Elyse POV

The morning sun did nothing to chase away the chill in my bones as I sat inside Talia Casey’s discreet Upper East Side law office. The scent of old paper, rich mahogany, and Talia’s expensive Chanel perfume filled the room—a sanctuary of human order, far removed from the primal chaos of the werewolf world.

Talia pushed a thick stack of papers across her desk, her sharp eyes narrowing. "Elyse, I won't draft a surrender. Jace moved his mistress and her brat into the Luna's wing. That’s a blatant violation of the infidelity clause. We can take half the Blackmoon estate."

"I don't want his money, Talia," I said, my voice steady. "I want a Decoy Rejection. Draft an agreement where I walk away with absolutely nothing. Make it look pathetic and submissive. Stroke his massive ego so he signs it immediately."

"Why would you let him win?" Talia demanded, slamming her pen down.

I reached into my bag and slid a sealed medical file over the desk. "Because of this. Three years of marriage, Talia. Look at the physical exam."

Talia opened the file, her eyes scanning the text before widening in horror. "You're... unmarked? You never even consummated the bond?"

"He claimed he was saving himself for his 'true mate,' which he clearly believes is Ciera," I said, the humiliation a dull ache I had long since buried.

"Elyse, this is abandonment. It's fraud in both human and Pack law!"

"It doesn't matter," I leaned forward, lowering my voice as if the shadows could hear us. "Hilda Blackwood is sending trackers."

The color instantly drained from Talia’s face. She was human, but she knew enough about my past to understand the sheer terror attached to the Blackwood Pack's matriarch.

"If I drag Jace through a public, messy divorce, the media will swarm. Every Pack will be watching," I explained, my hands trembling slightly before I forced them to still. "If Hilda finds out where I am, she will drag me back to that hell. I cannot risk it. I need to be a ghost."

Talia stared at me for a long moment, the fight leaving her shoulders. "Okay," she whispered. "I'll draft the decoy. We'll make him think he broke you."

By the time I returned to the Blackmoon Pack House that afternoon, the invasion of my territory was already underway.

I stopped dead in the grand foyer. The magnificent, centuries-old tapestry depicting the Moon Goddess—a sacred piece of Pack history—was crumpled on the marble floor like trash. In its place hung a massive, garish photo of Leo playing on a beach, encased in a cheap neon plastic frame.

Ciera stood nearby, directing two Omega servants. When she saw me, she offered a sickly sweet smile. "Oh, Elyse. I hope you don't mind. It was just so dreary in here. I wanted to add some of our family's warmth."

I stared at the plastic frame, my voice dropping to a glacial calm. "Some things represent legacy, Ciera, not warmth. They demand reverence, not plastic frames."

Ciera’s eyes instantly welled with tears. Right on cue, the heavy oak doors of the study opened, and Jace stepped out.

His jaw was clenched, his Inner Wolf, *Titan*, clearly agitated by the territorial discord. But instead of assessing the situation, his eyes locked onto Ciera’s fake tears. He marched over, wrapping a protective arm around her waist before glaring at me.

"She lives here now, Elyse," Jace commanded, his Alpha tone lacing the air with heavy, suffocating pressure. "Be tolerant. This is my Pack House."

He expected me to fight. He expected the *wolfless* Luna to throw a pathetic tantrum over a tapestry.

Instead, I looked at the man who had never truly been my husband, feeling the last chains of my emotional attachment shatter into dust. I offered him a calm, almost obedient nod.

"You're right, Alpha," I said softly. "This is your Pack House." I paused, letting my eyes drift from his face to the cheap plastic frame, and back again. "And soon, it will be entirely yours."

Jace frowned, a flicker of deep confusion and sudden irritation crossing his features. He didn't understand the double meaning. He didn't realize I had just handed him his crown of ashes.

Without another word, I turned my back on them and walked toward the stairs, needing to prepare myself for the mandatory family dinner tonight.

