Selena's POV:

By the next afternoon, I sat on the living room couch, holding the Rejection I had prepared long ago.

I had cleaned myself up and changed into a white set of clothes, yet the scent of blood still lingered on me.

Outside, the sound of a car broke the silence.

It was Kael's Bugatti Veyron.

He had returned.

The door unlocked, and Kael stepped inside.

He still wore the same black suit from yesterday. His tie hung loose around his neck, and stubble had formed along his jaw. Fatigue showed clearly on him.

As he entered, another scent came with him.

It was Aria's pheromones.

The moment Kael entered, his expression shifted. His brows tightened, and he lifted a hand to cover his nose, disgust showing clearly as he looked at me.

"What is that smell? The blood is so strong. Selena, what kind of witchcraft are you using in this house again?"

He had always believed I turned to dark magic just to win his heart.

I didn't respond. I only watched him.

Before this, I would have stood up right away, taken his coat, and spoken to him carefully.

Today, however, I remained where I was.

My silence only made Kael's temper rise. He walked straight toward me, and his Alpha pressure came down heavily. "Aria was hospitalized last night. She almost died. I don't have the patience to deal with your tricks right now."

"Kael, our baby is gone. It happened last night, while you were celebrating Aria," I said, my voice steady at last.

Kael's steps stopped. For a brief moment, he said nothing. Then a cold laugh left him, like he had just heard something absurd.

"Our baby?" He stood in front of me, looking down. "Selena, you've really outdone yourself this time. You want me to get rid of Aria so badly that you'd make up something like this?"

"I didn't make it up." I lifted my hand and pointed toward the garden. "It's buried in there. If you don't believe me, go see it yourself."

"Enough!" Kael snapped.

His hand shot forward and caught my chin, forcing my head up. The grip tightened, and pain spread through my jaw.

"Stop this act! It's disgusting. Yesterday, you called me and said nothing on the phone, and now you're bringing up a child? How long are you planning to keep this going? Aria drank the wrong wine and ended up in the hospital, so I stayed with her last night. Are you really this jealous?"

I looked at him. At that moment, I felt drained. Explaining anything felt pointless.

I pushed his hand away and shoved the document on the table toward him.

"Believe whatever you want," I said. "Just sign it. Once you do, you're free."

Kael's eyes narrowed as he looked down at the table.

When he saw the title, he let out a short laugh. "The Rejection?"

He walked over, picked it up, skimmed through it, then tossed it back down.

"Selena, you've become ridiculous," he said, looking at me. "Last time, you pretended to be sick, and now, you're threatening to end things? Do you think I'd believe that? You worked so hard to become Luna, and now you're just going to walk away? What's wrong, nothing to say now?"

Kael stepped closer, his expression turning cold. "Three years ago, I was injured and unconscious. You used that chance to secure your position and got my grandfather to tie us together with that blood bond. Do you even know why I accepted it, even though I couldn't stand you?"

His fingers tightened under my chin as he forced my face up. "Because I wanted you to understand what greed costs. You wanted the Luna title? Fine. I gave it to you. Stay there and watch who I actually choose."

I kept looking at him. My hands pressed into the couch until they hurt.

So that was all it meant to him. Three years together, nothing more than punishment.

"Did you forget what happened back then? If Aria hadn't stepped in to clear the poison, I'd be dead. She paid for it with her own health and had to leave to recover. Even then, she told me to accept you for the sake of the future. She endured all of that. She's the one who gave everything. And you? You took advantage of the situation and refused to let go of the Luna position she gave up so much for."

My body shook. My nails cut into my palms.

The one who gave everything wasn't her. It was me. I was the one who took the poison. I was the one who endured it. I was the one who lost my wolf.

"It wasn't her!" I shouted. "I was the one who saved you back then. It was me. I was the one—"

"Enough!" Kael's voice crashed down. The Alpha command hit me without warning.

My throat tightened, and my voice disappeared. My mouth closed on its own, and no sound came out no matter how hard I tried.

Fear filled me as I looked at him. He took away my voice just to protect that fraud.

"Selena, what do you take me for? Do you think you can walk in and out whenever you want?"

Selena's POV:

Kael looked at Rejection on the table, and something dark settled in his eyes.

A tearing sound broke the silence. He snatched the Rejection I had signed, ripped it apart, and flung the pieces at me.

