A week later, Alpha Damien returned from his pack business. It was already ten at night when his car pulled into the driveway of the Munoz Pack estate. In the past, no matter how late he arrived, Isabela and I would always wait up for him. But tonight, my pup had already had her bath and gone to bed, her soft breathing a steady rhythm in the quiet house.

I wasn’t in the master suite; instead, I had taken refuge in the guest room on the second floor. As the familiar rumble of his engine approached, I stood on the balcony, my fingers trembling as I reopened the message I had received six days ago—a document confirming a vasectomy. Even now, the sight of it made my eyes sting with unshed tears.

“Laura, if you’re willing, just nod your head once. I will treat Isabela as my own. From now on, she’ll be my only daughter, no, my only pup.”

Kevin’s words echoed in my mind, lingering long after the screen had dimmed. The sound of Alpha Damien’s footsteps reached my ears—first ascending to the third-floor master suite, then descending to where I stood. He paused outside the guest room before knocking.

“Laura, open the door.”

I hastily wiped my tears and shoved my phone beneath the pillow. “I’m really trying to sleep. Can we talk about it tomorrow?”

But before I could finish, the door swung open. I froze for a moment, then remembered—this was the Alpha’s house. He had every right to enter any room he pleased.

“Why did you move to the guest room?” His voice carried a sharp edge, colder than usual. I slowly sat up and looked at him. After a long journey, weariness was etched into his features. He rubbed his temples as he spoke, his tone rough with fatigue.

I ignored the flicker of pity in my heart and averted my gaze. “I haven’t been feeling well these past few days. I didn’t want to risk passing anything on to you.”

“That doesn’t bother me. You should move back.”

He noticed I was still sitting on the bed, unmoving. His frown deepened. “Laura?”

“I’m really exhausted. You should get some sleep too...”

Alpha Damien didn’t reply but strode to the bed. Without warning, he leaned down and scooped me up into his arms.

“It’s been a week. Haven’t you missed me...?”

He began to lower his head to kiss me, but I turned away. Surprise flickered across his face, quickly replaced by displeasure.

“Laura Sanders.”

“What kind of tantrum are you throwing now?”

For four years, I never told him no. His needs were demanding, except during my cycle or when he was away on pack business. Almost every night, we were together.

In the past, like when he’d been gone for a week on an Alpha’s retreat, I wouldn’t have expected to sleep at all that night. But back then, I was happy, even blissful. Only in those intimate moments did I feel like the Alpha actually cared about me.

Normally, I was always afraid of making him angry. Yet, behind closed doors, a part of me secretly wanted to provoke him. When he was angry, he became someone entirely different from his usual stoic, commanding self.

Once, we had a disagreement. I fled and spent a week with my best friend in the New York Pack, refusing to return to the Munoz territory. Eventually, Alpha Damien came to pick me up. That day, in a lavish penthouse suite, he coldly loosened his belt with one hand and pressed me against the expansive floor-to-ceiling windows. I cried until my voice was raw, yet he wouldn’t stop. In the end, he practically growled in my ear, “Laura Sanders, if you pull this running-away stunt again, you’ll regret it.”

There’s something twisted about me because his cold demeanor and hints of anger always managed to hit a nerve. I liked that I could drive him to lose control because of me.

But now… my body feels like it’s shut down. It’s a still pond, just like my heart. I pulled away from his embrace. “Alpha Damien, let’s break the mate bond.”

I looked at him calmly, then let out a self-deprecating laugh. We’ve had a pup together, and yet now I’m only able to talk about separating. All we have is an unmarked bond. We don’t even have a public ceremony.

Initially, he looked surprised, then his voice turned serious. “Because I clarified the rumors in the werewolf media?”

I wanted to tell him it wasn’t just about the rumors. If it were only that, I might have found a hundred reasons to console myself. But he denied our pup’s existence. These past days, every time I closed my eyes, I saw Isabela’s sad and confused gaze. I couldn’t accept it.

“Yes.”

“You know that was just something I said to deal with the press,” Alpha Damien said, his tone distant but firm. “I’m the Alpha; I don’t have time to placate you over such a minor issue.”

I tried to keep my gaze steady, but my hands at my sides wouldn’t stop trembling. My eyes felt like they were being stabbed with needles, but I held back the tears.

“I don’t need your reassurance.”

“I’m serious.”

“The previous arrangement can be annulled. I just want Isabela.”

Alpha Damien’s eyes flickered with a hint of sarcasm.

“You’re using Isabela to force me to acknowledge you and her publicly?”

“No…”

“I’ve told you, that’s not possible. At least not in the near future.”

He cut me off sharply, his alpha tone making the air feel heavy. “Laura Sanders, there are many things I can indulge you in, but this is not up for discussion.”

He looked down at me as if I were a complete stranger. The room was set at a perfect constant temperature, but I felt an overwhelming chill. It seeped into my bones, making me shiver.

Before bonding, a friend in the pack had discreetly expressed concern for me. Yet, I was filled with naive courage, utterly fearless. “Even if Alpha Damien is made of stone, so what?” I had said. “One day, water will wear it down.”

