55 Chapter 55 Fading Wolf Spirit
My smile cracked at the edges. Mommy. Roxanne. With each passing month, she inserted herself deeper into the role of pack Luna, acting as though we were bound mates rather than simply co-parents. Every meal she prepared, every domestic gesture she made, felt like another thread in a web designed to trap me. I endured it solely for my daughter’s sake. 1
Defeat settled over me like a familiar coat. “Fine,” I chuckled despite myself, setting her on her feet. “Lead the way, little commander.”
Her bottom lip jutted out in a pout that could melt steel. “Please, Daddy? Mommy made that beef stew you like! And I stirred it all by myself!” Those enormous eyes turned pleading, wielding the only weapon I had no defense against.
The physical symptoms were becoming impossible to ignore. Crushing headaches that felt like my skull was cracking. Bone-deep exhaustion that sleep couldn’t touch. My supernatural senses, once sharp enough to track prey for miles, now felt muffled behind cotton. My strength, legendary even among alphas, was bleeding away drop by drop.
“Daddy!” Elena’s voice rang like church bells through the suffocating silence.
Standing at my window, I stared out at pack lands bathed in moonlight. The full moon should have called to something wild and powerful inside me. Instead, I felt like another shadow among many, fading into nothing while everyone around me remained oblivious to my deterioration.
His parting words still cut deep. He’d claimed she threw herself at him, desperate and willing. Truth or twisted lie designed to destroy me further? The distinction had stopped mattering long ago. The damage was already carved into my soul.
I won’t pretend I was the ideal mate. My temper ran hot, my moods shifted like storm clouds, and I kept walls around my heart that even she couldn’t fully breach. I know I drove her away with my distance, my inability to show her what she meant to me. But infidelity? That betrayal had shattered something fundamental inside me, left me falling through endless darkness with no ground in sight.
The sound of tiny feet racing across marble floors pulled me from my brooding. A blur of bright pink burst through my office doors, and before I could brace myself, a small
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55 Chapter 55 Fading Wolf Spirit
body crashed into my legs with enough force to make me smile for the first time in days.
She’d become my lifeline. When Seraphina walked out, she’d left behind a man who was barely functioning, a leader going through empty motions while dying inside. Then Elena entered my world, and suddenly I had a reason to keep breathing. Someone worth fighting the consuming darkness that threatened to swallow me whole.
“Roxanne,” I said, my voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “Stay out of it.”
Looking down into her brilliant blue eyes, I felt something crack open in my chest. Something warm and alive that I’d thought was buried forever. I lifted her into my arms, breathing in the sweet scent of her strawberry shampoo. Deep in my
consciousness, my wolf stirred with the faintest rumble of contentment, a sound that had become increasingly rare.
She lifted her chin defiantly, clearly prepared for this fight. “Maybe it’s time to release yourself from someone who betrayed you, Julian. For Elena’s sake, if not your own.”
Her scent haunted me still, a phantom that clung to every corner of my existence. They say time heals all wounds, but whoever said that never loved someone with the intensity that could burn down worlds. The ache in my chest had become a permanent resident, a constant reminder of what I’d lost.
She grabbed my hand and practically dragged me toward the dining room, chattering about her day. Roxanne stood at the head table, arranging place settings with the practiced efficiency of someone claiming territory. Her dress flowed perfectly, her hair styled to magazine perfection. The picture of domestic bliss. My jaw clenched at the transparent performance.
The one silver lining to her abandonment was discovering Alpha Dorian’s true colors. That bastard had the audacity to show his face at my pack borders, claiming he came out of concern for me. What he didn’t know was that she’d left me a letter explaining everything. Banishing him from my territory should have felt satisfying, should have dulled the rage that lived beneath my skin. Instead, the hollow cavern in my chest only seemed to echo louder.
I walked out without another word, leaving Roxanne to clean up her mess. My feet carried me to my private chambers where I began pacing like a predator in a cage too small. Every nerve ending felt electrified, every muscle coiled for violence I couldn’t
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unleash.
Julian’s POV
Years Later
“Mommy says dinner’s ready!” she announced, bouncing in my arms with infectious
energy.
“Julian,” she began, her voice deceptively gentle, “do you think you’ll ever be able to move past Seraphina entirely?”
That crossed the line. I shot to my feet, the chair scraping violently against stone. The fury burning through me was arctic cold, controlled but lethal. “Elena,” I said, focusing solely on my daughter while pointedly ignoring Roxanne’s existence. “I’ll be up to read you a story later.”
My spoon hit the bowl with a sharp clang. Rage erupted through my veins like liquid fire. My wolf, dormant for so long, suddenly snarled to life with murderous intent. Discussing her was forbidden territory, a wound I refused to let anyone poke at. We took our seats. The stew was admittedly excellent-Roxanne knew her a kitchen. Elena filled the air with innocent chatter about her activities, blissfully unaware of the tension crackling between the adults. Everything seemed manageable until Roxanne decided to drop her bomb.
way
around
But beneath the anger lay something far more terrifying. My wolf was dying. Not metaphorically, not just from heartbreak, but actually fading away. His voice had grown quieter since Seraphina’s departure, but lately, his presence felt like holding onto smoke. The connection that defined my very existence was dissolving.
“Tell your mom I’m not hungry, sweetheart,” I said, forcing lightness into my tone. “I already ate.”
I’d consulted every healer, every pack doctor, every expert I could find. They all wore the same expression of baffled helplessness. No one understood why my wolf was withering, why I was slowly becoming human.
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OOR
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