I stumbled through the pack house doors and into the night, my silver dress already darkening with the first drops of rain. The celebration's warmth and light faded behind me as I crossed the threshold into something that felt like the end of everything.

The storm hit with a vengeance the moment I stepped beyond our territory's protective boundaries. Rain lashed against my face like icy needles, but the physical pain was nothing compared to the agony tearing through my chest. The mate bond—that sacred connection I'd treasured for three years—now felt like a live wire burning through my soul.

Each step away from the pack house sent fresh waves of torment through my body. Sage whimpered and thrashed inside me, confused by the conflicting signals from our bond. Reid was supposed to be our anchor, our other half. Instead, he was somewhere else, with someone else, while I bled emotionally in the darkness.

"He chose her," I whispered to the storm, my voice lost in the howling wind. "On our anniversary, he chose her."

The rain soaked through my ceremonial dress within minutes, the delicate silver fabric clinging to my skin like a second layer of misery. My carefully styled hair fell in sodden strands around my face, and my makeup ran in dark rivulets down my cheeks. I looked nothing like the Luna who had stood proudly in the great hall just an hour ago.

But I kept walking, driven by a pain so intense it felt like my chest was caving in. The mate bond pulled and twisted, sending confusing signals that made my head spin. Where was Reid? What was he doing? The questions tormented me as I stumbled through the muddy forest floor.

Then the cramping started.

At first, it was just a dull ache low in my abdomen—stress, I told myself. Emotional trauma manifesting physically. But as I pressed deeper into the storm, the pain sharpened into something that made me double over with a gasp.

"No," I breathed, my hands flying to my stomach. "No, no, no."

The cramping intensified, radiating through my core with a viciousness that dropped me to my knees in the mud. Rain pounded against my back as I curled forward, trying to protect the tiny life growing inside me. Our pup. Reid's heir. The surprise I'd planned to share tonight under the golden lights of our celebration.

Another wave of pain hit, and I felt something warm and wet between my legs that had nothing to do with the rain. My vision blurred as panic set in, my wolf howling in distress as she sensed what was happening.

"Please," I sobbed to the Moon Goddess, to anyone who might be listening. "Please don't take this too. I can't lose everything in one night."

But the Goddess remained silent as the storm raged around me. The cramping grew worse, each spasm stealing my breath and my hope. I collapsed fully into the mud, my silver dress now brown and ruined, my body betraying me when I needed it most.

The mate bond pain mixed with physical agony until I couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. Reid's betrayal had triggered this—the stress, the emotional trauma, the feeling of being abandoned when I needed him most. Our pup was slipping away because their father had chosen another she-wolf over their mother.

I don't know how long I lay there in the mud and rain, feeling my body reject the future I'd dreamed of. Time became meaningless as I grieved for the child who would never take their first breath, never shift under the full moon, never carry on the Walker bloodline.

When the worst of it passed, I felt hollow. Empty in ways I'd never imagined possible. The storm continued its assault, but I barely felt it anymore. Everything that had mattered—my mate, my pup, my role as Luna—had been stripped away in the span of a few hours.

Somehow, I found the strength to stand. My legs shook like a newborn fawn's, and each movement sent fresh stabs of pain through my core, but I managed to stay upright. I had to get back. I had to face whatever came next.

The walk back to the pack house felt endless. My wet dress dragged against my legs, and my bare feet slipped in the mud with every step. The golden lights of home grew larger as I approached, but they no longer looked welcoming. They looked like a mockery of everything I'd lost.

By the time I reached the front door, the celebration had ended. The great hall stood empty, chairs pushed back from tables littered with half-eaten food and abandoned wine glasses. Even our pack had given up on their missing Alpha and Luna.

Marcus appeared from the shadows, his eyes widening as he took in my appearance. "Luna Christina! What happened? Where have you been?"

I stared at him, this loyal Beta who served my mate so faithfully, and felt nothing but exhaustion. "Where is Reid?"

"Still with Aitana. Her condition hasn't improved, and—" He stopped mid-sentence, finally registering my state. "Luna, you're bleeding. You need medical attention."

"No," I said quietly. "I need to know if my mate even noticed I was gone."

The shame in Marcus's eyes told me everything I needed to know. Reid hadn't asked about me. Hadn't wondered where his Luna had disappeared to on their anniversary. He was too busy playing hero for another she-wolf to notice his own mate bleeding in the storm.

I walked past Marcus without another word, leaving muddy footprints on the pristine marble floor. Tomorrow, I would face Reid and demand answers. Tomorrow, I would tell him about the pup we'd lost while he was comforting Aitana.

Tonight, I just needed to survive until dawn.