"This is my answer!" he snapped, a primal reaction to his Alpha authority being challenged.

"Selena, don't get ahead of yourself. You think something like this will get my attention?"

I didn't react. I simply watched him.

Before, I would have been shaken. I would have lowered my head, afraid to provoke him. Now, there was nothing left for me to fear. My wolf was already gone, and his pressure no longer meant anything.

"I'm not trying to get your attention." I looked straight at him and spoke in a calm voice. "Kael, I don't love you anymore. I'm leaving the pack. I'm leaving you."

He stopped. He clearly hadn't expected that the person who had followed him for three years would say something like that.

But the moment passed quickly. The surprise turned into anger.

He rushed forward, grabbed my throat, and slammed me hard against the cold wall.

He stood close, his breath falling against my face, yet all I felt was cold.

My head tilted back as I struggled to breathe, but I didn't resist. I kept looking at him, my eyes empty.

Something about that made him pause, and his grip loosened just a little. At that moment, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

Kael froze. He let go of me, took out his phone immediately, and his expression shifted from anger to tension. "Aria? What's wrong?"

Aria's voice broke through the call, unsteady, with noise behind her. There were screams and shouting. "Kael, help me. There are paparazzi and rogue wolves. They've surrounded the entrance. I'm scared. My heart won't calm down."

Kael went pale. That kind of panic had never appeared on him before.

"Stay calm, Aria," he said gently. "Find somewhere safe. Don't hang up. I'm on my way."

He moved toward the door, not sparing me a glance.

Right before leaving, he paused. Something crossed his mind, and he turned back, his gaze cold.

"Until you figure out how to atone for your sins, you are not going anywhere."

After that, he walked out.

The lock clicked. The door was secured from the outside.

From beyond it, his voice carried as he gave instructions. "Keep an eye on her. No one lets her leave the villa without my order."

Soon, the sound of the engine faded.

The house fell quiet again.

My eyes moved to the torn pieces scattered across the floor. Slowly, I crouched down and picked them up one by one.

My hands didn't stop shaking, yet no tears came.

Kael didn't realize it, but this time, I was truly done with him.

After gathering the pieces, I dropped them into the trash. Then I turned and walked toward the closet.

The clothes Kael had bought for me stayed untouched. The jewelry remained where it was.

Instead, I crouched down and pulled out a black duffel bag from the bottom. Inside were the few old clothes I had.

At last, I reached into the lining of the mattress and took out a black satellite phone.

It was something I had kept from my time as a bounty hunter.

In Kael's eyes, I was nothing more than a useless woman from the countryside. He would never imagine I had this.

Without hesitation, I dialed the number I had memorized.

A single beep sounded.

The call connected almost immediately.

"Selena?"

A low male voice came through, faint static in the background. It was Damon Walsh.

The Rogue King I had hunted countless times, who eventually became my closest friend. He was also the only person who knew the truth about my lost wolf.

"Damon," I said, keeping my voice steady. "You told me before that if I wanted to leave, you'd take me away."

"Now?" he asked, direct as always.

"Now. I'm at Kael's villa."

"I'll be there in ten minutes."

The call ended. I removed the ring from my finger and set it on the cabinet. It marked my place as Luna.

Kael believed a locked door could keep me here, but he was wrong.

I stepped out onto the rooftop terrace.

The wind pushed against me, yet for the first time, I felt free.

Selena's POV:

Violent gusts tore across the rooftop terrace, sending my skirt flying wildly around my legs.

Pressed against my chest, I held onto the battered black duffel bag. It carried only a handful of clothes.

This was all that remained of my three years with Kael.

From afar, the thundering chop of helicopter blades started to close in, shaking the air around me.

Through the darkness, a blinding beam of light sliced across the night sky. Above the villa, a massive black helicopter hovered with force, its presence heavy and threatening as it stirred chaos below.

Marked along its side was a blood-red wolf's head, bold and unmistakable. It was Damon's mark.

Sirens wailed across the villa without delay.

"State your identity!"

"We're under attack! Defend the villa!"

Guards flooded out in panic, stumbling over each other in confusion, but they were already too late.

From above, a rope ladder dropped down and landed right in front of me.

Without stopping to think, I secured the duffel bag tightly against my chest and reached for the ladder.

"Wait... isn't that the Luna?" one of the guards shouted from below, his voice breaking with fear. "The Luna's getting away! Stop her!"

