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.

Elyse POV

The dull throb in my bruised hip was a lingering reminder of Jace's brutality yesterday, but as I walked into the Great Hall the next afternoon, my soul had never felt lighter. The suffocating weight of the mate bond was gone. I was a ghost haunting a house I no longer belonged to, waiting for the perfect moment to vanish.

I found Ciera standing in the center of the cavernous room, her arms crossed as she glared at the main wall.

Hanging there was the Moon-Blessed Tapestry of the First Alpha. Woven centuries ago with the platinum hair of the first Luna, it depicted a massive silver dire wolf bathed in moonlight. It was the sacred heart of the Silvermoon Pack, radiating a faint, ancient energy.

Ciera reached out, poking the edge of the priceless fabric with a manicured fingernail. She wrinkled her nose. "It smells like dust and death."

"It smells like history, Ciera," I said, my voice echoing coldly against the stone walls. "Like glory. Some things hold a value that cannot be measured by money."

She spun around, rolling her eyes. "Please. Jace is the Alpha. He can have whatever he wants. It's just an old, dark rag that ruins the aesthetic of the room. I'm going to have him take it down and put up a massive portrait of Leo and me. He could buy ten new tapestries anyway."

Her sheer ignorance was staggering, but it was exactly the weakness I needed.

Just then, Leo sprinted into the hall, his sneakers squeaking against the polished floor. In his hand, he gripped an open box of dark purple grape juice, swinging it wildly.

The trap was set. I just needed to hand her the bait.

"You should control him, Ciera," I said, keeping my tone perfectly even, though I laced it with a subtle challenge to her authority. "The Elders have made it clear that the relic's integrity is tied to the Alpha's power. If it is damaged, it will be viewed as a terrible omen for our Pack's future."

Ciera's face flushed with immediate, predictable anger. She hated being told what to do, especially by me.

"Don't use the Elders to scare me, Elyse!" she snapped, stepping protectively in front of her son. "This will be my home soon, and I make the rules! Leo, baby, go play. Ignore her."

Encouraged by his mother's defiance, Leo flashed me a malicious, childish grin. He ran directly toward the wall, raised his arm, and squeezed the juice box with all his might.

A thick arc of dark purple liquid splashed across the center of the tapestry.

The sweet, sticky juice soaked into the ancient platinum threads, blurring the blessed runes and staining the silver wolf like a deep, bleeding wound. Ciera and Leo erupted into a fit of giggles, completely oblivious to the magnitude of what they had just done.

A cold thrill of triumph washed over me.

Before the laughter could fade, the heavy oak doors of the Great Hall swung open. Elder Marcus stepped inside.

He had come to question Jace about his recent erratic behavior, but the moment his eyes landed on the desecrated tapestry, he froze. The air in the room instantly dropped ten degrees. The suffocating, oppressive aura of his ancient Inner Wolf flooded the hall, choking the laughter right out of Ciera's throat.

"What is the meaning of this?" Elder Marcus thundered, his face turning a dangerous shade of purple.

"It was an accident," Ciera stammered, shrinking back. "Just a child's prank. We'll wipe it clean—"

"Wipe it clean?" Marcus roared, stepping forward. "This is not a stain, you foolish woman! This is sacrilege! It is a direct insult to the Moon Goddess herself!"

Ciera trembled, pulling Leo behind her.

Marcus turned his furious gaze toward the empty Alpha's chair. "By the oldest laws of this Pack, the sin of desecrating a holy relic falls upon the Alpha who allowed it. In the name of the Elders' Council, I hereby freeze Jace's access to the Alpha's Discretionary Fund immediately. Not a single dime will be spent until a full purification ritual is paid for and completed to appease the Goddess."

Ciera let out a horrified shriek. The Discretionary Fund was the source of all her lavish shopping sprees and luxurious lifestyle. In a matter of seconds, her endless wealth had been severed.

"Guards!" Marcus barked. Two Pack warriors rushed in. "Watch her. She does not leave this hall until the Alpha returns to answer for this disgrace."

As Ciera collapsed onto a sofa, sobbing hysterically over her ruined finances and public humiliation, I took a quiet step back into the shadows.

"Oh dear," I whispered softly, my voice dripping with feigned sympathy. "This is going to be very bad for Jace."