After two years away studying in distant lands, I had cut my time short, my heart eager to return to Solaria and the life I thought awaited me—marriage to him.

While arranging the furnishings of the home we had long dreamed of, my hands froze over a hidden chest. Inside were countless parchments—travel permits, meticulously kept, each marked with the seal of Lunaria. Kyle Blackthorne, my mate of ten years, had been journeying there every month, and it was never for me. Not once, even when I was only a day’s ride from his destination.

The night I had chosen to meet him at the grove where he intended to claim me as his mate, I arrived early, only to find him kneeling before another.

“Selindra Moonshire,” he intoned, voice steady and eyes alight, “will you accept me as your mate? Speak your answer, and I shall abandon all else at once.”

The anticipation in his gaze pinned me to the spot. My paws—or rather, my legs—would not carry me closer. If I was not the one he desired to bind his life with, then perhaps it was best that they claimed this union.

Yet, when I fled into the moonlit forests, he crossed seas and mountains, the call of our bond compelling him to hunt the world over for me.

The grove shimmered under the glow of enchanted lanterns, roses spiraling around every post, the air thick with the scent of night-blooming petals. Kyle, on one knee, mirrored the countless visions I had cherished of our proposal. But the figure standing before him was not me.

“Selindra, will you mate with me?”

She trembled, one hand shielding her lips, the other accepting the cluster of roses he offered. A moonstone ring glinted as he slid it onto her finger, the circle sealing their bond. Their bodies pressed together, whispers of devotion carried by the wind to my ears.

I found my own hand tracing the moonstone Kyle had sent me from across the sea. I had never told him it was too loose. To prevent it from slipping, I had wrapped a strand of crimson thread around it, binding it to my finger. Perhaps, after all this time, when I tugged at it in longing, the thread unraveled. The ring slipped free and rolled away into the shadows, just as Kyle, after two long years abroad, had freed himself from me.

An ill-fitting ring, I thought bitterly, need not be reclaimed, just as a mate who never loved me need not be held.

“Kyle, may your union unfold as planned,” I murmured.

“Why? The only one I desire is you!” he cried across the distance.

“Because… I intend to crash your ceremony! Only then will it prove your heart belongs to me alone!”

I faltered. Curiosity, sharp as a fang, drove me to see how far he would go to spite Selindra.

“You cunning fool, only you could devise such a scheme!” he laughed.

“I’d better prepare a second pair of boots, so I can outrun you when we flee together!”

“Do you truly intend to do this to Sandra?”

“Marrying her to honor my promise is already the furthest I can go. If she cannot prevent her mate from being claimed at the altar, she cannot fault me.”

Their laughter, full and reckless, pierced my chest like icy claws. I stumbled, pressed my back to a tree, legs trembling, unable to move. Fearing that my sobs might alert them, I pressed my hand to my mouth and retreated. Yet halfway through the forest path, my strength failed, and I collapsed into the underbrush.

Home offered little solace. I dialed my mentor, my voice tight with emotion.

“Professor, I will join the research expedition you spoke of,” I said, each word a struggle against the sting of my bruised knees.

My advisor’s voice softened with concern and curiosity. “I thought you intended to settle in Solaria after the bonding ceremony. Has your mate agreed to long-distance? You know the strain of separation. Are you certain you do not wish to reconsider?”

“The ceremony is ended. From this moment, I devote myself entirely to our work,” I said, pressing my hands to the scrapes and bruises, feeling each pulse of pain.

He, who had always treated me as a daughter of the pack, sensed the unrest immediately. “I will place your name on today’s roster. Return soon; the work will keep your mind from dwelling on what cannot be undone. Remember, it is not the duty of a loyal heart to chase those who do not value it.”

If not for the towering pile of travel permits, I might have dismissed his words: he does not love you as you believed. But the truth lay bare. Each month, Kyle had crossed vast lands to be with Selindra, while my brief encounters after tiresome journeys had been the rarest joys of my life.

As I made my way to the grove, I tried to imagine his travels had been for duty or work. But seeing him claim Selindra—the very one who had haunted my childhood—proved the truth. Selindra had barred him from me, leaving him to weave stories of longing and sorrow to veil the reality of his devotion. He knew full well the animosity between us, yet allowed me to be humiliated in their union to satisfy her.

