Isla POV:

I didn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw the bite mark on her neck.

The memory of three weeks ago washed over me. I had been alone in the clinic, organizing herbs. Suddenly, a pain had exploded in my chest-a burning sensation, like a branding iron pressed against my heart. I had fallen to my knees, gasping, thinking I was having a heart attack.

Now I knew what it was. It was the moment Damien had knotted with her. The moment his body betrayed ours.

I remembered him coming home late that night. He had smelled of Bay Leaves. At the time, I thought he had been patrolling the borders near the forest edge where the Bay trees grew.

I was a fool. Bay Leaves were used in the ancient courting rituals of the Northern packs. Seraphina was from the North. He hadn't been patrolling. He had been courting her.

My computer pinged, breaking my trance.

It was 4:00 AM. The screen glowed in the dark room. I opened the secure email client.

*To: Healer Isla*

*From: The Ancient Healers Guild, Zurich*

*Subject: Invitation to High Council*

*Dear Healer Isla, your research on Silver Essence regeneration has caught the attention of the Grand Elders. We formally invite you to join the Guild in Switzerland. This position offers full sanctuary and immunity from Pack politics.*

My hand hovered over the mouse. The Guild was neutral territory. No Alpha, not even Damien, could demand my return if I was under their protection. It was the only place on earth I would be safe from him.

I clicked *Accept*.

I stood up and walked to my apothecary room. It was my sanctuary within the apartment. Shelves lined the walls, filled with jars of dried roots, crystals, and liquids.

I began to pack. Not clothes-clothes could be bought. I packed my tools. My silver needles. My rare Stardust pollen.

The front door beeped. Damien walked in. He was wearing his running gear, sweat glistening on his forehead. He looked vibrant, alive. He didn't look like a male who had destroyed his mate's soul.

He saw the boxes on the table.

"Spring cleaning?" he asked casually, grabbing a protein bar.

"The ceremony is canceled," I said. I didn't look up from the jar of dried wolfsbane I was sealing.

The room went silent. The wrapper of his protein bar crinkled as his hand tightened.

"Isla, stop this," he said, his voice dropping an octave. "We talked about this. You are upset about Seraphina. It is temporary."

"It is not temporary," I said, finally turning to face him. "And I am not upset. I am done."

"You cannot cancel the ceremony!" Damien shouted. "The invitations have been sent to every Alpha in the continent! My reputation is on the line!"

"Your reputation?" I laughed. It was a dry, brittle sound. "You parade your mistress around the pack house wearing your mark, and you worry about your reputation?"

Damien crossed the room in two strides. He grabbed my shoulders. His grip was hard, bruising.

"She is not my mistress! She is a patient! And you are my Mate!"

He dropped to his knees.

The great Alpha Damien, the Wolf of the West, was on his knees in our kitchen. He grabbed my hands.

"Isla, please," he said, his eyes frantic. "I need you. You are my balance. Without you, my wolf is restless. I will make it up to you. The wedding will be magnificent. I will buy you diamonds, a new car, anything."

For a second, my heart wavered. This was the man I had loved since I was eighteen. The man I had nearly died to save. His desperation felt real.

*Ding.*

The elevator doors opened directly into the living room.

Seraphina stepped out. She was wearing a silk robe that barely covered her curves. She held a hand over her stomach, a small, secretive smile playing on her lips.

"Damien?" she called out softly. "The baby... I think he's kicking. Or moving. I feel strange."

Damien's head snapped toward her. He dropped my hands as if they were burning coals. He scrambled up from the floor and rushed to her side.

"It's too early for kicking," he said, his voice full of tender worry. "Are you in pain? Do you need the doctor?"

He placed his large hand over her stomach. He caressed it.

He had forgotten I existed.

I watched them. The tableau of a happy family. The Alpha, the mother, and the heir.

My heart didn't hurt anymore. It just stopped. It turned into a cold, hard stone in my chest.

"Your side effects started long before the marking, Damien," I said.

He didn't hear me. He was too busy whispering to Seraphina's belly.

I walked back to my room. I pulled the calendar off the wall.

I took the red marker. I crossed out "Wedding Day."

In bold letters, I wrote: *DEPARTURE DAY.*

I looked at the date. Twelve days.

My phone buzzed with a confirmation from the Guild. *Flight arranged. Zurich. One-way.*

I looked at my hand. Under the skin, a faint silver light pulsed in my veins. It was my Silver Essence, the power of a High Healer. It had been dormant for years, drained by my constant sacrifices for this ungrateful pack.

