a's

myself together enough to look like a functioning person. Breathing was even and my hands ha

s good

r round she had been doing before I derailed it, and the

lly moved out of - and that was why I needed to leave the space at that moment. My body just reacted before my pride could object. But the tense had pa

ad a whole life g

n in the corridor. I h

or now, and focus on the two things that actually mattered - m

or some reason, the only thought that left me bothered was the fact that I had left the printed report sitting right there on the doc

ed up my bag, and walke

e had cleared like it had never happened, the corridor going back t

r. Asher's office and

pped ab

through the door, but close enough to make o

Lucien'

er was there, but then I

knowing than live quietly in the dark while things ha

elf close to the door

firm. The voice he used when he had already made up his mind about something and was simply p

pau

flat against

asked of him? I replayed the conversation in my head - the careful nod, the 'of course, Luna Lara, whenever you are ready.' It

egnant'- I let out a slow breath. He didn't know because that was not how a man spoke about something h

orridor after all. Just enoug

inate it immediately if she

through me li

over my lips so that whatever sound was trying to come out of me didn't make it through. My right hand drop

hand over my child and listened to my h

nobody standing a step away would have caught it. "How coul

st surprised by the firmness in it. "But why, Alpha Lucien? Yo

answered. "She has never had a wolf. Childbirth cou

stupid, treacherous part of me that wanted to pick them up and hold them like

rotecting his wife. That was a man removing a problem before it became inconvenient. If he actually cared, if he actually meant it, the conversation would have see

umb and almost convincing myself it w

doing it e

ing that Lucien had possibly spotted me made staying anywhere near this corridor a bad idea. I couldn't explain my pres

ft righ

*

wyer's office o

him I needed divorce papers drawn up and ready as soon as possible. He looked at me for a moment with the careful expression l

im and walk

e table in front of me by late afte

them and didn't

ve me. He never had. And not only did he not love me, he had just sat in a doctor's office and quietly arranged to erase the only piece of proof that we had ever been anyth

y life and risked that of my unborn child

done f

was fine in a marriage that had gone completely south a long ti

pers closer and

ing to, my mind went s

*

ill be safe here. I

small bag and no idea what she was walking into - and I had been standing in the kitchen doorway trying to figure out where I was supposed to put myself wh

just looked at me and said it plainly, l

f, you are still un

n that he said it, but that I believed it so completely and so immediately. Like som

the awkwardness of being the only maid at a table of wolves, through every moment where s

e man who crouched in front of me this morning with his finger

many times it had worn smooth. And

o shift the day the wolf

enity. Domin

yone - including her - already knew how this was going to end. It was supposed to be Raina that would be chosen as Luna. Everyone agreed on th

there to se

d so, she has decreed that Alpha

d transferred - this warm, buzzing current that moved through me from the t

dropped the t

olding the wine tray, with my knuckles white around the edge, looking at

ly still. And then Raina's

early, looking around at the gathered clan like she was making a legal argum

nding here now, years later, with divorce papers on the table in front of me and the conversation he had with Dr. Asher's offic

una and he had spent five years

*

had pictures which had memories from moments we spent together over the years. Which includes, clan events, formal photogra

it and se

never my choice in the first place. I had not asked for the shaman's stick to point at me. I had not campaigned for the position or sta

ice my heart had ever truly made on its own. A

e divorce pape

de them. It was a notification and so I

n image

d just when I thought I had managed to put a floor under myself t

t, I had no idea it had already gotten to t