Chapter 23
The antiseptic smell of the hospital clung to Saela’s skin as she froze in the foyer, her expression collapsing from desperate hope to raw disbelief. “…What did you just say?”
“You made your choice when you accepted the mating ceremony,” Lucien said, his voice unnervingly steady. He lifted his gaze to the older Alpha, eyes flashing dangerous gold in unmistakable warning “But if you harm her physically again, I’ll tear your throat out myself. Understood?”
The older man nodded frantically, his fingers closing around Saela’s wrist with practiced dominance. “Come home, mate. I promise to be more… considerate.”
They both recognized the hollow promise. Even without physical violence, the man had other methods of breaking her spirit. And beneath his cruelty lay the undeniable truth–he was old, repulsive, his scent sharp with decay.
While she remained young and beautiful, trapped in a nightmare of her own creation.
She struggled against his grip with the wild desperation of a cornered animal. “Lucien! How can you abandon me like this?!”
“You swore a blood oath to protect me! You said I was your most treasured packmate!”
Her voice broke into frantic sobs. “Luc… I’m sorry… I was wrong about everything… please…”
Her hysterical cries faded as the man dragged her into the rain. Lucien didn’t turn to watch, his shoulders rigid as he walked deliberately toward his Moon Chamber.
Inside the sacred space, he methodically burned everything connected to Saela.
Photographs where she’d posed with deliberate seduction. Gifts she’d given him with calculated meaning. Childhood drawings she’d preserved to remind him of their “special bond.” The flames consumed his misplaced obsession, ashes floating in the air like departing spirits.
From this night forward, only Mira would belong in this space.
But as he surveyed the house afterward, a painful realization struck–she’d already erased herself completely. Not a single trace remained of the woman who’d shared his den for six years.
Lucien knelt in the center of the Moon Chamber, a broken laugh escaping his throat as his wolf whined beneath his
skin.
It didn’t matter.
He would reclaim his true mate.
His parents‘ “heart condition” proved a transparent ploy to get him home.
“Where’s Mira?” his mother asked, peering expectantly past him toward the door. “I thought you two were returning
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together?”
Lucien’s throat tightened. “We’ve severed our bond.”
The room fell into stunned silence.
His father surged to his feet, Alpha power radiating outward. “You did WHAT?!”
“I failed her.” Lucien recounted everything–the years of deliberate emotional distance, Saela’s escalating cruelty, his belated realization of what he’d destroyed.
His mother’s eyes filled with tears as she listened. “That sweet girl… she always smiled and told us everything was perfect when she visited…”
“She brought me healing herbs during my moon sickness, crafted protection talismans for your father’s territory negotiations, even personally nursed our pack healer when she fell ill…”
His father hurled his custom silver teacup against the wall with enough force to embed shards in the plaster. “You absolute fool! Get on the next plane to European Territory! Crawl on your belly if you have to, but bring that she–wolf home where she belongs!”
Lucien nodded, determination hardening his features. “My flight leaves tomorrow morning.”
“I have something important to do tonight.
Deep into the night, the study light remained on.
Lucien hunched over his desk, fountain pen scratching across ivory stationery, his normally impeccable handwriting showing the slight tremor of unfamiliar emotion.
[Mira, today I walked through our den and realized just how little space I’ve given you in our shared life these past six years. The emptiness without you is deafening.]
[You always thought I loved tea, but the truth is, I loved the way you brewed it–somehow capturing sunlight in each cup. No other wolf has ever managed that perfect temperature.]
[You’re breathtaking in red, but I trained myself not to look, afraid one glance would shatter my control completely. Now I wish I’d memorized every detail.]
Each stroke of the pen felt like carving truth into his own skin–painful but necessary. With every letter completed, his rational mind whispered that this gesture was likely futile. She had moved on. She had found happiness with
another.
But his wolf, finally awakened to what it had lost, refused to surrender. If these words could spark even the faintest memory of what they once had–what they could have again–then perhaps all wasn’t lost.
By dawn, an entire box of letters stood completed. Seventy–three confessions, one for each month they had shared a life together.
He carried them onto the flight to European Territory, fingers absently tracing the pale indentation on his ring
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Chapter 23
finger where his mate band had once rested.
This time, he would be the one pursuing. No matter how long it took.
When Lucien arrived at the Mooncrag estate carrying his box of letters, he found only an empty living room with lingering traces of Mira’s scent.
The housekeeper informed him that Luna Mira had left hours ago–today was Alpha Dragomir’s birthday celebration at his legendary lakeside manor.
The rented car raced along the mountain highway, Lucien’s knuckles white against the steering wheel as his heart hammered with growing dread.
The box of letters sat in the passenger seat–a confession that might have arrived too late.
Riven Dragomir’s lakeside manor blazed with light, illuminating the gathered European pack nobility. As Lucien shouldered his way through the garden, cheers erupted from the gathering.
He pushed through the crowd, freezing at the scene unfolding before him-
“Thank you all for celebrating another year of my misspent life,” Riven raised a champagne flute, his usual carefree demeanor replaced by uncharacteristic solemnity as he dropped to one knee. “But tonight, I’m hoping to mark a far more significant occasion.”
Gasps rippled through the assembled wolves as he produced a blue velvet ring box. “Mira, ten years ago during the first snow in Munich, when you played that old piano in your brother’s den, I wanted to do exactly this.”
Mira’s hand covered her mouth, tears streaming unchecked down her face.
“You once told me you loved the sunset over the Rhine, so I purchased every property along the riverbank with the perfect view.” His voice, typically sardonic, carried absolute sincerity. “You mentioned hating how ordinary you felt–for ten years, you’ve been the only female contact in my phone, the only wolf in three territories who made my heart race.”
“For a decade, I watched you love someone who didn’t see your light, felt your pain as my own. Now, give me the chance to heal every wound you’ve suffered.” His amber eyes held none of their usual mockery, just raw vulnerability. “Let me spend my life proving that-”
“Being loved shouldn’t require begging for scraps of attention.”
The guests began chanting encouragement. Mira turned toward Elias, uncertainty flickering across her features.
“Say yes,” Elias smiled, affectionately ruffling her hair in a rare display of tenderness. “Your brother has thoroughly investigated his intentions. He’ll cherish what Ashmorne discarded.”
As the diamond ring hovered at the tip of Mira’s finger, Lucien finally broke through the crowd.
“WAIT!”
