using his Alpha tone. It was a psychic weight meant to force me to my knees.
I didn't move. The Alpha tone washed over me like a light breeze. I was no longer bound to his authority. The mark on my neck was fading, the skin turning smooth and cold.
"You didn't just break the bond, Kaelen," I said, my voice echoing with a strange, double-layered resonance. "You broke the seal."
I reached down and picked up the divorce papers. With a flick of my wrist, I tossed them into the air. Before they hit the ground, a blade of pure shadow sliced through them, shredding the paper into a thousand white flakes.
"Keep the pack," I said, stepping back into the darkness of the hallway. "Keep the sister. But remember this: you didn't reject me. You just let the monster out of its cage. And I’m hungry."
As the lights in the ballroom flickered and died, I vanished into the night.
I didn't head for the gates. I headed for the Blackwood Treasury. If I was leaving, I wasn't leaving empty-handed. I was taking the one thing Kaelen loved more than power.
His father’s head? No. That was too simple.
I was taking the Eclipse Stone—the source of the pack’s ancestral strength. Without it, the Blackwood Pack would be defenseless by sunrise.
Let’s see how much "heart" Mira has when the rogues come knocking.