Elyse POV

The Alpha's Formal Dining Hall was designed to intimidate. Heavy pewter cutlery rested on a deep crimson tablecloth, and the stern portraits of past Alphas glared down from the mahogany-paneled walls. It was a place of absolute order and Pack tradition.

Or, it used to be.

*Clink. Clink. Clink.*

Leo sat two seats away from Jace, repeatedly striking his silver fork against a crystal goblet. The sharp, grating noise echoed through the suffocating silence of the room.

I looked at Jace at the head of the table. His jaw was tight, his Inner Wolf, *Titan*, clearly agitated by the noise, yet he did nothing.

"Jace, please ask him to stop," I said, keeping my voice perfectly level.

Jace waved a hand dismissively, not even looking up from his plate. "Leave it, Elyse. He's just a kid."

"He's just showing his vitality," Ciera chimed in, placing a manicured hand over Jace's arm. She offered me a condescending smile. "It takes a lot of energy to grow. I think it shows true Alpha potential."

I set my fork down. "It is not vitality, Alpha Jace. It is blatant disrespect to this bloodline and to your seat."

The temperature in the room plummeted. Jace’s head snapped up, his eyes flashing with a dangerous, golden warning. But before he could unleash his temper on me, Leo, emboldened by his mother's defense and the Alpha's silence, dropped the fork. With a bratty smirk, he slid off his chair and bolted toward the adjoining Hearth Room.

A cold knot tightened in my stomach. I stood up and followed him.

The Hearth Room was bathed in the warm glow of a roaring fire, but my blood ran ice-cold the second I stepped inside. Leo was standing on his tiptoes, reaching for the mantel. His small hands closed around a small, carved wooden frame.

It was the only surviving photograph of my parents. The only piece of my soul that hadn't been tainted by the horrors of the Blackwood Pack.

"Put it down, Leo," I commanded, a sharp, Alpha-Luna edge bleeding into my tone that I rarely used.

Leo flinched, but then his face twisted into a defiant sneer. "It's old and ugly! Uncle Jace is the Alpha! This is his home, which means it's mine!"

"Leo, no!" I lunged forward.

He raised the frame high above his head and hurled it down with all his might.

The glass shattered against the white marble hearth with a sickening crash. The black-and-white photo of my parents fluttered down, landing amidst the jagged, glittering shards.

Dead silence swallowed the room.

Then, right on cue, Leo burst into theatrical, wailing sobs.

"Leo!" Ciera shrieked, rushing into the room and pulling the boy into her chest. She glared at me with venomous triumph. "You terrified my baby! What is wrong with you?"

Jace stormed in a second later. The scent of his cedar aura spiked with aggressive, suffocating protectiveness—but none of it was for me. He rushed to Ciera and Leo, his hands hovering over them as if checking for injuries.

I dropped to my knees on the hard marble. My hands shook violently as I reached into the broken glass, desperately trying to salvage the torn photograph. A sharp shard sliced deep into my index finger, but I didn't care. Drops of my blood stained the white stone.

"Why would you lunge at a child like that?" Jace's voice cracked like a whip above me.

I looked up, clutching the ruined photo to my chest. "It was my parents, Jace."

He looked at the blood dripping from my hand, and his eyes remained entirely devoid of empathy. "Stop overreacting, Elyse. It's just a picture. I can buy you ten new ones tomorrow."

The words hit me harder than a physical blow. He didn't just dismiss my pain; he desecrated my lineage.

"He was scared to death," Jace continued, his tone hardening into an Alpha's command. "Apologize to him. Now."

He wanted the Luna of the Silvermoon Pack to kneel and apologize to his mistress's brat for trying to protect her own heritage.

I stared at the man I had been bound to for three years. The last, pathetic thread of my hope snapped, leaving behind a void so cold it burned.

"No." The word slipped from my lips, hollow and absolute.

I didn't wait for his furious roar. I stood up, turning my back on the three of them, and walked out of the room. I climbed the stairs to my suite in the West Wing, the silence of the hallway ringing in my ears.

