Three days. It took me three days to crawl out of rogue territory, my ceremonial dress reduced to bloodstained rags, my feet torn and infected. When I finally crossed back into Shadowpine Pack lands, the border patrol found me collapsed against an oak tree, barely conscious.

They carried me to the pack house in silence. No one asked what happened. No one needed to—the whole pack knew by now that their Luna-to-be had been abandoned in rogue territory during what should have been her mating ceremony.

I woke in the healer's quarters, my body wrapped in bandages, my wolf Luna whimpering weakly in my mind. The door opened, and Jasper walked in. For a moment, hope flared in my chest—maybe he'd come to comfort me, to promise we'd find Diana and make her pay for what she'd done.

Then I saw his face. Cold. Resolved. Already distant.

"Rosa." He stood at the foot of the bed, keeping careful distance between us. "We need to talk."

I pushed myself upright despite the pain screaming through my ribs. "Diana arranged it. The rogues said someone paid them to—"

"I know."

Two words that shattered everything.

"You know?" My voice cracked. "Then why isn't she in the cells? Why are you standing here looking at me like I'm the problem?"

Jasper's jaw tightened. "Because while you were gone, Diana lost the baby. Our baby."

The world tilted. "Baby?"

"She was pregnant. The stress of the rogue attack, of thinking they might come for her next—" He ran his hand through his hair, that gesture I used to find endearing now making me sick. "She miscarried, Rosa. And I can't keep doing this. I can't keep hurting everyone because of a bond neither of us chose."

"The Moon Goddess chose it." I gripped the bedsheets, feeling Luna howling in despair inside me. "We're fated mates, Jasper. That means something."

"It means pain." His voice turned harsh. "It means ten failed ceremonies. It means Diana arranging your kidnapping because she's so desperate to keep me that she's willing to commit crimes. It means I've already marked her as my chosen mate."

The room went silent except for my ragged breathing.

"You what?"

Jasper's hand moved to his neck, and I saw it—the fresh mark, still healing. Not mine. Never mine.

"Two days ago," he said quietly. "I couldn't wait anymore, Rosa. I couldn't keep letting everyone suffer because we're trying to force something that clearly isn't meant to be."

"Isn't meant to be?" I laughed, the sound broken and bitter. "The Moon Goddess herself chose us, and you think that isn't meant to be?"

"Then maybe the Moon Goddess made a mistake!"

His words hung in the air like poison. Luna screamed in my mind, clawing at my consciousness, begging me to fight, to make him see reason. But I looked at Jasper's face—at the relief mixed with guilt in his eyes—and I understood. He'd already made his choice. He'd made it two days ago when he marked Diana. He'd probably made it months ago, during the first failed ceremony, maybe even before.

I was just too desperate to see it.

"Fine." I pushed myself out of bed, ignoring the pain. "Then do it properly. Don't be a coward about this."

Jasper's eyes widened. "Rosa—"

"Say the words." I stood before him, my torn body wrapped in bandages, my wolf dying inside me, and lifted my chin. "If you're going to destroy our bond, at least have the courage to look me in the eye while you do it."

For a moment, I thought he might refuse. Might realize what he was about to lose. Then his face hardened, and he straightened into his Alpha posture.

"I, Jasper Hunter, Alpha of the Shadowpine Pack, reject you, Rosa Matthews, as my mate."

The pain hit like silver through my heart. Luna screamed, a sound that tore through my soul as the mate bond—that silver thread I'd felt since the moment I rescued him in the mountains—snapped. I fell to my knees, my body convulsing as the Moon Goddess's gift was severed by words, by choice, by a man who valued comfort over destiny.

Through the agony, I heard Jasper grunt, saw him grab his chest as his own wolf rebelled against the rejection. Good. Let him hurt. Let him feel a fraction of what he'd put me through.

When I could finally breathe again, I forced myself to stand. My wolf was silent now, retreating deep inside where the pain couldn't reach her. I looked at Jasper—really looked at him—and saw a stranger wearing my mate's face.

"I, Rosa Matthews, accept your rejection."

The final snap of the bond echoed through the empty space where our connection used to live. Jasper's eyes flashed gold as his wolf howled in protest, but it was done. Finished. The Moon Goddess's gift, rejected and returned.

"Get out," I whispered.

He left without another word.

I spent the next hour packing my few belongings into the worn leather bag my mentor had given me. My hands moved automatically—folding clothes, gathering my healing supplies, removing every trace of myself from the room that was supposed to become the Luna's quarters.

Outside my door, I heard the whispers.

"She survived rogue territory alone?"

"The Alpha rejected her. Actually rejected his fated mate."

"Where will she go? A rejected mate has no place in any pack."

Luna stirred weakly. 'We have a place,' she whispered. 'With our mentor. Where we're valued for what we can do, not who we were supposed to love.'

