Every wolf in the Iron-Fang pack says I’m not the same Luna anymore. I no longer slipped out of bed before dawn to brew Valerius his morning herbal. And no longer press the creases from his Alpha command uniform before each council. Seven days passed like this. On the seventh night, Valerius returned, shrugged off his mantle, and looked at me. I was reading the healing grimoire. “What’s wrong with you lately?” After seven days of silence, that was the first thing he said to me. His voice carried the chill of deep water — controlled, distant, not a thread of warmth in it. I looked up and studied his face in the candlelight. He was striking in the way that powerful wolf often are. The she-wolves of the pack said Valerius needed only to stand in a room to attract everyone’s attention. I had believed that once. But this life, I had reborn, and I was not going to make the same mistakes again. In my last life, every she-wolf in the territory envied me, said my ancestors must have pleased the Moon Goddess for me to be fated to a man like Valerius. He was the Alpha of the Iron-Fang Pack and commander of the Lycan Council, gifted with both power and a presence. Being his Luna was supposed to be a blessing beyond measure. I had believed that completely, and I entered this palace. On our mating night, he said, “The pack and the Council will always come before everything else.” “I have no time for sentiment, and no energy for a mate’s expectations. If you understand that, stay and do something useful.” I nodded, my face still warm, and told him I understood that he should focus on protecting the pack, and I would hold the palace together for him. I had meant every word and I kept every one of them. He had no time for the palace, so I ran it — every supply ledger, every Elder negotiation, every pack ceremony. When I caught a fever I brewed my own herb and heal myself. When a rogue’s blade caught my side during a border escort, I bound the wound myself and said nothing. And when wolfsbane poisoning began destroying me from the inside, and I was vomiting blood through the nights, I still said nothing. I handled everything alone rather than diverting his attention from those critical matters. He swept the Council clean of corruption at thirty. He stood above every rival by thirty-five. At forty, he was granted a title no wolf had held in two centuries. At the feast celebrating that title, a beta raised a cup and asked how he regarded the mate who had stood behind his rise. Valerius turned his goblet and said, “We have mated for many years, but I have never felt anything for her beyond that bond. ” “My devotion belongs to this territory and the wolves under my protection. Sentiment is smoke. The pack endures.” The hall applauded. They called it the answer of a true Alpha — selfless, uncompromising. Then he rushed to the next border campaign and never came back to the packhouse. He didn’t know when the wolfsbane eroded my body. Even when I died in the eastern wing, undiscovered for three days until a servant passed by. I watched my own burial from above as a fading spirit, without ceremony. I saw Valerius receive the news in his war tent, acknowledge it with a single quiet sound. I spent an entire life learning that we were never meant for the same path. He was a revered Alpha, respected by the pack. But being his mate was too much to bear. His heart belonged entirely to the pack; there was no room left for me. So when I woke to find myself back three years after our mating bond, the first thing I did was make up my mind to sever the bond. The second was to write a application to the Moonshadow Enclave, the ancient healer’s valley sealed from pack politics by old protective magic. Their reply was due in two days. “Nothing in particular,” I said, closing my grimoire. “I had time, so I read.” His brow furrowed. “What use do you have for that?” His tone carried no malice. In his mind, my purpose was to manage the palace and stay out of the way. Outside the window, two of the night-watch she-wolves were murmuring. “Seven days and the Luna hasn’t once gone to the gate. She used to pace until her feet ached when the Alpha ran late.” “Her birthday was last week. She had prepared. The candles burned to nothing and the Alpha never came.” “He keeps her too cold for too long…” Valerius glanced toward the window, then turned back. “I don’t observe birthday, the time is better spent on Council reports.” He drew two scrolls from his sleeve and set them on the table. “The Alpha King is hosting a Moon Gathering tomorrow night. You will attend with me. Resume your normal routines beginning tomorrow — this ends here.” I looked at the scrolls — gold-pressed parchment stamped with the Alpha King’s seal, the kind of invitation mated pairs across the territory would fight for. A month ago, I would have been unable to sleep from excitement. Now I only felt the exhaustion. “I am not going,” I said. Valerius went completely still. He looked at me with a flicker of surprise. In three years of mating, I had never once said no to him.
