Maya Goldstein POV

I packed nothing.

I took only the clothes on my back and the small, tarnished locket my mother had given me years ago.

Every item in that pack house reeked of Liam.

It reeked of lies.

I walked toward the boundary line, my boots dragging against the dirt.

My body was screaming. The Rejection had taken a brutal physical toll.

My muscles trembled, and a cold sweat slicked my skin. But beneath the weakness, my Inner Wolf was awake.

She was urging me forward.

*Run,* she whispered. *Run before he changes his mind.*

"Maya!"

Liam’s voice boomed across the clearing.

He was running toward me, flanked by two enforcers. He looked manic, his eyes wild and feverish.

"I won't let you do this!" he shouted, closing the distance. "I am your Alpha! I forbid you to leave the territory!"

I stopped and turned.

"You are not my Alpha anymore. I belong to no pack."

He grabbed my arm. His grip was bruising.

"You are mine! The Moon Goddess gave you to me! You don't get to walk away just because things got hard!"

"Hard?" I spat, wrenching against his hold. "You destroyed me, Liam."

He raised his hand, as if to use the Command again. To force me to my knees.

To drag me back to that house where Ava was waiting to mock me.

A siren suddenly sliced through the air.

The high-pitched, bone-rattling alarm of a perimeter breach.

*ROGUES!*

The Mind-Link of the pack—which I could no longer hear clearly, but could feel as a dull, static pressure—erupted into chaos.

Marc Chen, the Beta, sprinted into the clearing, chest heaving.

"Alpha! Breach in the northern sector! They are heading for the safe house! Ava is there!"

Liam froze.

He looked at me, his eyes wide with conflict. Then he looked toward the north, toward the woman carrying his legacy.

"Ava is pregnant," he muttered, his voice straining. "The heir..."

He looked back at me.

I was standing there, pale, shaking, clearly on the verge of collapse.

"You stay here," he ordered, shoving me backward with a force that sent me sprawling.

I stumbled and hit the hard earth with a cry.

"Don't move. I have to save them."

He didn't hesitate.

He turned his back on his Fated Mate and shifted into his massive grey wolf.

With a snarl, he sprinted toward the north, toward Ava.

He chose her. Again.

I lay on the ground, staring up at the indifferent moon.

A sharp pain ripped through my abdomen.

*The baby,* I thought, panic seizing me.

Stress. Rejection. The physical assault of the Alpha Command. My body was failing.

I tried to stand, but my legs wouldn't work. The edges of my vision began to blur into gray static.

"Help," I whispered, but the forest swallowed my voice.

I dragged myself toward the tree line. I couldn't stay here.

If the Rogues came... or if Liam came back...

I crawled. Dirt packed under my fingernails. My breath came in ragged gasps.

*Move,* my Inner Wolf roared, her voice faint but fierce. *We must survive.*

I reached the dense cover of the forest just as my body gave out.

Darkness rushed in to claim me.

As my eyes closed, I saw a faint, silver light glowing on my skin.

The ancient markings of the White Wolf were surfacing, trying to heal me, trying to keep the spark of life from extinguishing.

*Goodbye, Liam,* I thought as the blackness took me.

*You killed us both.*

Maya Goldstein POV

I woke to the sound of crackling fire and the sharp, medicinal sting of bitter herbs.

Pain radiated from my core, but it wasn't sharp. It was a dull, hallowed-out ache that felt permanent—like a crater left after a bomb detonation.

I tried to sit up, but a gentle hand pushed me back down.

"Rest, my child."

It was my mother. She looked older than I remembered, her face etched with new, deep lines of grief. We were in a small, hidden cave deep in the neutral lands, far from the territory lines.

"How long?" I croaked, my throat feeling like sandpaper.

"Three days," she said softly. She dipped a cloth in cool water and wiped my feverish forehead. "The Rogues... they did much damage to the Silver Moon Pack. But you..."

She stopped. Her voice caught, and her eyes filled with fresh tears.

A cold dread coiled in my chest.

"The baby," I whispered.

My hand went to my stomach. It felt... empty. The vibrant, humming spark of life I had felt just days ago was extinguished.

"The Rejection was too violent," Mom said, her voice trembling with suppressed rage. "And the physical trauma... Maya, the healer says the damage is permanent. You lost the pup."

She squeezed my hand, her grip desperate.

"And you will likely never carry another."

The world stopped turning. The silence in the cave was heavier than the stone walls enclosing us.

I didn't scream. I didn't cry. I just felt a part of my soul wither, curl up, and turn to ash.

Liam did this. His selfishness. His indecision. He killed our child.

"He thinks I'm dead," I said, my voice hollow, void of emotion.

"Let him think that," Mom said fiercely. "It is better this way."

*

I spent the next week in a haze.

I moved like a ghost haunting my own body. I ate because Mom forced me to. I slept to escape the nightmare of reality, only to dream of crying babies I couldn't reach.

But peace was a luxury I couldn't afford.

One evening, while Mom was out gathering supplies, the makeshift wooden door of the cave was kicked in with a splintering crash.

Three wolves entered. They weren't Rogues. They wore no pack markings, but I recognized the scent immediately. It was a cloying mix of expensive, synthetic floral perfume and rot.

"Well, well," a voice sneered.

Ava Sinclair stepped into the firelight. She looked pristine, her hair perfectly styled, untouched by the Rogue attack she had supposedly been a victim to.

"You're hard to kill, aren't you?" she said, circling my cot like a vulture.

I tried to shift, but my body was too weak, my wolf dormant from the trauma.

"What do you want?" I rasped.

"To finish the job," Ava smiled, though it didn't reach her cold eyes. "Liam is moping. He thinks you might come back. I can't have that. I need to be Luna. And for that... you need to disappear permanently."

She signaled her hired enforcers. They grabbed me, dragging me out of the warmth of the cave and into the freezing rain.

"Why?" I gasped as they threw me into the mud. "You won. You have him."

"Because he still loves you!" Ava spat, her face twisting into a mask of ugly, unfiltered jealousy. "Even when he's inside me, he whispers your name. It's pathetic. And I hate you for it."

She raised a silver dagger, the blade glinting in the moonlight.

"Say hello to the Moon Goddess for me."

I closed my eyes, waiting for the end.

Suddenly, a howl ripped through the night.

It wasn't a normal wolf howl. It was ancient. Guttural. A sound that vibrated in the marrow of my bones.

Mom burst from the treeline, followed by four massive wolves with fur like living shadows.

The Ancient Guard. The protectors of the White Wolf bloodline.

They tore through Ava's hired thugs in seconds, a blur of teeth and fury.

Ava screamed, dropping the dagger. Panic overtook her arrogance, and she shifted into a frantic, small wolf, sprinting away into the darkness with her tail tucked between her legs.

Mom pulled me from the mud, her strength surprising me. "We have to go. Now. She will tell him you are alive."

"No," I said, looking at the direction Ava fled. "She won't. She wants me dead. She will tell him she killed me."

"We are leaving these lands, Maya," Mom said, wrapping a heavy wool cloak around me. "We are going to the Ancient Territory. Where no Alpha can command you."

"I am not Maya Goldstein anymore," I said, letting the hood of the cloak hide my face. I looked back at the direction of the Silver Moon Pack. The smoke from their fires was a faint smear on the horizon.

"Maya Goldstein died in these woods," I whispered, the words tasting like a vow. "My name is Maya Evans."

My Inner Wolf, battered but alive, let out a low, vengeful growl.

We turned and walked into the shadows, leaving the ashes of my old life behind.