Eliana POV:

My room looked like a skeleton. The furniture was still there, but the soul of the room was gone. Boxes were taped shut, stacked by the door.

I had confirmed my enrollment online an hour ago. My parents, bless them, hadn't asked questions. When I told them I needed to leave immediately, Dad simply called the movers and Mom started looking for apartments in Manhattan. They were resigning from their positions in the pack council tomorrow morning.

We were becoming Rogues. Well, civilized Rogues. City wolves.

I stood in the center of the room with a bundle of sage and dried wolfsbane—just a tiny amount, enough to irritate the nose but not harm.

I lit it. The smoke curled up, acrid and bitter.

I walked around the room, wafting the smoke into every corner, over every piece of furniture I was leaving behind. It was an old ritual, usually used to cleanse a house of bad spirits.

I was using it to scrub my scent.

I didn't want Jax to walk in here and smell vanilla or lavender or whatever I smelled like to him. I wanted him to smell nothing. I wanted him to smell the void.

My phone buzzed on the floor. I picked it up.

It was a notification from Pack Net, our private social media app.

Jax Little posted a photo.

I shouldn't have looked. I really shouldn't have. But my thumb hovered, and I tapped it.

It was a selfie. Jax and Catalina. She was wearing a diamond necklace—a heavy, gaudy thing with the North Gate crest in the center.

The caption read: *My Queen. #FutureLuna #PowerCouple*

I touched my own neck. It was bare. Jax had never given me jewelry. He said it was dangerous for training, that it would get caught on things. He gave me practical gifts. Running shoes. Water bottles.

But for her? Diamonds.

He wasn't protecting me. He just didn't think I was worth decorating.

I scrolled down to the comments.

*She's so much hotter than the other one.*

*Finally, an Alpha female.*

*Bye bye, Omega Ellie.*

I felt a tear slide down my cheek. Just one. It was hot and angry.

"Okay," I whispered to the empty room. "You want me gone? I'm gone."

I sat down on the bare mattress. I closed my eyes and went inward, searching for the bond. It was a thick, golden cord in my mind, stretching out into the darkness, pulsating with a dull ache.

I couldn't cut it. Only a rejected mate or death could sever it completely. But I could bury it.

I imagined building a fortress around that cord. Stone by stone. Iron by iron. I poured all my pain, my humiliation, and my rage into the mortar.

*I don't feel you,* I chanted in my head. *I don't need you. You are a stranger.*

The pulsing slowed. The ache dulled until it was just a background hum, like white noise.

I opened my eyes. I felt lighter. Hollow, but lighter.

The door opened. My dad stood there, holding two suitcases.

"Ready, kiddo?" he asked gently.

"Yeah, Dad," I said. "I'm ready."

I grabbed my backpack. I didn't look back at the room. I didn't look back at the house.

We got into the car. As we drove past the "Welcome to North Gate" sign, I rolled down the window.

I took a deep breath of the cool night air, letting the scent of pine and earth fill my lungs one last time.

Then I exhaled.

I was leaving the territory. I was leaving the hierarchy. I was leaving the girl who waited for a boy to love her.

New York was waiting. And whoever I was going to become, she wouldn't be an Omega.

*

Eliana POV:

I had one stop left before I left North Gate forever.

The Moon Tree stood on a hill overlooking the pack grounds. It was an ancient oak, its bark silver-grey under the moonlight, said to be blessed by the Moon Goddess herself. Couples came here to carve their initials, a primitive promise of eternity before the official mating ceremony.

I parked my car at the base of the hill and climbed. My ribs ached, a reminder of the stairs, but I ignored it.

I reached the trunk. There it was, weathered by time but still visible: *J + E*.

We had carved it when we were twelve. Back when he protected me from bullies instead of encouraging them.

I pulled a small pocket knife from my jeans. My hand trembled.

I dug the blade into the wood. I needed to scrape it off. I needed to erase the lie.

"Vandalism now, Eliana?"

The voice made me jump. The knife slipped, slicing my thumb.

Jax stood at the edge of the clearing. Catalina was clinging to his arm, looking bored.

"I'm just cleaning up a mistake," I said, sucking on my bleeding thumb.

Jax walked over, his shadow falling over me. He looked at the carving, then at me. For a second, I saw a flicker of hesitation in his hazel eyes.

"It's just a tree," Catalina said, stepping between us. She ran a manicured nail over the bark. "It's superstitious nonsense. Only weak wolves believe in this fairy tale stuff."

"It's history," I said. "Something you wouldn't understand."

Catalina's eyes narrowed. She whispered something in Jax's ear.

Jax's jaw tightened. He took the knife from my hand.

"You're right," he said to Catalina. "It is time for an update."

He didn't scrape the letters off. He slashed through them.

*Slash.* Through the J.

*Slash.* Through the E.

My heart hammered against my ribs. To deface a Moon Tree was bad luck. To slash a mate's initials was a curse.

Then, he began to carve new letters above the ruin of our names.

*C. M.*

Catalina Manning.

