_Rowena's POV_

The word hung in the air between us.

Divorce.

I had said it clearly and steadily without flinching. And for one suspended moment, the entire room went still, Grandmama Maelis, Elira, the pack members along the walls, all of them holding their breath like they were waiting to see which way a flame would lean.

Kaelen's expression didn't crack. But his eyes sharpened.

"You want a divorce." He said it the way someone repeats a word in a foreign language, like the meaning hadn't fully landed yet.

"I do," I said. "We never completed the bond. The marriage was never consummated. There's nothing legally binding us that can't be undone cleanly." I kept my voice even. "You have what you want. Let me go."

Something moved across his face, it was not guilt, or regret. Something closer to offense.

"You're being dramatic," he said.

Dramatic.

Three years of running his pack, managing his accounts, holding his family together while he made promises to another woman three states away, and the word he reached for was dramatic.

"Kaelen." Grandmama Maelis's voice cut in before I could respond. "Enough of this. Rowena, sit down."

"I'd rather stand, Grandmama."

Her jaw tightened. "You are Luna of this pack. You will conduct yourself accordingly."

"I am conducting myself accordingly," I said. "I'm asking for a legal dissolution of a marriage that was never properly formed. That's not drama. That's common sense."

Elira made a small sound and then said nothing, the way she always said nothing when it mattered.

Elvira, Kaelen's sister, from her corner of the couch, tilted her head. "I don't see why you're making this so difficult. Virella is already here. She's already pregnant. What exactly do you think you're protecting?"

I looked at her. "My name."

That landed. Even Elvira didn't have a quick answer for it.

Kaelen stepped forward. "I told you - you keep your title. You keep your standing. Nothing about your position in this pack changes."

"Everything about my position changes," I said. "The moment you brought her in here and called her your wife, you changed it. I'm not asking for compensation, Kaelen. I'm asking to leave."

"No."

The word was flat and immovable.

I stared at him. "You don't want me. You've made that perfectly clear. So why...."

"Because I said no." His voice dropped into that register, the Alpha command, the one that pressed against the air in the room like a physical weight. "This conversation is over."

His command did not break me.

Kyra stirred deep within, claws scraping against the walls of my consciousness. My father and brother had fallen in battle. My pack had been reduced to ashes. But that did not mean I had forgotten the Alpha blood that ran through my veins.

My lip curled. My canines ached to show.

And then Virella moved.

It was subtle, I had to give her that. A soft exhale, barely audible. One hand pressing to her stomach. Her head dipped forward just slightly, like something had shifted inside her.

No dramatic gasping, no performance. Just the quiet suggestion of a woman in discomfort, perfectly timed.

Kaelen turned before anyone else did.

"Virella." His voice changed completely, the command stripped out of it, something almost soft underneath. He crossed to her side in three steps. "What's wrong? Is it the baby?"

"I'm fine," she murmured, leaning lightly into his arm. "Just... the stress. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause all of this."

She didn't look at me when she said it.

And just like that, the room reoriented itself around her. Grandmama Maelis rose from her chair. Elira's helpless expression shifted to concern. Even Elvira straightened, the mocking curiosity fading from her face.

And Kaelen-Kaelen looked at her as though she were the only person in the room.

I watched it all.

Three years I had given this pack. Three years of holding them together, of sleepless nights and endless negotiations, of bleeding for people who had never once looked at me the way they now looked at her.

A cold smile touched my lips.

I turned and walked out of the hall.

Let Kaelen refuse. Let him command. Let him pretend this marriage was something worth keeping.

It did not matter.

I would have my divorce.

**

I wasted no time.

The moment I returned to my chambers, I set Velvet and Grace to work cataloging my dowry.

I unlocked the strongbox where my mother had stored every document she had transferred to me upon my marriage. She had always been meticulous. Every asset tracked. Every transaction recorded. Property deeds, investment accounts, pack infrastructure funds, the medical endowment-anything she had moved into Moonreign Pack's name when I married Kaelen was documented in her neat, slightly slanted handwriting.

I turned to page four.

Moonreign Pack-Pre-Wedding Financial Assessment.

Before agreeing to the match, my mother had commissioned a discreet third-party evaluation of the pack's finances. I had read it once, years ago, then set it aside. It had seemed irrelevant then. We were married. We were building a future together. The numbers belonged to the past.

Now I read it again.

When I married into the Varkos family, Moonreign Pack had been three months away from collapse. Kaelen's father had died young, leaving behind debts that his family had spent years draping in fine clothes and careful illusions. The estate. The cars. The servants. All of it held together by borrowed credit, wounded pride, and the quiet hope that something-someday-would turn their fortunes around.

What turned them around was my mother's money.