Once inside, I locked the heavy oak door. I walked into the en-suite bathroom, turned on the faucet, and thrust my bleeding hand under the freezing water. The physical sting grounded me.

With my dry hand, I picked up my encrypted phone and dialed.

"Talia," I said the moment she answered, my voice devoid of any emotion. "Do it. Tomorrow. I don't care how we do it. I want his signature on that document."

Elyse POV

The next morning, the Alpha's study smelled of stale coffee, old parchment, and the sour edge of Jace's cedar scent.

He sat behind his massive mahogany desk, rubbing his bloodshot eyes. The Pack Elders had kept him up all night, grilling him over his blatant disrespect toward me and his blatant favoritism of Ciera. He was exhausted, his guard completely down. It was the perfect hunting ground.

I walked in, my posture the very picture of a submissive, dutiful Luna. I set a mug of black coffee in front of him, along with a thick stack of papers.

"What is this, Elyse?" he grumbled, his Inner Wolf, *Titan*, letting out a low, agitated rumble in his chest.

"Quarterly tax reports and the new portfolio allocations," I lied smoothly, keeping my voice soft. "The Pack accountants need your signature before lunch. I've already highlighted where you need to sign."

I spread the documents out, strategically fanning them so the dense financial jargon covered the true nature of the bottom page. Only the signature line of the Rejection agreement was visible. My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird, my bandaged hand sweating, but my face remained a mask of calm.

Jace groaned, pressing his fingers to his temples. He didn't even glance at the text. He just wanted the headache to end. He picked up his silver pen.

The nib hovered a millimeter above the paper. *Just do it,* I prayed to the Moon Goddess. *Sign it.*

Suddenly, a theatrical, blood-curdling shriek echoed from the first floor.

*"Jace!"* Ciera's voice wailed.

Jace's body went rigid, as if struck by lightning. His protective Alpha instincts hijacked his brain. His hand jerked, the pen slashing a long streak of black ink across the paper before he hastily scribbled his signature at the bottom.

The moment the ink settled, a sharp, tearing agony ripped through my chest. The mate bond severing. Jace gasped, clutching his chest for a fraction of a second, but his panicked mind clearly blamed the pain on his terror for Ciera.

He dropped the pen and bolted. He didn't care who or what was in his way. He shoved me with the brute force of a frantic Alpha.

I flew backward. My hip slammed violently into the sharp corner of the heavy oak bookshelf. A blinding flash of pain shot down my leg, forcing me to my knees.

Jace didn't even look back. He kicked his expensive leather chair out of the way and vanished through the doorway, his frantic footsteps thundering down the stairs.

I stayed on the floor for a moment, breathing through the throbbing pain in my hip. Then, a cold, triumphant smile touched my lips.

I pulled myself up and snatched the document from the desk. There it was. His legal, binding signature, severing our union and relinquishing all his claims over me.

Downstairs, I could hear the chaotic aftermath. Ciera was sobbing loudly.

"My finger! The door slammed on my finger!" she cried.

"Someone get the Pack Healer! Now!" Jace roared, his voice trembling with disproportionate panic.

I pulled out my encrypted phone, snapped a clear photo of the signed Rejection agreement, and sent it to Talia.

Ten seconds later, my screen lit up with her reply: *You are free, Elyse.*

A heavy, suffocating weight lifted off my soul. I was no longer bound to the Blackmoon Pack. I was no longer his.

Just then, the screen of Jace's forgotten phone lit up on the desk. It was a text from Ciera, sent just moments before her dramatic scream.

*Thank you for being my true Alpha.*

I stared at the message, listening to the Alpha of the Silvermoon Pack mobilize his entire household over his mistress's pinched finger, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just signed away his Luna and his marriage.

"Fool," I whispered into the empty room.

I gathered the decoy tax documents and dumped them into the recycling bin. Smoothing down my skirt, I ignored the dull ache in my hip and walked out of the study. It was time to go downstairs and see what other damage Ciera was eager to inflict upon herself today.