Deep in the back of my mind, my wolf Nyx whimpered - small, half-formed, too weak to shift, too weak to save us. A wolfless Luna, the pack had always sneered. Tonight that curse felt like a death sentence.
My hand fumbled on the nightstand, searching for my phone. The smooth glass felt unnaturally hot against my fingertips, but I didn't care.
My first instinct, my only instinct, was him.
Kaelen.
My Alpha. My husband. My mate, bonded to me by Moon Goddess and pack law.
My fingers trembled as I bypassed the call screen. A phone call was too slow, too human. We had something deeper, something primal. A bond forged by the Moon Goddess herself.
The Mind-Link.
I closed my eyes, focusing past the roaring in my ears and the screaming of my own survival instincts. I reached for him across the city, my thoughts a desperate, silent scream.
Kaelen!
The connection sparked, a faint flicker in the void. I felt him, a distant, cool presence at the other end of the line. Relief warred with the terror.
Kaelen, help me. I'm at my parents' old house. It's on fire!
My plea was a raw nerve, pulsing with fear. I could feel the smoke seeping into my consciousness, making my thoughts sluggish.
His response cracked back like a whip across the bond, sharper than any flame.
Don't use such a pathetic little excuse to get my attention, Elara. I'm busy.
Busy. The word landed harder than the smoke in my lungs. Before I could summon another plea, before he could remember to seal the link properly, a sound bled through his end of the connection - the soft, delicate cough of a woman.
Familiar.
Seraphina Beaumont.
In his rush to dismiss me, he had left our bond wide open. And through that unguarded seam, I heard everything.
Kaelen's entire presence shifted. The irritation vanished, replaced by a surge of tender concern so potent it felt like a physical blow.
Sera, are you okay? Don't worry, sweetheart, I'm right here. His mental voice was a soft caress, low and impossibly gentle - a tone I had never, in two years of being his wife, been given. Not once.
Something inside me went very still.
Two years. Two years of shrinking myself into the shape he wanted. Two years of swallowing every insult from his pack, every whispered wolfless placeholder. And it had all been outweighed, in a single heartbeat, by his childhood sweetheart's dainty cough.
The flames chewing at the door hurt less than that voice. My skin was blistering; my soul was disintegrating.
His attention snapped back to me, the coldness returning, now laced with steel.
Elara, I told you. Sera has a fever. I don't have time for your games, for these pathetic bids for attention. Grow up.
No, Kaelen, please...
But he was already gone.
Snap.
The link severed. He had cut me off. He had hung up on my dying breath to soothe another woman's cough.
The silence in my head was absolute, a void more terrifying than the roaring flames.
I was alone.
Utterly and completely alone.
A fresh wave of coughing wracked my body, leaving me gasping on the floor. But something had shifted inside me. The desperate hope had been extinguished, and in its place, a cold, hard clarity began to form.
Get up, Elara. If he won't come, then you will save yourself. You always have.
My phone, still clutched in my hand, lit up. Its weak glow cut a small path through the suffocating darkness. It illuminated the window.
A way out.
Survival instinct, raw and powerful, took over. I crawled towards the old wooden chair by the desk, my body screaming in protest. My limbs felt like lead. Using the last of my strength, I lifted it, swinging it against the glass.
The window shattered with a deafening crash. Cool, clean air rushed in, a life-giving shock to my system. I took a greedy gulp, the oxygen a painful balm on my scorched lungs.
I didn't hesitate. Ignoring the jagged shards of glass that sliced into my arms and hands, I hauled myself over the sill. The roof tiles were slick beneath my bare feet. I scrambled for the old drainpipe, my hands gripping the cold metal.
I started to slide, too fast. My foot slipped.
The ground came up to meet me with a brutal, bone-jarring impact. A sickening crack echoed from my ankle, followed by a bolt of white-hot agony.
I lay on the damp grass, twisted and broken, staring up at the house. My house. The only thing my parents had left me. Now it was a funeral pyre, being devoured by a merciless inferno.
Tears or sweat, I couldn't tell the difference, streamed down my face.
The wail of sirens grew louder, a promise of salvation. I was saved. Physically, at least.
But inside, in the place where love and hope used to live, something had crumbled to ash.
Two years of my quiet, unwavering devotion - outweighed by one phone call from Seraphina Beaumont. Two years of my sacrifices - silenced by a single feverish cough. I was not going to make it three.
My thumb, acting on a muscle memory I now despised, unlocked my phone. The screen was cracked, but it worked. The newsfeed popped up.
And there it was.
The top story. Seraphina's latest post.
The photo was a masterpiece of calculated vulnerability. She was in Kaelen's penthouse, draped in silk pajamas, looking pale and fragile as she leaned against his broad chest. He was looking down at her, his expression a mask of gentle, loving concern.
A look I had never, in two years of marriage, received.
The caption read: "A little fever is making me miserable. Thank goodness I have you to take care of me @KaelenSterling."
I clicked on the comments.
His Beta, Liam Hayes, had been the first to respond. "Take care of her, brother. A true Luna deserves to be cherished - not some wolfless placeholder pretending at the title."
Below it, a flood of similar sentiments.
"Get well soon, our future Luna!"
"Kaelen is the best Alpha, he knows who is truly important."
"She's so much better for him than that wolfless placeholder."
A laugh escaped my lips, a dry, rasping sound that tore at my throat and sent me into another fit of coughing.
Placeholder.
That's all I was. A political marriage. A tool to appease the elders. A warm body in his bed until the woman he truly wanted was available.
Two years of devotion. Two years of setting aside my own dreams, my own life, to be the perfect Alpha's wife.
All of it, a joke.
The firefighters were shouting, their voices muffled as they rushed towards me. Hands lifted me onto a stretcher. My gaze was fixed on the night sky, a vast, empty canvas.
I closed my eyes.
Enough, Elara Vance, I told myself.
Enough.
This one-woman show is officially over. Alpha Sterling - I'm going to make sure the whole pack watches me walk away.
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