"There," Jax said, driving the knife into the wood with a final, violent thud. "Now it's accurate."

I stared at the fresh, weeping sap of the tree. It felt like he had carved those letters into my skin.

"You have no idea what you just did," I whispered. "The Goddess watches."

"The Goddess doesn't care about a reject," Catalina sneered.

She snatched my car keys from my pocket before I could react.

"Hey!" I shouted.

"Oops," she giggled, winding her arm back. She threw the keys toward the pond at the bottom of the hill. "Fetch."

"That's enough, Cat," Jax said, but he didn't move to stop her.

I didn't think. I ran. That car was my only way out of here. My ticket to New York.

I scrambled down the bank toward the dark water. The keys had landed near the reeds. I waded in.

The water was freezing. I groped in the mud, my fingers brushing against slime.

"Found them!" I gasped, clutching the metal.

Then, my legs seized.

It wasn't a cramp. It was fire. A burning sensation erupted all over my skin, instantly paralyzing my muscles.

My throat closed up. My limbs went numb.

*Wolfsbane.*

Someone had planted Aconite in the reeds. It was the only plant that could paralyze a wolf's nervous system instantly. For a human, it was toxic. For us, it was agony.

"Help," I tried to scream, but only a gurgle came out.

I slipped under the surface. My eyes were open, stinging. Through the distorted water, I saw Jax standing on the bank.

He was looking at the ripples. He frowned, taking a step forward.

"Eliana?" he called out.

Suddenly, Catalina let out a shriek, clutching her chest. "Jax! My heart! I can't breathe!"

Jax froze. He looked at the water, then at Catalina collapsing onto the grass.

"Stop playing games, Eliana!" he shouted at the pond, his voice muffled by the water. "I'm leaving!"

He believed I was faking it. Again.

He turned his back.

I watched his blurry silhouette scoop up Catalina and walk away as the darkness took me.

*

Eliana POV:

I didn't die.

An Omega named Ben, who cleaned the park grounds, found me. He dragged me out and pumped the water from my lungs. He smelled like compost and kindness.

I spent the night shivering in my bed, coughing up pond water. My parents wanted to burn the Alpha house down. I told them no.

"We leave with dignity," I croaked. "We leave tonight."

But there was one final obligation. The Alpha's Farewell Banquet for the graduates. My parents, as high-ranking council members, had to officially resign in person. I had to go to show I wasn't broken.

I wore a dress the color of steel. I covered the bruises with concealer. I walked into the banquet hall like a ghost.

The hall was opulent. Crystal chandeliers hung from the vaulted ceiling, shimmering with a thousand lights.

Jax sat at the head table. Catalina was next to him, wearing a white dress that looked like a wedding gown. She saw me and paled. She thought I was dead.

I didn't look at them. I stood by the exit, waiting for my parents to hand over their resignation papers to Alpha Marcus, Jax's father.

Alpha Marcus looked grim. Losing my father, his best financial strategist, was a blow. Losing my mother, the pack's head archivist, was a tragedy.

"Is this because of the boy?" Alpha Marcus asked quietly.

"It is because this pack has lost its way," my father said stiffly.

Suddenly, a groan of metal echoed from above.

I looked up. The massive central chandelier, directly above the head table, was swaying. The chain was snapping.

"Jax!" Luna Maria screamed.

Time seemed to slow down.

The chain gave way. Two tons of crystal and silver-plated metal plummeted.

Silver.

To humans, silver is jewelry. To wolves, it is acid. It burns on contact, preventing healing, searing the flesh deep to the bone.

Jax looked up. He had a split second. He could have rolled away. He could have saved himself.

Instead, he threw his body over Catalina.

*CRASH.*

The sound was deafening. Shards of crystal exploded like shrapnel. Dust billowed up.

Screams erupted. The smell of ozone and burnt flesh filled the air instantly.

"My son!" Alpha Marcus roared, shifting into his massive grey wolf mid-leap.

Warriors rushed forward, heaving the twisted metal off the Alpha Heir.

Jax lay on the floor. His back was a ruin. The silver plating of the chandelier had seared into his skin, smoke rising from the blackened wounds. He was unconscious, his face twisted in agony.

Beneath him, Catalina crawled out. She was untouched. Not a scratch.

She looked at Jax's broken body, and for a second, I saw annoyance in her eyes. Her shield was damaged.

The pack medics swarmed them.

I stood perfectly still.

A week ago, I would have been the first one running to him. I would have offered my own blood to help him heal. I would have taken his pain into myself through the bond.

Now?

I felt... nothing.

It was a terrifying, beautiful emptiness.

I watched them load him onto a stretcher. I watched his mother weeping.

I turned to my parents.

"Are we done?" I asked.

My dad looked at me, then at the chaos. He nodded.

"We're done."

I walked out of the banquet hall. I didn't look back at the boy who had just sacrificed his body for a lie.

The cool night air hit my face.

I got into the car.

"Goodbye, Jax," I whispered.

And I drove away.

*