The summer I nearly drowned during my junior year, it was Beta Timothy Rice who tragically lost his life trying to save me. As a Beta of the pack, his death shook everyone, leaving a void that seemed impossible to fill.

At the memorial service, Erik Hawkins stood rigid, his usually commanding presence diminished. He looked ashen, his broad shoulders slumped under the weight of grief. My mother, Luna Sariyah Bell, clung to Luna Layla Hawkins as they both wept, declaring that from that day forward, we were family. And so, we began living as one.

On those quiet nights when Luna Layla retreated to her room to cry, I’d quietly slip in and hold her, clutching my pillow tightly. She cared for me deeply, often trembling as she gently stroked my head. Her touch was a fragile reminder of the bond we’d formed, one that felt both comforting and suffocating.

Erik, a Lycan Prince, transferred to the prestigious private school I attended, thanks to my father, Alpha Ambrose Bell. He became more withdrawn with each passing day, his once commanding aura dimmed by grief. I became his shadow and his caretaker, even when his gaze was filled with hostility. I stubbornly treated him well, though his resentment was a constant presence.

By senior year, Erik had grown rebellious, his towering frame often disappearing to the rooftop to smoke. I’d follow him up there, only to find him pressing a girl against the wall for a kiss. Flustered and with my heart racing, I tried to leave, but he called out to me, his voice dripping with mockery.

“Didn’t you see it all?” He pulled the girl close and pointed at me. “Meet the girl who’s going to be my mate.”

His words were laced with sarcasm, his tone sharp and cutting. “She’s loaded, and my mom is obsessed with her.”

I felt the discomfort seep into every part of me, but I couldn’t just turn and walk away. My wolf stirred uneasily in the back of my mind, a faint whimper escaping her.

That night, Erik barged into my room, his towering frame leaning against the wall as he looked down at me. His presence was overwhelming, even in his human form. “Do you know why I didn’t want to transfer schools at all?”

He confessed he had a crush on Gracie Shaw, a girl from our pack, and had planned to confess his feelings after graduation. “But then my dad died, and now nothing I do feels right.”

The resentment in his eyes haunted my nightmares later. I secretly went to see Gracie, the girl whose smile revealed charming dimples, and whose presence seemed to light up any room she entered. She was everything I wasn’t—radiant, confident, and effortlessly captivating.

As I watched her from afar, I couldn’t help but wonder if Erik had made the right choice in rejecting me. But deep down, I knew his decision wasn’t about me—it was about his pain, his grief, and his inability to move forward. And though it hurt, I couldn’t blame him for it.

I quickly signed the mate bond rejection papers, the weight on my chest finally lifting. Erik snatched the document without so much as a glance in my direction, his Alpha aura sharp and unyielding. Gracie clung to his arm, her presence a stark reminder of where his loyalty now lay. “See you in a month,” he said, his voice cold and detached, and I knew with absolute clarity that this would be the last time I’d see him in this life.

The door slammed shut behind them, the sound echoing in the sudden silence of the private room. The waiter returned after what felt like an eternity, his voice hesitant. “Would you like the extra dish to be served?”

No one answered. My mother, the Luna of our pack, finally broke down into sobs, her composure shattered. My father, Alpha Ambrose Bell, wrapped an arm around her, his presence steady and reassuring as he murmured soothing words. Layla Hawkins, the Luna of Erik’s pack, sat frozen in her seat, her expression one of stunned disbelief, as if she couldn’t quite process what had just unfolded. And me? I felt invisible, caught in the middle of a storm that had been brewing for years.

I stood slowly, my legs trembling but my resolve firm. “No need to serve it. Just bring the check, please.” I paid mechanically, my fingers numb from the cold that seemed to seep into my bones. Was I calm? No, I was just too numb to feel anything else.

I grabbed my coat from the private room, the fabric heavy in my hands, and walked out. The parking garage was quiet, the air thick with the scent of damp concrete. I slid into my car, the leather seat cool against my skin. My eyes burned with unshed tears, but I held them back. What was there to cry about? I had known this was coming for a long time.

It had started the day he proposed to me, out of the blue, at my college graduation. He’d stood there with a bouquet of flowers, his Alpha aura commanding the room, and declared, “Elena White, daughter of Alpha Ambrose Bell, I, Erik Hawkins, Lycan Prince, claim you as my mate.” The words had left me stunned, but before I could process them, he’d whisked me off to finalize the mate bond without any discussion. Everyone had advised him to slow down—a bonding ceremony needed planning, guests needed to be invited, and I deserved more than a rushed affair—but he’d dismissed them all with a single, cutting remark: “If I wait any longer, I might regret this.”