The Ashthorne funds-transferred in full on my wedding day-had cleared every outstanding debt, covered two years of operating expenses, and established the medical fund that still paid for Grandmama Maelis's monthly treatments.

I set the document down. A plan was already taking shape in my mind.

He doesn't know the full picture, Kyra said.

"He knows part of it. Not all."

"Then he's going to be very surprised."

"Yes." I ran my fingers over the papers my mother had left me-her final gift, though I had never expected to use it this way. "I had hoped it wouldn't come to this."

I drew a breath.

"Grace."

"Yes, my Luna?"

"Freeze every fund originating from the Ashthorne accounts. All of them. Assets, endowments, recurring transfers. Nothing moves without my written authorization." I paused. "And find me a family law attorney. Someone outside the pack. Someone who owes Kaelen nothing."

Grace's eyes lit up. She gave a sharp nod and turned, moving quickly-as if afraid I might change my mind if she did not act fast enough.

I looked out the window. Night had fallen. But the chill in my chest had settled into something cold and steady.

Let Kaelen try to stop me.

Without my money, the pack would feel the weight of its choices within a month.

_Kaelen's POV_

She walked out without looking back.

I stood beside Virella, watching her go from the corner of my eye. The words to stop her did not come.

I told myself the tightness in my chest was nothing more than irritation. Pure irritation. Nothing more complicated than that.

"You know exactly what it is", Shade said.

My wolf had been restless since the moment Rowena walked into that room-crouched low in my mind, pacing with an agitation I rarely felt from him. Like a warrior bracing for a battle he did not wish to fight.

Several times, he had tried to take control. I held him back. I knew he had not abandoned his ridiculous loyalty to our Luna. Even if Rowena did not deserve it.

"You wronged her."

"She should not have challenged my authority in front of the pack."

"You would not be sitting in that chair without her."

"Enough!"

I pushed Shade down. He went quiet, but he did not settle. He never did when he believed I had made a mistake-and lately, it seemed he believed I made nothing but mistakes.

The tension in the room eased when the pack healer confirmed that Virella and the child were unharmed. Grandmama Maelis lowered herself back into her seat. Elvira unfolded herself from the arm of the sofa.

My mother crossed the room and stopped beside me.

"Go and speak with her," she said quietly. It was not a suggestion. From my gentle-natured mother, it was as close to a command as she ever came. "She needs time to calm herself."

"She is not merely angry, Kaelen." My mother's voice carried a careful deliberation. "She is resolved. Those are two very different things. And before you dismiss that out of hand..." She paused, choosing her words with care. "You should consider that in three years, she has never given this family a single reason to doubt her. Not once."

Across the room, Elvira let out a soft laugh. "She has simply grown comfortable. That is the problem. Three years of running a household, and now she imagines she has more say in this family than she actually does."

She examined her nails with studied indifference. "This talk of divorce is nothing more than posturing. She is not going anywhere. What Alpha would take a woman with no family, no pack, and no wolf to speak of?"

I wanted to agree with her. She was right-Rowena had no better option. Her mother had confirmed that herself three years ago.

But the look in Rowena's eyes when she said divorce kept surfacing in my mind. Some part of me knew she was not bluffing.

"Kaelen." Virella's voice came from beside me, still soft from her earlier distress. "Do not trouble yourself on my account. I can leave. I told you from the beginning-I would never be the reason you lose everything."

I looked at her.

She held my gaze, sadness softening her features. I knew she meant every word.

That was who Virella was. She never asked for more than I could give. She had fought beside me in conditions that would have broken most people. She had made decisions under pressure that had saved lives-including mine. She did not complain. She did not demand. She simply stayed, and trusted me to do right by her.

I reached out and covered her hand with mine. "You are carrying my child. You are not going anywhere."

The glistening of tears in her eyes softened something in my chest. Virella had never been one to cry easily-pregnancy had made her more sensitive, that was all. Protecting her and the child was my responsibility.

I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"I will make her agree," I said, the words coming out with more conviction than I felt.

"I will make her understand. She cannot defy her Alpha."

**

The hall between the main wing and Rowena's suite was longer than it needed to be.

I had walked it only once before.

Our wedding night. We had walked it together then, nerves and anticipation tangled between us. I had meant it when I promised her mother I would care for her. I had meant it when I asked her to wait for me.

But in the end, Rowena had never truly been mine.

The war was brutal, but I had not forgotten my wife waiting at home. I wanted to end it quickly, to return to her. Then I learned the truth about her past.

She had chosen me because she had no other choice. Her fated mate had abandoned her when her family fell. She had agreed to marry me only because her mother wished it. I could have overlooked all of that. But when I learned she still carried a torch for the man who had rejected her-that she had been making plans to run away with him while wearing my Luna's title-whatever tenderness I had felt for her withered.