“Why not?” he asked. I stood up and said I was tired and needed to rest. I turned toward the bed. Valerius stepped in front of me and blocked my path. “Get changed. The Gathering doesn’t end for another half hour. We’re going now.” I looked at him and thought of all the times I had simply turned around and done whatever he said. He was already reaching for my cloak. Before I could say another word, he had it around my shoulders and was steering me out the door. An hour later we were on the river road heading home, the Gathering behind us. He spent the return ride reviewing a sealed dispatch by lamplight. I watched the dark trees pass outside the window. Then the horses screamed. Rogues hit the carriage from both sides, half-shifted and fast. The frame lurched violently. I grabbed the door frame and held on. I saw Valerius shift into his wolf form, straight to the strongbox bolted beneath the seat, the one holding the territorial defense maps. He wrapped both arms around it and drove his shoulder through the carriage roof. The door buckled. I went with it. When I came to, I was in the mud at the edge of the road. Valerius stood nearby, strongbox secure under his arm, scanning the tree line. Unharmed. He had not looked for me once. I got up, checked my limbs, and walked to the nearest pack clinic. The healer was cleaning my wound when Valerius told me through the mind link that urgent Council matters required his return to the palace. I was used to this. Then she said, “A letter arrived for you from a messenger-wolf just now. I left it on the pillow.” I broke the seal with one hand. It was from the Moonshadow Enclave. Exceptional aptitude. Accepted unconditionally. Report at your earliest convenience. My fingers began to tremble and my tears fell onto the parchment. I folded the letter and pressed it against my chest. All I needed now was to reject him. Then I could leave. In the days that followed, I stayed alone in the pack clinic. The healers on duty would chat among themselves during quiet hours. About the she-wolf in the next room whose mate hadn’t left her bedside once. About a warrior who had crossed half the territory just to find a rare herb for his mate’s recovery. I listened in silence. My leg was heavy with injury, but my heart felt strangely light. The day I was discharged, I walked out on a crutch and went straight to the market district. I bought what I needed for the journey to the Moonshadow Enclave. It was midday when I finished. I stepped into a nearby tavern and had barely found a seat when the door opened and Valerius walked in. He was not alone. The woman beside him was Isolde, the pack’s only female Gamma and Lead Strategist. She her hair pinned high, and when she smiled her eyes caught the light in a way that made the whole room notice her. Something pricked at my chest. Isolde. In my first life, that name had haunted me like a curse. Many she-wolves admired Valerius, but he kept everyone at a distance. His eyes were always on the pack business, nothing else. Isolde was clever enough to know that. She never spoke of feelings. She only ever spoke of strategy. “Alpha, I believe this defensive formation has a flaw worth addressing…” “Alpha, I’d like to go over the border map with you one more time…” “Alpha, would you look over this report before I submit it to the Council…” Under the cover of pack duty, she positioned herself beside him naturally, sharing his table, his late nights, his attention. In my first life, the hours Isolde spent with Valerius, even the exchange of a glance, all of it far outnumbered anything I had ever shared with my own mate. In the past, seeing this would have stolen my appetite entirely. Now I simply turned back to the menu in my hands, calm and unbothered. Then Isolde’s sharp eyes swept the room and landed on me. “Is that… the Luna?”