Now, it was waking up.

Damien thought I was just a jealous female. He thought I was weak.

He had no idea what he had just unleashed.

Isla POV:

The Pack Net was on fire.

I scrolled through the internal social media feed on my tablet. A photo was trending. It was a receipt. A receipt for a three-thousand-dollar root of Blood Ginseng.

Blood Ginseng was the most potent prenatal herb in existence. It was used to ensure the birth of powerful Alpha offspring.

*Alpha Damien spares no expense for the Savior of the Pack!* the caption read.

The comments were nauseating.

*User WolfGirl99: So romantic! He takes such good care of her.*

*User LunaWannabe: I heard she's carrying a warrior. Finally, a strong heir for Moon Shadow.*

*User TruthSeeker: What about Isla? Isn't she the mate?*

*User AlphaFan: Isla is just a doctor. She's boring. Seraphina has fire.*

I turned off the screen. I was sitting in "The Hidden Den," a small coffee shop on the outskirts of the city, far from the pack house.

"He bought her Blood Ginseng?" Chloe hissed. She slammed her latte down on the table. "Is he insane? That's practically a marriage proposal in herb form!"

Chloe was my only friend. She was a Beta, a warrior with a sharp tongue and a fiercer loyalty.

"He thinks he's saving the pack's future," I said calmly, stirring my tea.

"And the pack is eating it up," Chloe growled. "They've forgotten everything you did. The epidemics you stopped. The warriors you stitched back together. Now you're just... invisible."

"I prefer invisible," I said. I slid a folder across the table to her. "Look at this."

Chloe opened it. It was the copy of Seraphina's ultrasound scan I had printed from the server.

"Six weeks?" Chloe's eyes widened. "But... the timeline..."

"Exactly," I said.

"That bastard," Chloe whispered. "He was cheating on you. Before the 'life debt' excuse. Before everything."

"I'm leaving, Chloe," I said.

She looked up, tears forming in her eyes. "Leaving the apartment?"

"Leaving the country," I said. "I'm going to Europe. The Healers Guild."

Chloe reached across the table and grabbed my hand. "Take me with you. I'll be your bodyguard. I'll bite anyone who comes near you."

I smiled, a genuine smile for the first time in days. "You have a mate here, Chloe. You have a life. I need you to stay. I need someone to tell the truth when I'm gone. But you can't say a word until my plane is in the air."

"I promise," she said. "I swear on my wolf."

That night, I returned to the apartment late. I had attended a seminar on herbal remedies to keep up appearances. The air outside was freezing, a bitter wind howling through the city streets.

The elevator doors opened. Damien was standing in the hallway.

He looked furious. His eyes were glowing a deep, menacing red-his wolf was near the surface.

He marched toward me, grabbing my arm and pulling me close. He buried his nose in my neck, inhaling deeply.

"Where have you been?" he growled.

"Working," I said, trying to pull away.

"You smell like him," Damien snarled. "A male. Unfamiliar. European pine and old books."

I realized he was smelling the French doctor I had sat next to at the seminar.

"He was a colleague, Damien. Let me go."

"You are mine!" he roared. The walls shook. "You do not carry the scent of other males! Go wash it off! Now!"

"I am yours?" I laughed bitterly. "Like you are mine? You smell like her every single day, Damien. You smell like her shampoo, her skin, her lust. And you dare to lecture me about scent?"

"It is different!" he shouted. "I am the Alpha! I do what I must!"

He grabbed my face with both hands, forcing me to look into his glowing red eyes.

*Open your mind to me, Isla.*

He forced the Mind-Link open. Usually, it required consent, but an Alpha could batter down the mental walls of a pack member.

He flooded my mind with his emotions. He wanted me to feel his dominance, his possessiveness.

But along with that came something else.

Joy. Pure, unadulterated excitement.

Images flashed in my mind-images from his perspective. He was imagining a little boy with dark hair and grey eyes. A strong son. An Alpha heir.

He was projecting his love for Seraphina's unborn child directly into my brain.

It was agonizing. It was like he was forcing me to watch a movie of him loving another family.

"Get out of my head!" I screamed.

I summoned every ounce of my will. I couldn't push him out with strength, so I used pain. I focused on the heartbreak, the betrayal, the sharp agony of the broken bond. I weaponized my sorrow and blasted it back at him through the link.

Damien gasped and stumbled back, clutching his head. The connection snapped.

He looked at me, blinking, confusion replacing the anger.

"Isla...?"

"Don't ever do that again," I whispered, shaking.

