Chapter 24
A hush fell over the gathered wolves, the collective intake of breath almost audible in the sudden silence.
Lucien stood at the threshold between light and shadow, his tailored suit wrinkled and stained with airline coffee, his usually immaculate hair falling across his forehead in disheveled strands. He looked nothing like the powerful Alpha who commanded North America’s strongest pack–more like a wolf who had run for days without rest
“Crashing my proposal to reclaim your discarded mate?” Riven’s voice remained light, but his scent sharpened with territorial aggression, amber eyes flashing warning.
Lucien moved past him as though he didn’t exist, walking directly to Mira before dropping to his knees on the damp
grass.
“I know I deserve every punishment the Moon Goddess has given me,” his voice emerged as a ravaged whisper, stripped of all pride. “Just look at me once more… please.”
Shocked murmurs rippled through the elite gathering.
The legendary Alpha of Shadowpine–whose mere presence made lesser wolves avert their gaze–now knelt without reservation, his head slightly bowed in supplication.
Mira stepped back, discomfort evident in her posture. “Lucien, don’t. Not here.”
“I’ve written letters every night for weeks,” he continued as though she hadn’t spoken, “documenting everything from the first time I saw you in that red dress to the mating ceremony, to…” his throat worked visibly, “to every moment I loved you but buried it beneath denial and fear.”
With trembling hands, he opened the wooden box. Pages scattered across the manicured lawn like fallen leaves, his normally precise handwriting showing the vulnerability he’d never allowed himself to express.
Mira didn’t even glance at them. Her eyes–once filled with desperate hope whenever they looked at him–now held only a distant pity as she slowly shook her head.
“It’s too late, Lucien.”
As Riven slid the ring onto her finger with quiet triumph, Lucien heard something vital break inside his chest–a sound he was certain everyone present could hear.
The newly engaged couple kissed amid applause and cheers. Lucien remained kneeling among his scattered confessions, the perfect image of justice finally served.
Long after the celebration ended, Lucien sat motionless in his rental car, watching the lights of the Lunargent estate. Through the window, he could make out silhouettes on the balcony–Riven’s arms around Mira’s waist, her head resting against his chest.
Something primitive and savage surged through Lucien’s body. His wolf, pushed down for so long, howled with possessive rage.
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Chapter 24
He started the engine with a violent twist of the key, slamming his foot on the accelerator and aiming directly at Riven, who had just stepped outside for a cigarette.
“If you’re gone…” his claws punctured the leather steering wheel, “she’ll have nowhere to go but back to me…”
The headlights illuminated Riven’s shocked expression. In that critical moment, a blur of crimson suddenly lunged forward–Mira, throwing herself between the car and her chosen mate!
“MIRA!”
Horror flooded Lucien’s system. His reflexes responded before his mind could process–wrenching the wheel sideways with all his Alpha strength.
The car slammed into an ancient oak with enough force to shatter the frame. As airbags exploded in his face, he caught one final glimpse of Mira’s expression–not hate or anger, but something worse: fear mixed with pity.
How fitting, he thought as darkness closed in.
At least this time, I chose her.
The windshield fractured like a spiderweb of regrets. As blood trickled warmly down his temple, a peculiar peace
washed over him.
If death could end this bone–deep agony…
Perhaps the Moon Goddess was merciful after all.
Lucien drifted through an endless dream.
He stood in their mating chamber on that first night.
Mira wore ivory silk, candlelight painting gold across her collarbones. Her dark hair spilled over pale shoulders like midnight. Her eyes–those eyes that had once looked at him with such hope–reflected the moonlight streaming through the window.
“Lucien, I-” her voice trembled with nervous anticipation.
But dream–Lucien had already turned away, retreating to his Moon Chamber to kneel before the altar, his mind filled with forbidden thoughts of Saela.
Now, forced to watch as an observer, he saw what he’d missed–how Mira had cried silently through the entire night, her tears soaking their ceremonial furs while he meditated in another room.
The dream shifted relentlessly through missed opportunities-
Mira wearing his shirt, waiting for him on their bed, eventually curling into herself as sleep claimed her;
Mira slipping into his sacred bath, only to be wrapped in a ritual cloth and deposited outside like an unwanted pup;
Mira sitting in his lap during meditation, only to be lifted away with one hand and set aside without a word;
:– Forhidden Love
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Mira running after his car in the rain, falling into a puddle as he drove away without looking back…
Each memory was another silver blade twisting in the ruins of his heart.
“I regret everything,” he murmured in delirium. “Moon Goddess, I regret it all…”
On the hospital bed, Lucien began to thrash, cold sweat beading across his forehead as the machines monitoring his vitals began to shriek in alarm.
A cool hand pressed against his burning skin.
Lucien’s eyes snapped open, locking directly with Mira’s calm gaze.
“Mira!” He seized her wrist with desperate strength, his voice a broken rasp. “Come home with me… let’s start over, I’ll be different, I swear it on my bloodline…”
Mira gently but firmly extracted her hand from his grip, the diamond on her finger catching the harsh hospital light. “Lucien, don’t you understand yet? When I loved Riven, I was still completely myself.”
“But loving you…” she paused, something ancient and sad crossing her features, “loving you required me to become someone else entirely.”
Lucien’s claws dug into his palms, fresh blood seeping through his bandages. “Just one more chance… that’s all I’m asking for…”
“Go back to Shadowpine,” Mira rose to her feet, finality in every word. “This is the last time I’m visiting you. After this, I truly never want to see you again.”
The hospital door opened as Riven leaned against the frame, his casual posture belying the territorial victory in his scent. “Ready for the dress fitting, she–wolf?”
Mira walked toward him without a backward glance, her silhouette painfully reminiscent of that snowy night six years ago when she’d rushed toward Lucien with such innocent hope.
Only this time, she was walking into welcoming arms that actually wanted her.
Lucien watched their intertwined fingers, suddenly remembering the blackened moon statue in his meditation chamber-
So this was his punishment–to finally understand the value of what he’d destroyed, only when it was forever beyond his reach.
On his way to the airport, his driver passed the cathedral.
Through the open doors, Lucien glimpsed the rose–covered aisle, the golden “R&M” monogram on celebration balloons, European Territory’s elite raising champagne flutes to the happy couple.
He didn’t ask to stop, just watched through the window as the woman he’d finally allowed himself to love married someone else.
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As the Wedding March drifted through the air, he suddenly remembered the first time Mira had stolen a kiss-
Rising on tiptoes during a pack gathering, her lips butterfly soft against the corner of his mouth before she’d run away blushing, leaving behind the silver music of her laughter,
Now that laughter belonged to another wolf.
After returning to Shadowpine Territory, Lucien journeyed to the ancient Moon Temple hidden deep in the forest.
As he prepared to take monastic vows, the High Priest asked, “What spiritual name do you choose for your new life, Alpha?”
Kneeling before the sacred silver altar, watching moonlight–infused incense spiraling upward, he answered: “Call me ‘Remembering Mira.“”
A lifetime of remembering her. A lifetime of atonement.