I locked the door to my study and leaned against it, my hands still trembling from the night's devastation. The room felt like a sanctuary—mahogany shelves lined with ancient pack histories, my desk where I'd handled Luna duties with such pride just hours ago. Now everything seemed foreign, as if I were seeing it through different eyes.

My wet dress clung uncomfortably to my skin, but I couldn't bring myself to change. The physical discomfort felt appropriate somehow, a reminder of what I'd endured while my mate played savior to another she-wolf.

I pulled out the leather-bound journal I kept hidden in my desk drawer—the one where I'd planned to record memories of our growing family. My hands shook as I opened it to a fresh page and began to write.

*My little one,*

*I'm so sorry I couldn't protect you. Your father was supposed to be here tonight, supposed to celebrate the bond that created you. Instead, he chose her—again. But I promise you this: your death won't be meaningless. I won't stay with a mate who values another she-wolf over his own family.*

Tears blurred my vision as I set down the pen. Sage whimpered in my mind, still reeling from the trauma of losing our pup. The mate bond ached like an infected wound, sending waves of Reid's emotions through our connection—guilt, confusion, and something else I didn't want to identify.

I moved to the ancient texts section, my fingers trailing over spines until I found what I was looking for: *Sacred Bonds and Their Dissolution*. The book felt heavy in my hands, weighted with centuries of pack law and tradition. Mate bond rejection was rare, dangerous, and considered an affront to the Moon Goddess herself.

But as I read the ritual requirements, I felt something crystallize inside me. The formal words, the witnesses needed, the irreversible nature of the ceremony—it all seemed like a path toward freedom from this poisonous connection.

The study door rattled suddenly, making me jump. Reid's voice boomed through the wood, rough with panic and something that sounded like desperation.

"Christina! Open this door. Now."

I quickly closed the book and slid it beneath other papers on my desk. "It's late, Reid. We'll talk tomorrow."

"No." His Alpha tone cracked through the air, and I felt the door shudder under his fist. "I felt it through our bond. You were pregnant. Why didn't you tell me?"

The breath left my lungs in a rush. Of course he'd sensed it—the severing of that tiny life force would have echoed through our mate connection like a scream. I opened the door slowly, meeting his wild eyes with as much composure as I could manage.

Reid looked haggard, his usually perfect hair disheveled, his shirt stained with what I assumed was Aitana's blood. But it was the desperate hunger in his gaze that made me step back.

"Answer me," he demanded, pushing into the room. "Were you carrying my heir?"

*His heir.* Not *our pup*, not *our child*. Just another possession for the great Alpha Reid Walker.

"I was," I said quietly, watching his face crumble. "I planned to tell you tonight, at our anniversary celebration. The one you abandoned."

He reached for me, but I moved away, putting the desk between us. "Christina, if I had known—"

"You would have what? Chosen me over Aitana for once?" The words came out sharper than I intended, but I didn't regret them. "I lost our pup tonight, Reid. While you were playing hero, I was bleeding in the rain, losing the future you claim to want so desperately."

His Alpha aura flared, filling the room with suffocating dominance. "You will not speak to me that way. I am your mate, your Alpha. Everything I do is to protect this pack, including you."

"Protect me?" I laughed, the sound hollow and broken. "You left me alone on our anniversary. You didn't even notice I was gone."

"I notice everything about you," he snarled, his eyes flashing gold. "And I'm noticing that you're pulling away from our bond. Stop it. Now."

But I could see the truth in his eyes, the way they kept darting toward the door as if part of him was still with Aitana. An idea formed—dangerous, but necessary.

"Reid," I said softly, letting false hope creep into my voice. "Maybe... maybe we can work through this. If you can honestly tell me you choose me over her. Can you do that?"

He stepped closer, relief flooding his features. "Of course I choose you. You're my Luna, my—"

"Say it," I interrupted, watching his face carefully. "Say you choose Christina Russell over Aitana Porter. Say it like you mean it."

The silence stretched between us like a chasm. Reid's mouth opened, closed, opened again. His eyes flickered with uncertainty, with the weight of a lie he couldn't quite force past his lips.

That hesitation was all I needed.

"I, Christina Russell, Luna of the Crescent Moon Pack," I began, my voice carrying the ancient power of the rejection ritual, "reject you, Reid Walker, Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack, as my mate and the other half of my soul."

Reid's eyes went wide with shock and horror. "Christina, no! You can't—"

"By the laws of our ancestors and the witness of the Moon Goddess herself, I sever this bond freely and completely."

The words hung in the air like a death sentence, and I saw the exact moment Reid realized he'd been trapped by his own inability to choose me over her.