Chapter 15
Serena
“That’s not happening.” Kieran’s voice landed like a door slamming shut. “None of it.”
I opened my mouth, but he was already turning away, pulling the comforter back on his side of the bed.
“It’s late. Go to sleep.”
“You can’t just-”
“On the weekends, we’ll visit your parents. Together.” He said it. “Your mother needs to see that you’re fine.”
He reached for the lamp and instantly, darkness swallowed the room.
I lay there, rigid, staring at the ceiling while his breathing evened out within minutes, so apathetic towards his wife telling him she’d rather bleed out on a clinic table than carry his child.
The bond had been dimming for months, thinnig like 2
thread stretched too for There was a time I could feel
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everything through it.
Now it was like pressing my ear to a wall and catching only muffled sounds from the other side.
Sleep wouldn’t come.
My wolf, Aina, lay curled inside me, too exhausted to even whimper. She’d been mourning longer than I had.
My mind kept circling back to the way he’d said we’ll visit
your parents.
The dutiful son-in-law, showing up with flowers and warm handshakes, asking about medications and recovery timelines.
It was all a ledger.
Every specialist he’d called in, every hospital bill he’d covered, every dollar he’d funneled toward my family’s survival after Blackthorn fell, none of it was kindness. It was investment. He’d made that perfectly clear. Whatever he’d spent on my parents would need to be repaid, down to the last cent.
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He cared about his image and his money. That was all.
&
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In his eyes, I was nothing. A placeholder.
A warm body in the Luna’s seat while his heart lived with someone else.
Sophie was the one he rushed to in the rain.
Sophie was the one whose tears unmade him. Sophie was everything.
I pressed my face into the pillow and let the grief crush
I have loved him for so many years, and it has always been obvious.
I remembered when I was fifteen, perched on the stone wall outside the training grounds, watching Kieran spar with the older wolves. He was young but already faster than most of them, shifting between human and half-form with a fluidity that made the seasoned warriors. pause and watch.
He’d caught me staring. Instead of looking away, he
held my gaze for three full seconds, and the corner of his
mouth twitched.
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I’d nearly fallen off the wall.
That night, I wrote in my journal: He smiled at me today.
When Kieran’s father proposed the marriage alliance, I told myself it was fate. The Moon Goddess giving me what I’d always wanted.
On our mating night, the bond had snapped into place between us and I’d wept with joy because I thought it
meant he was mine.
But a mate bond wasn’t love.
Wolves could share a bond and still destroy each other.
For the first two years, I’d convinced myself otherwise. He’d reach for my hand during pack gatherings.
He’d pull me against his chest on cold mornings, his thumb tracing patterns on my hip.
Once, I caught him watching me sleep, and when I asked what was wrong, he just said, “Nothing. Go back to sleep.”
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I’d treasured those crumbs like they were feasts.
Now, lying in the dark beside a man whose bond I could hardly feel. Obligation dressed up as affection.
Aina stirred weakly. He’s our mate.
I pressed my hand to my stomach beneath the blanket. He’s her mate too.
Kieran
She was still there when I opened my eyes.
Serena lay on the far edge of the bed, curled into herself with her back to me, the blanket pulled to her chin. Her breathing was shallow.
Cora rumbled low in my chest, clawing at the bond between us, trying to reach his wolf.
I studied the rigid line of her shoulders and wondered if she’d slept at all.
It didn’t matter.
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What mattered was that she was here. In our bed. In our
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home. If she hadn’t slept, she’d rest during the day. She was home and she was going nowhere.
I rose quietly and headed for the bathroom. Cora paced inside me, agitated, scraping at my composure.
He hadn’t settled since last night.
She wants to leave, my wolf growled. Our mate wants to
leave.
She wasn’t leaving. The very idea was absurd. We were bonded – mated before the Moon Goddess with our packs as witnesses, our wolves tied by a thread that only death could sever.
An Alpha and his Luna didn’t separate. It was unheard of.
The shame alone would ripple through every allied pack
on the East Coast.
And Serena, for all her fire, understood that. She’d grown up as an Alpha’s daughter. She knew the weight of the title she carried. She knew what the Luna’s absence would mean.
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I shut the water off, dried myself, and wrapped a towel around my waist before stepping back into the bedroom.
My gaze snagged on the far wall.
The space above the dresser was bare. It was the space where our wedding picture hung.
I looked at the wall. Then at her.
“Where’s the photograph?”
She didn’t roll over. “I threw it out.”
My teeth ground together. I exhaled through my nose, forcing patience.
“Then I’ll call the studio for another print,” I said evenly. “And if they don’t have copies, I’ll have your dress brought out and we’ll take a new one.”
She rolled over then. Her mouth hung open, eyes wide, staring at me like I’d lost my mind.
I turned to the closet and started getting dressed.
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She reached into her pocket and pressed something into my palm.
A black card.
“The money left over after my hospital bills is on here,” she said. “We haven’t touched it. Return it to your husband.”
My throat constricted. “Mom-”
“We are grateful for everything he’s done.” Her voice was steady, but I heard the effort holding it together. “But we will not be anyone’s debt.”
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