5 Chapter 5 Walking Away
Packing took less time than I had imagined. Most of my possessions had been bought with Julian’s money, and I wanted to take only what was truly mine. Three years of my life fit into a single small suitcase, a fact that struck me as both pathetic and liberating. 1
This pattern wasn’t new. Back in the Solstice Fang, Roxanne had played the perfect daughter while I struggled for scraps of parental affection. Despite being their biological child, I watched my parents lavish love on the girl who knew exactly how to earn it. Roxanne had a gift for making others feel inadequate, and she wielded it like a weapon.
Nolan lunged forward again, but other pack members finally intervened, grabbing his arms before he could land another blow.
The comparison was inevitable and crushing. Roxanne had slipped into my life like she belonged there, winning hearts I had spent years trying to reach. She possessed the effortless charm that I could never master, the instinctive understanding of what people needed to hear.
His face darkened instantly, muscles tensing with barely controlled rage. “What did you just say to me?”
His hand connected with my cheek before I could blink, the slap echoing through the sudden silence. Pain bloomed across my face, but I didn’t flinch or touch the injury. Instead, I turned back to meet his furious gaze with calm satisfaction.
“We’re so lucky to have someone like her helping us.”
“Julian never wanted you,” Nolan delivered the final blow with obvious
satisfaction. “And neither do we.”
“She’s so thoughtful, always knows exactly what to say.”
Julian’s absence made everything worse. He was consumed with some
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important pack seminar, leaving the territory for days at a time. Even when I was supposedly ill, he didn’t visit, didn’t call, didn’t seem to notice or care that his mate was suffering.
“There’s the real you,” I murmured, tasting blood on my lip. “A violent brute who strikes females when his feelings get hurt.”
“Tell me, Nolan – does Roxanne keep you on a short leash, or do you simply enjoy groveling at her feet?”
While I hid away licking my wounds, she glided into my role with practiced ease. Through my bedroom walls, I heard pack members singing her praises, their voices warm with genuine appreciation.
I walked toward the gate without looking back, leaving behind the only home I had known for years. The sting of Nolan’s slap faded with each step, but so did the last traces of any affection I had felt for the Zenith Moon Fang.
Gamma Nolan stood near the front entrance, his eyes moving between my face and the suitcase in my hand. His expression twisted with disdain as understanding dawned.
He had spent years trying to push me away through indifference and neglect. His treatment of me had given the pack permission to view me as an outsider, someone unworthy of basic respect. A true Alpha would have protected his mate, but Julian had only offered me cold disdain.
I had wasted so much time trying to mold myself into someone Julian might love, someone the pack might respect. All of it had been pointless.
I was leaving.
Something cold and sharp crystallized in my chest. When I spoke, my voice carried a deadly calm that made several onlookers step back.
I smiled, the expression containing no warmth. “I’m suggesting you follow her around like a desperate dog hoping for table scraps. How utterly pathetic.”
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My absence created chaos I hadn’t anticipated. The pack members who had always taken my work for granted suddenly found themselves lost without their invisible caretaker. The whispers started almost immediately, floating through my closed door like poisoned arrows.
Seraphina’s POV
As the territory disappeared behind me, I wondered if Julian would even notice my absence. Would he care enough to follow? Would he realize what
he had lost?
The pack’s daily routines crumbled without my constant attention. Supplies ran low because I wasn’t there to reorder them. Meals were delayed because the kitchen staff expected me to coordinate everything. Children wandered around asking for me, some crying when told I was sick, and their tears made guilt twist in my stomach like a knife.
The answer came to me with brutal certainty – no, he wouldn’t.
I said nothing, but Nolan wasn’t finished.
“Roxanne handles everything with such grace. A natural born Luna.”
Their complaints stung worse than any physical wound. Not once did anyone knock to ask how I felt or offer comfort. No warm soup appeared at my door, no gentle hands checked my forehead for fever. Instead, they treated my supposed illness like a personal attack against them.
Then there was Roxanne.
I almost made it out undetected.
“Where is she when we need her?”
Exhaustion settled into my bones like a heavy fog. I needed space to breathe, to think, to understand what I truly wanted from this life. The solution seemed simple enough – I would retreat from the world that demanded so much while giving so little in return.
“Remember this moment,” I told him, my voice carrying a promise that made
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him still. “When our paths cross again, you’ll pay for that mistake.”
“Going somewhere interesting?”
Other pack members had begun to gather, drawn by the confrontation. They watched in silence, their faces revealing nothing but mild curiosity. No one stepped forward to defend me.
I pulled the covers over my head and announced to anyone who asked that I was running a fever. For days, I remained hidden in my room, claiming illness while my heart slowly cracked apart.
Without that primal connection, without the power that commanded natural respect, I was just a human girl playing pretend in a role meant for someone stronger. Roxanne had what I lacked – the wolf spirit that made her one of them in ways I could never be.
“Everyone knows where Julian’s heart truly lies,” he taunted, circling me like a predator savoring wounded prey. “Roxanne has always been his real mate. You were just a placeholder, a poor substitute until she returned. Did you actually believe you could replace her permanently?”
“Let me guess,” he continued with a cruel smile. “This is some dramatic gesture to force Alpha’s hand? Make him choose between you and Roxanne?” He laughed harshly. “You’re not nearly important enough for that kind of power play.”
My leaving wasn’t a tragedy – it was freedom.
The echo of our last conversation haunted me like a persistent shadow. Julian’s casual dismissal of my feelings had shattered something fundamental inside me. The realization hit me with brutal clarity – he didn’t see me as his mate, his partner, or even as someone worth his time.
Lying in my bed listening to the world spin without me, the truth became impossible to ignore. No matter how hard I tried, how much I sacrificed, how desperately I worked to prove myself, they would never fully accept me. The reason was simple and unchangeable – I was a Luna without a wolf.
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“A real Luna wouldn’t abandon her responsibilities”
The realization should have broken me, but instead it brought clarity. For the first time in years, I made a decision based solely on what I wanted, not what others expected.
“This mess is all because she’s hiding in her room.”
The packhouse seemed empty as I made my way toward the exit. Most people were busy with their daily routines, too absorbed in their own lives to notice one more person walking through the halls.
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