The only reason she was still here was that I had returned victorious. Because she still had enough sense to care about what remained of her family's reputation.

Without my Luna's name, she had nothing. She did not dare to leave me.

"Confident, aren't you?" Shade's voice dripped with mockery from somewhere in my mind.

I did not answer.

I stood in the corridor, staring at the door before me. On the other side, I could feel something-not a mate bond, nothing so clear or definitive, but something I had never found the right words for. It had been there on our wedding night. Three years of silence and distance had not erased it entirely.

I raised my hand to knock.

And then I heard Rowena's voice from somewhere inside.

"And find me a family law attorney. Someone outside the pack. Someone who owes Kaelen nothing."

The cold fury I had nursed for years surged through me.

I pushed the door open.

"You're so eager, aren't you, Rowena?"

I let my Alpha presence fill the room. Her handmaidens flinched at the weight of it but still managed to execute their bows-barely.

Rowena sat on the edge of her bed, her spine rigid. The only sign of weakness was her fingers, white-knuckled where they gripped the bedsheet. A woman, after all.

I eased back on my presence. Velvet, her maid, immediately stepped forward.

"Alpha," she said, her voice trembling but her words bold, "you should not enter without knocking."

I let out a cold laugh. "Since when do I require permission to enter my wife's chambers in my own pack?" I kept my eyes on Rowena. "Is this how you teach them to speak to their Alpha?"

Rowena's brow flickered, but she did not scold her maid. She rose to her feet and faced me squarely.

"What brings you here, Alpha Kaelen?"

The distance in her voice made something twist in my chest. This woman had never truly wanted me home. And now this talk of divorce-it was nothing but an excuse. She wanted to cast me aside and run back to the man who had abandoned her.

The thought took root the moment it appeared, and the more I turned it over, the more it explained everything.

I lowered my voice. "Everyone out. I wish to speak with my Luna alone."

Neither maid moved. Their eyes stayed fixed on Rowena, waiting-waiting-for her permission. Fury coiled in my gut. Three years away, and they had forgotten who held authority in this pack.

Before I could act, Rowena spoke. "Grace. Velvet. Leave us. I can handle this."

They withdrew at last, though I heard them stop just outside the door. As if I posed a threat to my own wife.

"Say what you came to say, Alpha Kaelen." Rowena moved to the table and poured herself a cup of tea.

"Virella stays." I made my voice hard. "She has no family. She saved my life and the lives of my soldiers. This pack owes her a debt, and I promised her a home."

Rowena took a sip of tea. I braced for her protest.

Instead, she smiled-a cold, thin thing. "Did I say I objected?"

I blinked. "You... agree?"

"Do I have the right to object?" She tilted her head. "She carries your child. Did you truly expect me to demand you cast her out?"

Some of the tension in my chest eased. "I am glad you see reason."

"Since I am giving you what you want." She was still smiling, but her eyes had gone flat. "I expect the same courtesy. Give me a divorce. Then we owe each other nothing."

"Owe each other nothing?" I repeated slowly, as if tasting the words for the first time.

I crossed the room in two strides. Before she could turn away, I caught her wrist and pulled her back toward me.

"I gave you a home when you had nothing." My fingers tightened around her slender wrist-not enough to bruise, but enough to make my anger clear. "And this is how you repay me?"

"You promised her a home." Rowena did not struggle, though I felt her pulse racing beneath my thumb. Her chin remained lifted, and her voice was steady when she answered. "What am I supposed to do? Sit beside her and pretend I am content? You cannot have two wives, Kaelen."

"And why not?" My grip tightened slightly. "I am the Alpha. I make the laws in this pack."

She tore her wrist free and stumbled back a step, rubbing the reddened skin where my fingers had been. For the first time since I entered, a crack appeared in her composure.

"Have you lost your mind?" Her voice rose, raw with disbelief. "You want to make me a laughingstock? Make us both a laughingstock?"

She drew a ragged breath, forcing herself back under control.

"You do not love me. We have never even consummated this marriage. By any measure that matters, we are not husband and wife." Her eyes locked with mine. "So tell me-why does letting me go cost you anything at all?"

Never consummated.

The words struck like a spark catching dry tinder.

Before she could move away again, I closed the distance between us. My arm locked around her waist, dragging her against me.

Rowena gasped. Both hands flew to my chest, shoving hard, but I held her there.

"Never consummated," I murmured, lowering my face toward hers. "Is that what this is really about? Not being truly married?"

Her eyes widened, fury and alarm flashing through them.

"Perhaps I should remedy that."

"Kaelen, don't-"

I crushed my mouth against hers.

There was nothing gentle in the kiss. I silenced her protest with my lips, holding her tightly against me as she twisted in my arms.

Then she wrenched her face away.

Her palm cracked across my cheek.