I pressed my palm flat against my sternum as Daxton loomed over me, his Alpha aura suffocating in the small healing room. Joey lay motionless on the bed beside us, his small chest barely rising with each shallow breath. The cold from the warehouse still clung to my skin, making me shiver, but it was nothing compared to the ice spreading through my heart.

'You've made your choice, Daxton,' I whispered, my voice raw from screaming. 'Now make it official. Release me from our bond. Reject me as your Luna.'

He smirked, that cruel twist of lips I'd somehow never noticed before. 'Finally seeing reason, I see. Good. I'll perform the rejection ceremony tonight.' He leaned closer, his breath hot against my ear. 'But you'll leave with nothing. No rank, no privileges. You'll be lucky if I let you stay in the Omega quarters.'

I met his gaze, refusing to let him see me break. 'And what about you, Alpha? What will you leave with?'

His laugh filled the room, sharp and mocking. 'Me? I'm the Alpha. I'll have everything—my true mate, my pack, my power. You think you can take anything from me?'

'I want you to leave with nothing,' I said, my voice steadier than I felt. 'Just like me. No pack, no status, no family. If you want me gone, then you go too. That's my condition.'

For a moment, something flickered in his eyes—uncertainty, perhaps even fear. But it vanished as quickly as it appeared, replaced by his usual arrogance. 'You're delusional. I am the Alpha. I can't be stripped of what's mine.'

'You're not rejecting me to free yourself,' I said, the truth cutting my own throat as I spoke it. 'You're rejecting me to punish me. And I won't let you win.'

He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. 'You have no power here, Lucille. Not anymore.' He turned to the Beta standing by the door. 'Take her to the Omega quarters. She's not Luna anymore.'

As they dragged me away, I cast one last look at Joey. My beautiful boy. I would find a way back to him. I had to.

Hours later, when the pack house had grown quiet, I slipped from the cramped Omega quarters. The corridors were empty, the guards posted at the main entrances too bored to notice a single woman moving through the shadows. I needed something from the Alpha estate—something that belonged to Joey.

I moved silently through the darkened halls, my heart pounding in my chest. Daxton's study door was ajar, a thin line of light spilling into the corridor. I pushed it open just enough to slip inside, my eyes adjusting to the dimness.

Joey's stuffed wolf sat on a shelf by the window. I reached for it, but my hand froze as I noticed the open drawer on his desk. Inside lay a leather-bound journal, its pages filled with his familiar handwriting.

I shouldn't have looked. But something pulled me forward, some desperate need to understand what had happened to us.

The first page I saw made my breath catch. A sketch of me, drawn with painstaking detail. Not the cold, cruel lines he now used when he looked at me, but something softer, almost tender. I flipped through more pages, finding more drawings, more words that spoke of a bond I thought we'd shared.

'Her wolf calls to mine in ways I can't explain,' one entry read. 'The mate bond is stronger than I wanted to admit.'

My hands trembled as I read on, each word a knife to my heart. He had felt it. He had known. And he had chosen to ignore it, to bury it beneath his obsession with Angelina.

I was so lost in the pages that I almost missed the voices outside the door. I ducked behind a bookshelf just as Daxton and Angelina entered the room, their argument already in full swing.

'You promised me the pack would be mine!' Angelina hissed. 'But you're still protecting her. I saw you looking at those drawings.'

'Keep your voice down,' Daxton growled. 'The walls have ears.'

'What does it matter now?' she spat. 'Elara has the cure for your wolf, but I've made sure she won't give it to you until Lucille is gone completely. You need me now, Daxton. You need my family's support. You need my Luna aura.'

I pressed my hand against my mouth to stifle a gasp. The cure? Joey's accident? It had all been orchestrated.

'And the boy?' Angelina continued, her voice dripping with venom. 'Was he worth it? Sacrificing your own son to frame her?'

Daxton's silence was the only answer I needed.

Word spread through the pack like wildfire—an Alpha-bloodline pup lay near death, his wolf barely clinging to life. I sat in the Omega quarters, my hands trembling as I pressed them against my sternum, trying to contain the storm of emotions threatening to drown me. Joey. My beautiful boy. I hadn't been allowed to see him since Daxton's rejection, the guards turning me away with cold, empty eyes.

The pack meeting hall buzzed with tension when I slipped in through the back entrance. Daxton stood at the center, his Alpha aura pulsing with barely contained rage as he addressed the gathered wolves. Angelina sat beside him, her hand possessively on his arm, her eyes gleaming with triumph.

'Until the boy wakes,' Daxton was saying, his voice carrying that unmistakable Alpha command, 'we will maintain heightened security. No one enters or leaves our territory without my explicit permission.'

I pressed myself against the wall, trying to become invisible. I just needed to see Joey, to know he was still fighting. But as I moved closer, a hush fell over the room.

The massive doors at the front of the hall swung open, and a figure stepped inside. Tall, broad-shouldered, with dark hair and eyes that seemed to see right through the chaos. He carried himself with a quiet confidence that made even Daxton's Alpha presence seem performative in comparison.

'Maddox Ramirez,' someone whispered, and the name rippled through the crowd like a stone dropped in still water.

The legendary healer. The half-brother Daxton had always kept at arm's length. The man whose very existence seemed to challenge everything Daxton stood for.

'I heard there was a pup in need of healing,' Maddox said, his voice calm but carrying an authority that silenced the room. His eyes swept over the crowd until they landed on Daxton. 'A pup of Alpha blood.'

Daxton's jaw tightened, his hands curling into fists at his sides. 'This is pack business, healer. You have no authority here.'

Maddox didn't flinch. 'I have every authority when it comes to healing. Especially when the life of an Alpha-bloodline pup hangs in the balance. The Moon Goddess does not recognize pack boundaries when her children suffer.'

The room seemed to hold its breath as the two men faced off, neither yielding. I could feel the pack's collective anxiety, the weight of their uncertainty pressing down on us all.

Finally, Daxton broke the silence. 'Fine. The pup is in the healing ward. Do what you can.' His voice was tight, controlled, but I could hear the undercurrent of fear. Fear that Maddox would see the truth.

Without another word, Maddox turned and walked toward the healing ward, his presence cutting through the crowd like a blade. I followed, keeping to the shadows, my heart pounding in my chest.

The healing ward was quiet, the only sound the soft beeping of machines monitoring Joey's fragile state. Maddox moved with purpose, his steps sure and measured as he approached the bed.

'Leave us,' he said quietly to the healers hovering nearby. They hesitated, looking to Daxton, who nodded stiffly.

When we were alone, Maddox placed his hands on Joey's small chest, his eyes closing in concentration. His aura shifted, a warm, golden light emanating from his palms as he connected with Joey's wolf.

I watched, my breath caught in my throat, as Maddox's expression changed. His brow furrowed, his hands trembling slightly as he explored the pup's aura.

'This pup,' he said softly, his eyes still closed, 'his wolf calls to mine.'

My heart stopped. I knew what that meant. The healer's bloodline ability to sense family, to recognize their own.

Maddox's eyes opened, meeting mine across the room. In that moment, I saw the truth dawn in his gaze—the realization that Joey was his son. His biological son.

'You know,' I whispered, my voice barely audible.

He nodded once, his expression unreadable. 'I know.'

The words hung in the air between us, heavy with implications I couldn't fully grasp. Maddox turned back to Joey, his hands still glowing with that warm, healing light.

'He will wake,' he said, his voice steady and sure. 'And when he does, we will have much to discuss.'