I turned to the bedroom door.

"Wait," Damien said. His voice was cold again, the moment of confusion gone. "There is a change to the schedule."

I stopped, my hand on the doorknob.

"The Moon Pool Ritual," he said. "We need to move it."

I didn't turn around. "Okay."

"No, Isla. You don't understand. Seraphina... the doctor says the baby needs spiritual energy. The Moon Pool has the purest concentrated essence."

My blood ran cold. The Moon Pool Ritual was the sacred ceremony where the Luna bathed in the pack's holy waters to bless her reign. It was my birthright. It was the highest honor a female wolf could receive.

"You want to give her my ritual," I said.

"She needs it for the child," Damien said defensively. "It's just water, Isla. You can do it next year. The pack needs a healthy heir."

He was stripping me of everything. My dignity. My home. My title. Now, my faith.

"Fine," I said.

"Fine?" He sounded surprised. He expected a fight.

"Give it to her," I said. "Give her everything."

I opened the door and stepped inside, locking it behind me.

I didn't cry. I was done crying.

I looked at the calendar.

Ten days.

Isla POV:

"The arrangements are made, Alpha."

I stood in Damien's office the next morning. I was wearing my white lab coat, holding a clipboard. I was the picture of efficiency.

"Good," Damien said, not looking up from his paperwork. "Seraphina is very excited. She's never seen the Moon Pool."

"It is a sacred place," I said neutrally. "Tell her not to wear shoes in the water."

"I'm taking her to the lodge in the Rockies afterward," Damien said. "The mountain air will be good for the pregnancy. We'll be gone for a week."

A week. That meant he would be gone until three days before the... before my departure.

"Enjoy your trip," I said.

"Isla," he said, finally looking up. His eyes were softer now. "Thank you. For being reasonable. I know this is hard for you. But once the baby is born... things will go back to normal. We will be us again."

"Of course, Alpha."

I walked out. As soon as the heavy oak door clicked shut, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.

He left an hour later. I watched from the balcony as the helicopter took off, carrying Damien and Seraphina toward the mountains.

Silence descended on the apartment.

I walked out onto the balcony. It was a large terrace, high above the city smog. For five years, I had turned it into a garden.

It wasn't a flower garden. It was a pharmacy.

Rows of Silver-Leaf Mint for fevers. Pots of Golden Root for energy. And in the corner, the most precious of all-the Moon Herbs. They only bloomed under moonlight. I had cultivated them to make salves for the pack's warriors, to help them heal faster after battles.

Damien had once called them "weeds."

*Why do you play in the dirt?* he had asked. *We can buy medicine.*

He didn't understand. He never understood that the earth gave power that money couldn't buy.

I knelt in the soil. The dirt was cold against my knees.

I reached for a stalk of Wolf-Bane Neutralizer. I had spent six months cross-breeding it to make it potent enough to save a wolf from poison.

I gripped the stem.

And I pulled.

The roots ripped out of the soil with a soft tearing sound.

I didn't stop there. I moved to the next pot. And the next.

I wasn't harvesting them. I was evicting them.

I pulled up the Mint. I tore out the Golden Root. I dumped the soil over the railing, watching it scatter in the wind like dark rain.

Every plant I uprooted felt like I was pulling a memory of Damien out of my heart.

*Rip.* That was the time he forgot my birthday because he was "training."

*Rip.* That was the time he told me I was too soft to understand politics.

*Rip.* That was the moment he marked her.

My hands were covered in dirt. Sweat dripped down my back.

I reached the corner. The Stardust Flower. It was glowing faintly, a beautiful, iridescent blue. It was the rarest plant I owned. It was said to be able to mend a fractured soul.

I didn't destroy this one. I carefully dug it out, preserving the root ball. I placed it in a specialized travel container.

This one was coming with me. I would need it to heal myself.

I stood up. The balcony was bare. Just empty ceramic pots and scattered dirt. It looked desolate. It looked like a graveyard.

It was perfect.

I went back inside and washed my hands. The water turned brown and swirled down the drain.

I walked to the calendar.

I looked at the date of the "Moon Pool Ritual." The day Seraphina would desecrate the holy waters.

I took the red marker and drew a massive X over the date.

It wasn't just canceling a date. It was canceling a future.

I checked the countdown.

Five days until they returned.

Eight days until I left.

I sat on the sofa in the empty, silent apartment. I felt a strange sensation.

It wasn't sadness. It wasn't anger.

It was lightness.

Without the weight of hope, I was finally free.