I sank into the warmth of a bath, letting it still the tremors that shook my frame, when a summons reached me:

“Sandra,” his voice called across the distance, carrying the resonance of our mindlink. “Where are you? The moon rises over the seaside grove!”

I remained silent, my chest tight, my mind a storm of betrayal and disbelief.

Kyle’s voice, usually so steady, trembled slightly with concern. “Sandra, what weighs upon you? Are you upset?”

“I… I’m at home,” I replied quietly, avoiding the moonstone glow of our shared mindlink. “I don’t wish to go to the grove today.”

There was a pause, the kind that carries the weight of unspoken worries. Then he spoke again, gently, as if coaxing a trembling wolf from the shadows. “Very well. I shall come to you at once.”

He asked no questions about my refusal. It wasn’t the depth of his devotion that made him so deferential. Rather, it was that his moonstone bond with Selindra had already been sealed beneath the ceremonial light of the full moon. I existed only as a contingency, a safety net in case the proposal faltered.

When he entered the chamber, I had just stepped from the warm steam of the bath. Behind him stood Selindra, her presence a thorn I had no desire to touch.

“Why have you brought her here?” I asked, my voice sharp as a wolf’s growl. My fangs were metaphorical, yet the edge in my tone was real.

Kyle’s gaze faltered, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose—a gesture far too human to mask guilt. “I met her in the courtyard,” he murmured. “She… she lives in our neighborhood now. When she learned you were in Solaria, she insisted on coming to make amends.”

I fixed him with a cold stare, unimpressed by his careful words and controlled tone.

“Sandra,” Selindra began, her voice trembling in that way only practiced remorse can sound, “my mother and I acted wrongly back then. I… I am here to apologize on her behalf. Can you find it in your heart to forgive us?”

I turned to Kyle, my voice steadier than my quaking soul allowed. “And you think I should forgive them? Both mother and daughter?”

The past was a landscape of scars etched deep into my flesh and mind: ruptured eardrums from the blows, the sting of bamboo whips, the charred remnants of my mother’s belongings reduced to ashes. I did not ask why Kyle had ever been drawn to Selindra—it would have revealed weakness I could not afford.

I waited, defiant, as the warmth of his guilt seemed to dissipate into the air. “Sandra,” he said finally, voice gentle yet impatient, “Selindra was but a child then. She did not know the difference between right and wrong. She has carried remorse for years, and she has sought your forgiveness. Why cling so tightly to the past?”

The past, I thought, was the abyss of my suffering—the physical and emotional torment that had hollowed me out. Refusing to forgive Selindra was not stubbornness; it was survival. He knew, better than anyone, what her cruelty had cost me. Yet he had chosen to bind himself to her, to favor her over me, to align his life with hers while I bled unseen.

When he reached for my hand, trying to forge peace between us, I recoiled and slapped it away. “Kyle, what right do you have to demand my forgiveness?” I snapped, my voice echoing the ache of betrayal. They had harmed me behind my father’s back, poisoned his mind against me, and after his death, had not even honored his memory.

He stared at my hand, now reddened from where I had struck him, confusion and disapproval etched across his features. “Sandra, I only wish to help you. You are alone now, and they are the only family you have left. Why dwell in the past and prolong your suffering?”

“You wish for me to move on, do you not?” I asked, a tremor of disbelief beneath my words. His voice, meant to soothe, carried the impatience I knew far too well. The calm, steady affection I had once relied upon was gone.

In that moment, my heart, already fractured, shattered completely into dust. Pain so acute it stole my breath, left my thoughts raw and unformed, almost rendering me mute.

Selindra’s eyes, brimming with the pretense of sorrow, gleamed with that familiar arrogance, that same provocative spark from our shared past. “Sandra,” she said, her tone a poisonous caress, “it matters not if you cannot forgive me now. I shall continue my penance, my guilt, until you accept me as part of your non-biological family.”

“Leave,” I commanded, my voice carrying the authority of a wolf claiming its territory. “Leave this place.”

I clutched the hallway walls as if they alone could anchor me, my body trembling violently under the weight of fury and despair.