I touched the silver pendant at my throat—the one reminder of the life I'd thought I would have. Then I removed it, leaving it on the dresser. Let Diana find it. Let her wear it. Let her have everything she'd schemed and murdered for.

I was done being the rejected mate, the abandoned Luna, the girl who survived what should have killed her.

My mentor had sent word days ago about the virus outbreak at Lakewood Pack. They needed healers desperately. They needed someone willing to work through the night, to risk infection, to save lives even when her own had fallen apart.

I picked up my bag and walked out of Shadowpine Pack territory without looking back, leaving behind the mate who chose wrong and the bond that never got the chance to be right.

Lakewood Pack was three days' journey north. Three days to put distance between myself and the worst mistake the Moon Goddess ever made.

Three days to become someone new.

Lakewood Pack's healer quarters smelled like death masked by herbs. I pushed through the door, my leather bag heavy against my hip, and found chaos—pack members crammed onto cots, their skin gray with fever, their breathing shallow. The virus had ravaged this territory worse than my mentor's messages had described.

"You're the healer from Shadowpine?" A woman approached, her face drawn with exhaustion. Alpha Elena Cross, I realized, recognizing her from inter-pack gatherings. But her usual commanding presence had been stripped away by fear. "Thank the Moon Goddess. We've lost twelve already, and our healer collapsed from exhaustion yesterday."

Twelve dead. My chest tightened, but I pushed past the weight of my own broken bond, my own shattered life. These wolves needed me. That was enough.

"Show me the worst cases first," I said, already rolling up my sleeves.

Elena led me through rows of suffering wolves to a private room where the smell hit me like a physical blow—infection, decay, the particular stench of a virus consuming its host from within. Three wolves lay dying, their bodies barely clinging to life.

A man stood over them, his hands moving with practiced precision as he administered some kind of tincture. He looked up when we entered, and I froze.

His eyes were the color of amber in sunlight, calm despite the death surrounding us. Dark hair fell across his forehead, and something about the way he carried himself—the quiet authority, the absolute certainty in his movements—made my wolf stir for the first time since the rejection.

Luna, barely a whisper in my mind for days, suddenly pushed forward. 'Who is he?'

"This is Avi Reed," Elena said. "He arrived three days ago and has been working nonstop since. Avi, this is Rosa Matthews, the healer I told you about."

Avi's gaze met mine, and I felt something shift in my chest—not the violent pull of a mate bond, but something gentler, like recognition. His expression remained neutral, professional, but his voice carried warmth when he spoke.

"Rosa Matthews. Your mentor speaks highly of your abilities." He gestured to the dying wolves. "I could use another pair of skilled hands. This virus attacks the lymphatic system, creating a cascade of organ failure. I've been trying to slow the progression, but—"

"The body's own defenses turn against it," I finished, moving to the nearest patient without thinking. My fingers found her pulse point—thread and erratic. "Have you tried bloodroot tincture combined with silver sage?"

Avi's eyes sharpened with interest. "Together? That combination could be toxic if the ratios aren't precise."

"Only if you're not a trained healer." I met his gaze evenly, some part of me rising to an unspoken challenge. "My mentor taught me the ancient techniques. Three parts bloodroot to one part silver sage, administered during the fever's peak. It forces the body to purge the infection before it can spread."

Something like respect flickered across his features. "Show me."

We worked through the night, our movements falling into natural rhythm. Avi anticipated what I needed before I asked—handing me tools, preparing tinctures, his knowledge of healing techniques far beyond what most traveling healers possessed. When I struggled to hold down a convulsing patient, he was there, his hands steady and sure, his voice calm as he talked the wolf through the worst of the purging.

"Where did you train?" I asked hours later, as we finally managed to stabilize the three critical patients. My hands were stained with blood and medicine, my body exhausted, but my mind felt clearer than it had in weeks.

Avi paused in cleaning his instruments, and for a moment, something guarded flickered in his expression. "Many places. My family believed in comprehensive education."

It wasn't really an answer, but before I could press, a young pack member burst through the door. "More cases in the south quarter. Five wolves, all showing symptoms."

Avi and I exchanged glances, and without words, we moved as one. He grabbed the medical supplies while I gathered the tinctures we'd prepared. As we rushed toward the south quarter, Elena fell into step beside us.

"You two work well together," she observed, and there was something knowing in her tone that made me uncomfortable.

"We're just doing our jobs," I said, but Luna stirred again in my mind, curious and confused.

'He feels different,' she whispered. 'Not like Jasper. Not like the bond. But... something.'

I pushed the thought away. I didn't have time for whatever Luna was sensing. I had patients to save, lives to heal, a purpose that had nothing to do with mate bonds or the wreckage of my past.

But as Avi and I worked through another endless night, our hands moving in perfect coordination, our wolves recognizing something in each other that our human minds couldn't yet name, I felt the first fragile thread of something new beginning to form in the space where my broken bond used to live.

Not a replacement. Not a cure for the pain Jasper had left behind.

Just... possibility.