"Start shooting! Bring that ladder down!"

"That's a Rogue helicopter! Don't let them take the Luna!"

The ladder jerked upward at once, pulling me off the ground.

Beneath me, the villa began to shrink. The walls that had held me captive for three long years faded into the distance, slowly slipping out of sight.

From the helicopter window, I cast a final glance at the place that had kept me trapped.

It ended here, Kael.

What we had, foolish and quiet as it was, ended here too.

Without another thought, I turned away and refused to look back again.

At the front, Damon handled the controls from the pilot's seat. A quick sideways look passed between us. He stayed quiet and simply threw a thick wool blanket toward me.

"If you're freezing, use that," he said. "I'm not dealing with someone dying on my aircraft. That kind of luck sticks."

Pulling the blanket around myself, I held it close. The faint trace of tobacco clung to the fabric, and for the first time in a long while, I felt safe.

Tears slipped down at last. They weren't from grief, but from the simple truth that I was finally free.

...

Kael's POV:

Inside the hospital room, everything felt still.

Aria lay unconscious.

According to the doctor, she had gone into shock, and her frail condition meant she needed complete rest.

Seated beside her, I watched her pale features, unable to settle the tension building inside me.

This feeling had been gnawing at me for the past two hours. Unease stirred within me as my wolf paced wildly in my mind, low growls echoing like something that belonged to me was being torn away.

"What's wrong, Kael?" Aria wasn't resting peacefully either. Her fingers tightened around my sleeve as if she didn't want to let go.

Gently, I slipped free from her grip and fixed the blanket over her. "It's nothing. Get some rest. I'll head back to the office."

Without lingering, I stepped out of the ward.

Instead of going where I said I would, I got in the car and drove recklessly. The speed climbed fast, pushing deep into the red.

Something pulled me back to the house.

I needed to see what Selena was doing. In my mind, she was probably still acting out, refusing to calm down.

Before leaving earlier, I had locked the door tight and reinforced it with an Alpha seal. She should've been stuck inside her room, breaking down in tears.

If she just gave in and apologized to Aria, maybe I could let this slide.

Three years together wasn't something I could ignore so easily.

The moment I reached the villa gate, everything in me went still.

The front gate was left wide open. Guards lay scattered across the ground, their faces drained and shaken.

"Alpha!" The captain rushed toward me the second he saw me, barely steady on his feet, his face completely drained of color. "A Rogue helicopter just came..."

"What?" I cut in with a frown, but before he could continue, a heavy sense of dread crashed over me.

I burst through the villa doors without slowing down.

"Selena?" I shouted into the silence.

Nothing came back.

An eerie stillness filled the house, broken only by the wind brushing against the curtains.

Selena's soft, familiar scent was fading fast. In its place lingered the unmistakable trace of another Alpha.

It was Damon!

My vision tightened, and my wolf surfaced before I could hold it back.

"Damon..."

His name came out through clenched teeth.

What connection did Selena have with that madman?

I took the stairs two at a time and slammed the master bedroom door open with a kick.

The clothes and jewelry I had given her remained untouched, yet a black duffel bag had disappeared.

Without wasting a second, I went back downstairs, my eyes locking onto the massive wedding portrait.

The picture had been ruined. A jagged slash split it apart, cutting straight between us.

Beneath it, resting on the cabinet, was the Luna diamond ring I had once slipped onto her finger. Now it sat there abandoned, marked with dirt.

My gaze shifted beside it, searching for the Rejection I had destroyed earlier, but it was no longer there.

Nothing remained except a single note.

Across it, one word had been scratched out, uneven and desperate, like she had used the last of her strength to write it. "Goodbye."

I tried to reach her through the mind link, but I failed.

"That can't be..." I whispered under my breath. "It doesn't make sense! She doesn't even have a wolf. Why would she leave me?"

One thought followed another. Maybe she was throwing a tantrum, or maybe she was doing this to get my attention.

Driven by panic, I bolted toward the garden.

Under the light, I saw a smear of darkened blood staining the dirt.

At that moment, it felt like everything beneath me collapsed.

With shaking hands, I pulled out my phone and dialed Selena's number. But the number was no longer in service.

She had disappeared.

She left, gathered what little belonged to her, and chose to follow another Alpha, disappearing from my life without a trace.