Kyle’s impatience radiated through the space between us, carried on the quiet hum of our mindlink. “Sandra, why must you be so unyielding? No soul is perfect—where has your mercy vanished?” His tone sharpened ever so slightly, betraying the irritation he could no longer contain.

He had once witnessed the depths of my suffering, the relentless torment inflicted by Selindra and her mother, driving me to the brink of despair. Back then, he had argued with them on my behalf, unafraid of fury, even when it risked unleashing his own wrath. And now, what madness had led him to stand against me, to defend the very ones who had haunted my life for so long?

I let the pain surge through me, my words heavy with every memory and scar I carried. “Unless she dies before my very eyes, I will never forgive her!” I stated, each word a blade carved from years of torment.

Kyle’s brow creased, his pulse quickening, the familiar fire of his temper beginning to flare. This was the same look he had worn when he had raged at Selindra and her mother on my behalf, yet now it was directed at me.

“Sandra!” he exclaimed, voice low but fierce, echoing across the corridor. “How have you grown so bitter in merely two years? If you cannot find it in yourself to forgive her, then at least offer an apology to Selindra. I cannot endure the thought of others mocking my mate as spiteful or vindictive!”

I clenched my jaw, my pulse racing with both anger and disbelief.

“Your mother’s own choices brought ruin upon her life. If she had considered your youth, your father would never have been forced to remarry. You cannot blame every misfortune upon Selindra and her daughter. Her mother erred, yes, but she did not deserve death. If you, like your mother, are determined to dwell stubbornly in misery, it is no wonder that nightmares continue to plague you.”

He spat the word “nightmares” as if it burned his tongue. The disgust, the fatigue, the impatience flashing across his features—all of it was unmistakable. The man who had once sworn to shield me from the darkness, who had soothed me in the dead of night when nightmares clawed at my mind, now seemed wearied by the burden of my pain.

Everything I had endured, every scar carved into my body and spirit, had become a weapon in his hands, wielded to wound me once again. The man who once knelt beside my bed, promising that no darkness or monster could harm me while he lived, had now become the force pushing me back into the abyss. All of this, he claimed, was deserved… for Selindra’s sake.

My legs gave way beneath me, and I staggered backward, trembling so violently I could no longer grip the hall for support. Kyle caught me just in time, but the moment he saw my knee, swollen and bruised, concern overtook his impatience. He crouched immediately, inspecting the injury with precision born of both instinct and care.

“How did you wound your knee so grievously?” he asked, his voice mingling worry with the impatience I knew so well.

“Forget it,” I muttered through gritted teeth. “If you refuse to apologize, I will do it for you. But in the future, you must not be so disrespectful.” I wrenched my hand free, strength flaring despite the pain, and gestured sharply toward the door, my face pale and hard as stone.

“Leave! All of you, leave this place!” I commanded.

Kyle, sensing my vulnerability, reached out once more, attempting to soothe me with the memory of the gentle embrace that had once calmed my soul. But Selindra, tears tracing her carefully painted path, bowed low.

“Sandra, I shall go now. Please, do not torment yourself further over this,” she said, her voice quivering with practiced remorse.

As she turned, her movements were too swift, too careless. She collided with the doorframe, falling sideways in a tangle of limbs. Kyle released me instantly, his instincts surging as he lunged to catch her. They tumbled together into the corridor, and though his arms cradled her with protective force, her temple struck the frame, crimson blooming across her skin almost immediately.

“Does it pain you?” he demanded, cradling her as he pressed forward, voice threaded with urgency. “We must see the healer at once!”

Finally, the doorway fell silent. My heart, already battered from ten years of love and trust, sank to the depths of despair. After a decade of knowing each other, of intertwining our souls through moonstone and mindlink, we had arrived at this place of estrangement.

I drew forth a travel permit, a rare token for such swift passage, and secured a journey for the day of the ceremony. Seven days remained—just enough to sever the lingering threads of the past.

Kyle had been correct; one must look forward, or risk being consumed by what had come before. From this day, I vowed to cut all ties to both the joy and the agony that had shaped my life, leaving nothing but the cold clarity of the path ahead.