He delayed our ceremony seven times, the eighth time I cancelled it

“I heard you can break the bond without an Alpha’s consent?” I asked, looking dead into the eyes of the old witch standing in the corner of the gala that was supposed to be my Moon Ceremony.

“I want to break my bond with Alpha Albus. Please do it for me.”

“Are you sure you want to do it, Luna?” she asked in disbelief.

I don't blame her. Who would believe I was going to demand the severeness of the very bond I was so excited to legalize a few minutes ago?

Everything was so perfect, so exciting until Celeste, Albus’s sister-in-law, fainted.

Albus left me in the middle of the altar and rushed towards her. He picked her up and was halfway through the main door when I called him from behind.

“Albus, it's our Moon ceremony!”

“Celeste has fainted, Diana. The Moon Ceremony can wait. Don’t be so heartless. She’s grieving my brother all over again tonight.”

Those were the words he tossed over before leaving with her. He didn’t even look back at me, standing there in a hand-stitched silk gown that was supposed to mark my ascension as Luna of the Silver Moon Pack.

“The Severing? Luna, that pain… it is like tearing your soul in half. Most wolves don’t survive the rejection without their mate’s consent.” The witch’s words pulled me back from my thoughts.

I began to unlace the silk sleeves of my gown, exposing the faint, unformed mark on my shoulder—the mark he refused to finish.

“I’ve lived with a half-torn soul for three years,” I replied, my eyes hardening. “Tonight, I’d rather feel the pain of the blade than the weight of his neglect. Cut the bond. I’m done.”

***

It was the eighth time he had walked away from our commitment for Celeste.

The first time he said, “Celeste is still grieving my brother’s death and you want me to hold a ceremony for us? Don't be so selfish, Diana.”

The third time, her car had broken down three towns over. He left our Moon gala to fetch her, leaving me to explain to three hundred guests why the Alpha was missing from his own celebration.

“She’s family, Emma. She’s alone in this world. You have a whole pack behind you; she only has me,” he had snapped when he returned at dawn, smelling of her perfume and cheap diner coffee.

The sixth time, it was her "night terrors."

The seventh time, he didn't even make up excuses. He simply didn't show up. I’d find him later in the kitchen of the widow’s small cottage, fixing a leak while I sat alone at pack galas or council meetings, the "Mate" everyone pitied but no one respected.

But tonight he crossed the lifelines I had given him in my heart. One more time he leaves me for Celeste would be the last day of our sacred bond. I had promised myself last time.

And tonight was the night our bond was meant to be sealed in blood and moonlight. The entire pack was gathered, the Elders were waiting with the ritual daggers, and the air was thick with the scent of sacred incense.

And then Celeste fell off the floor before our eyes.

He didn't hesitate. He didn't even apologize. He just told me not to be ‘heartless’.

As his wolf climbed down the altar and picked her in his arms, a strange, cold silence settled over my heart.

I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I simply made the decision I should have made the first time he left me for her.

For three years, I had been the she-wolf who waited. Tonight, I was the woman who walked away.

I closed my eyes, visualizing the golden thread of our bond—the thread Albus had frayed and trampled until it was nothing but a noose.

"Do it," I whispered, a ghost of a smile touching my lips as I felt the first sharp sting of the severing. "Let him come home to a silence he finally earned.”