The Seventh Year: Luna No More

The bonfire roared into the night sky. Beneath the full moon, the wolves gathered once again.

It was the Silver Moon Pack’s fated mate bonding ceremony.

I stood on the edge of the crowd, head lowered, my heart pounding in rhythm with the drums.

As the daughter of the Moon Claw Pack’s Alpha, I had no right to be here.

But tonight, was the full moon. My wolf was restless, clawing inside me, urging me forward. I burned with the need to see him—my beloved, Ethan.

So, I risked everything, slipping an amulet around my neck to mask my wolf scent. With that fragile protection, I crossed into his territory, hoping to give him a surprise.

Then his figure appeared.

Ethan Blackwood—Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack.

Tall, unyielding, his presence was carved in shadow and fire. His eyes were as dark as midnight, and the weight of his Alpha aura forced every wolf around him to bow their heads.

But the moment his gaze lifted, my blood surged hot.

My wolf howled inside my mind, frantic and broken: “Summer, he has betrayed us!”

“No… he wouldn’t,” I snapped back, desperate to deny it.

Yet before the entire pack, he reached out his hand—

And it was Olivia’s hand he claimed.

Olivia, his trusted Beta, the woman who had managed the pack’s affairs for years, who tended to his daily life as if it were her birthright.

As the elder chanted the ancient incantations, Ethan slowly tied a silver ribbon around her wrist.

The bonfire exploded higher, and the pack erupted into howls and cheers that shook the ground.

In that moment, they all celebrated Alpha Ethan and Beta Olivia’s bond.

And I—

I felt as though I were prey torn open by claws, my heart bleeding out across the dirt.

Why?

Why would my fated mate choose someone else?

I staggered back, choking on the howl threatening to rip free from my chest. The cheers masked my footsteps, and even the night wind seemed to laugh coldly at my pain.

Then I froze.

A voice, low and grave, drifted from the shadows behind the torches.

“Ethan, are you certain about this?” It was one of the elders.

Ethan’s reply came heavy, edged with finality:

“I have no choice. If I don’t marry her, she’ll be forced to the old Alpha of the Nightshade Pack. I won’t let her suffer that fate. I must protect her.”

The elder was silent for a moment and then asked, "What about your fated mate?"

The world stilled.

Then came his words, sharp as blades, tearing straight through me:

“She’s been with me for seven years. She won’t leave me.”

My chest clenched so hard I thought I might shatter.

The “she” he spoke of—was me.

To him, our bond was not love, not loyalty—just seven years of habit.

The bonfire burned. The pack cheered.

And my world collapsed.

I turned and fled, hollow, aimless, barely aware of where my feet carried me.

I wanted to confront Ethan, to demand why he had broken his vow.

I wanted to silence Olivia forever, to rip that simpering voice from her throat.

I wanted to beg my father to crush the Silver Moon Pack, to bury Ethan’s people in the ashes of my ruined love.

I ran faster and faster, wild thoughts flashing like lightning through my mind—

But all of them were trapped, caged inside a breaking heart.