But now, I want to give up. I want to be the free-flowing water, not a drop confined under an eave forever.

“Think it over tonight, and when you’ve made up your mind, move back into the Alpha’s quarters,” he said, leaving the guest room. The door shut with a heavy thud, different from his usual stoic demeanor.

I pulled up the covers and closed my eyes. In a few days, Gamma Brayden Munoz will return from his retreat in the South. It was he who had endorsed my bond with Alpha Damien all those years ago. As long as he agrees, I can leave with Isabela.

The Munoz Pack has always preferred male heirs over female pups. Luna Aura hardly ever looked at Isabela. In her mind, she’s chosen her ideal mate for Alpha Damien, which naturally makes her detest me. Now that I want to take my pup and leave, it probably suits them just fine.

My wolf stirred faintly in the back of my mind, a low whimper of resignation. She’d been quiet for so long, her voice almost forgotten, but now she echoed my pain. *He’ll regret this,* she whispered, though I wasn’t so sure.

I turned my face into the pillow, muffling the sob that threatened to escape. The bond between us still lingered, a faint pull in my chest, but it felt cold now, like a chain rather than a lifeline. I’d been the mate of the Alpha of the Munoz Pack, but I’d never truly been his Luna. Not in the way that mattered.

And now, I wasn’t sure I wanted to be.

The next day, I was surprised when Luna Aura Munoz humbled herself to visit me. As the Luna of the Munoz Pack, she rarely paid me any attention, let alone stepped foot into my quarters. Her presence alone was enough to make my wolf stir uneasily within me, sensing the tension that clung to the air like a storm about to break.

She began with a casual question about Isabela, her tone light but laced with something sharper beneath the surface. Then, without preamble, she got straight to the heart of the matter.

“You’re probably aware of what Alpha Damien clarified in front of the werewolf media recently.”

I nodded, my throat tightening. Of course I was aware. How could I not be? His words had echoed in my mind all night, a relentless reminder of the reality I’d been trying to ignore.

Luna Aura smiled with satisfaction, her sharp eyes glinting like shards of ice. “I never expected Alpha Damien to take it so seriously.”

“You know how it is—there’s no airtight wall against rumors, and over the years, bits and pieces have emerged.”

“But Alpha Damien has always brushed them aside, never bothered to set the record straight.”

She raised an eyebrow slightly, her gaze piercing. “Who would’ve thought? As soon as he heard about Alyssa Carr’s separation, he wasted no time clarifying his mate bond with you.”

She let out a dramatic sigh, her tone dripping with false sympathy. “But I never thought he’d even deny Isabela.”

My chest constricted at her words, but I forced myself to remain still, to not let her see the pain she was digging into. My wolf growled low in my mind, a sound of both anger and sorrow, but I pushed it down.

“That guy’s really been consistent, hasn’t he?” Luna Aura continued, her voice almost mocking now. “He’s been into Alyssa since he was young, right up until she got mated. When he agreed to bond with you, I thought he’d finally moved on.”

I sat in silence, my mind racing. Luna Aura wasn’t wrong. Alpha Damien had never cared to address rumors before. In the werewolf world, where hierarchy and reputation were everything, he’d always been confident enough to let the whispers die on their own. This was the first time he’d made such a public fuss.

I knew about Alyssa Carr. She was one of Luna Aura’s preferred choices for a mate for Alpha Damien. The daughter of the Carr Pack’s Alpha, she was everything a Luna should be—elegant, powerful, and unshakable. But back then, she was already promised to another and soon mated.

When Alpha Damien and she ran into each other occasionally at pack gatherings or during inter-pack negotiations, nothing ever seemed out of the ordinary. I had never connected the two of them.

Little did I know, Alpha Damien had been carrying a torch for her all these years. So, when he agreed to Gamma Brayden’s request to bond with me, it was because the woman he loved had mated someone else.

“Laura,” Luna Aura said, her voice softening in a way that felt more dangerous than comforting. She reached out and patted my hand, her touch cold. “You’ve always been clever.”

“You might be unnoticed, and maybe it doesn’t matter.”

“But what about Isabela? Do you want her to live in the shadows like you?”

Her words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. I felt my wolf’s whimper, a sound of despair that echoed in the depths of my mind. I wanted to argue, to defend myself and my daughter, but the truth of her words cut too deep.

Luna Aura left, her presence lingering like a shadow even after she was gone. The house fell quiet, the only sound the rustling of the wind outside.

Under the pergola, the shadows of withered flowers lay scattered across the ground. The wind carried away the wilted petals, sweeping them into obscurity, as if they had never existed.

I took out my phone, my fingers trembling slightly as I unlocked it. Once again, I opened those messages on WhatsApp, the words staring back at me like a lifeline.

Reading over and over the line: “As long as you’re willing, Isabela will be my only pup.”

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I typed my reply to Beta Kevin Fernandez, my heart aching with both sorrow and resolve.

“Come get me. I can’t stay at the Munoz Pack any longer.”

As I hit send, I felt the weight of my decision settle over me. It was time to leave the shadows. For Isabela. For myself. For the future we deserved.