Back then, I’d signed the papers mechanically, feeling dazed as I walked out. His next words had snapped me into clarity. He’d said, “Gracie left for Europe. Are you happy now?” The bitterness in his voice had cut through me, and I’d known then that he resented me. After the bond was sealed, he’d kept his distance. Every time I reached out to him, he’d recoil as if my touch burned him. “I bonded with you. What more do you want?” he’d say, his tone laced with disdain.

For years after that, whenever Layla hinted at wanting pups, I hadn’t known how to respond. Slowly, she’d begun to resent me too. More than once, she’d sighed in front of me, “Our Hawkins family line is going to end with this generation, it seems.”

Now, she and I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. The bond was broken, the ties severed. And for the first time in years, I felt free.

I tossed my belongings into the suitcase hastily, my hands trembling with urgency. I needed to leave—now. The pack’s airport wasn’t far, and I didn’t care where I was going. The sudden freedom felt foreign, overwhelming. Since my awakening at sixteen, my life had revolved around Erik. What began as guilt for the death of Officer Timothy Rice—the Beta who saved me from drowning—morphed into a suffocating concern. I’d watch him, the Lycan Prince, standing alone on the balcony of the packhouse, a cup of espresso in his hand, his gaze distant. My wolf whimpered softly in the back of my mind, but I ignored it. Loving him had become my purpose. But he never needed it, and now, I no longer had to offer it.

My phone buzzed incessantly—calls from Alpha Ambrose and Luna Sariyah, my parents. Their voices were laced with worry, their alpha and luna auras pressing against me even through the phone. “I’m fine,” I assured them, my tone firm despite the ache in my chest. “I just need some time to myself.” I silenced my phone as the plane taxied for takeoff, shoving it into my bag. Closing my eyes, I felt a strange lightness, as if the weight of the mate bond had finally lifted. No more Erik. No more constant reminders of how I’d supposedly ruined his life.

The flight was short, and when I landed, I turned on my phone. A barrage of messages flooded the screen—all from Erik. The latest one was timestamped just minutes ago. “Elena, it’s midnight. Aren’t you coming home? I set the curfew at ten.”

I stared at the message, my wolf bristling with irritation. *Curfew?* After the rejection? The formal words of his rejection still echoed in my mind, sharp and final. “I, Erik Hawkins, Lycan Prince of the Silvermoon Pack, reject you, Elena White, daughter of Alpha Ambrose Bell, as my mate.” The pain of that moment had been excruciating, the bond snapping like a broken thread. Yet here he was, acting as if he still had the right to control me.

I didn’t respond. Instead, I flagged down a taxi driver, a lone werewolf who eyed me curiously but didn’t ask questions. As we drove away from the airport, I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window. My brown hair was a mess, my green eyes shadowed with exhaustion. But for the first time in years, I felt a flicker of something—hope, maybe? Independence.

My phone buzzed again. This time, it was a message from Erik: “We’re taking the bonding photos with Gracie—no time to waste with the ceremony coming up.” I scoffed, a bitter chuckle escaping my lips. Why was he telling me this? Was he trying to rub it in? To remind me that the five years we’d shared as mates meant nothing now that he was planning a future with Gracie Shaw, his childhood crush?

I typed back quickly, my fingers steady despite the storm of emotions inside me. “Okay, take lots of photos. I won’t be at the ceremony.” He started typing again, but I didn’t wait to see what he had to say. I turned off my phone and leaned back in the seat, my wolf quiet for once. There was no Erik anymore. No one to remind me that I was the reason his life had gone off course. No one to make me feel like I owed him anything.

The taxi driver dropped me off at a small hotel near the coast. As I checked in, I felt a strange sense of relief. This was my chance to start over—to be someone other than Erik Hawkins’ mate. Someone who wasn’t defined by guilt or obligation.

Later that night, as I lay in bed, my phone buzzed once more. I hesitated before looking at the screen. It was Erik again. “Elena, where are you? You can’t just leave like this.”

I stared at the message, my wolf growling softly in frustration. He didn’t get to dictate my life anymore. The rejection was final, the bond severed. I was free. And for the first time in years, I intended to live like it.