Isolde spotted me first and waved, pulling Valerius over with her. “What a coincidence,” she said warmly. “Valerius and I just finished going over the strategy. I’m treating him to lunch as thanks for his guidance. Don’t misunderstand, Luna.” Her words were perfectly polite. Her eyes were not. Valerius gave me a brief nod, sat down, and opened the report he had brought. He didn’t ask about my wound. He didn’t ask about anything. I looked at him for a moment, then looked away. “I’m not misunderstanding anything,” I said. “Order what you like.” Isolde blinked. That clearly wasn’t the reaction she expected. She glanced at Valerius. He still hadn’t looked up. Just then, a server came through carrying a large pot of boiling broth. The floor near our table was slick from the morning wash. His foot slipped, and the pot tilted, straight toward Isolde. Valerius moved instantly. He grabbed me and yanked me forward. The scalding liquid hit my back. The pain tore through me, burning through fabric, searing into skin. But Valerius was already reaching for Isolde, grabbing her hands and turning them over to check every finger. “Did it burn you?” His voice was urgent in a way I had never heard directed at me. “Your hands draw every map the Council uses. You cannot afford even a small injury.” Isolde’s eyes went glassy. “Just a few drops,” she whispered. “I’m fine…” “I’ll get burn salve,” Valerius said, already standing, already walking toward the door without a backward glance. I stayed bent over the table, my back on fire, but I made no sound. The server was pale with panic. I asked him quietly if there was herb in the back. There was. I took it and made my way to the storage room behind the kitchen. I sat on a wooden crate and worked the herb across the burns myself, one slow touch at a time, breathing through the pain. The door opened and Isolde walked in. She looked at the raw, blistered skin on my back and laughed. “Does it hurt?” she asked. “He pushed you without thinking twice. You burned so I wouldn’t have to, and he left without checking your wound.” I said nothing. “I’ve never understood you, Sera.” She stepped closer. “Valerius has no feelings for you. Why are you still holding on to his Luna?” I pulled my shirt back into place and turned to face her. “And you?” I said. “You know perfectly well he has no feelings for you either. You’re a Gamma, Isolde. You have real rank and real ability.” “But instead of using that mind for this pack, you spend it scheming over him. I feel sorry for the Council that they have someone like you in their ranks.” Her face went cold. Before I could move past her, she reached into her jacket and pulled out a rolled piece of parchment — one of the reports Valerius had been reviewing. She struck a flint. The edge caught fire immediately. “Help! Someone help!” she screamed, stumbling backward. “The Luna is burning the defense maps!” She shoved the burning parchment into my hands and threw herself against the far wall, crying out. The flame bit into my palms. I dropped it and moved to stamp it out, but Isolde lunged forward and shoved me hard into the stone wall behind me. The back of my head cracked against stone. Everything went black. When I woke, I was in the pack clinic again. I opened my eyes and saw Valerius standing at the foot of the bed. His face was like carved ice. “Sera,” he said, and his voice was colder than I had ever heard it. “I pulled you in front of that pot because Isolde is a ranked Council officer. She is essential to this pack. I thought you, as Luna, would understand that some things are bigger than personal feelings.” “Even if you resented it, you should have come to me. But you dared to burn a border report? Do you have any idea how many lives depend on those maps? That was Council intelligence!” “Do you know what you’ve done?”
“I didn’t do it,” I said, my voice hoarse. “Isolde burned it herself.” “You didn’t?” Valerius let out a cold laugh. His eyes were full of disappointment and something darker. “That defense report was three months of Isolde’s work. It’s her career, her future. You think she would destroy that just to frame you? Sera, I knew you were jealous, but I never thought you would go this far.” His words hit like blows. He would rather believe a lie than trust his own mate. Just then, heavy footsteps echoed up the stairs. A squad of pack enforcers entered the room, their expressions grim. “Alpha Valerius,” The lead enforcer said. “We received a report that someone deliberately destroyed sealed Council intelligence with intent to compromise pack security.” “The suspect is your mate, Sera. This matter concerns territorial safety. By law, she must be taken into custody for interrogation.” I stared at Valerius in disbelief. Compromising pack security? Isolde hadn’t just framed me for burning a map, she had accused me of treason. “Take her,” the enforcer said, gesturing to his men. One of them stepped forward with silver chains. “Wait,” Valerius said sharply. The enforcer paused. “Alpha?” “The original maps are still archived in the Council vault,” Valerius said, his tone hard as iron. “The loss is not irreparable. My mate is ignorant and acted out of jealousy, but she has no ability or motive to betray this pack.” “I will stake my position on this. Whatever punishment you deem fit, I will bear it. Demotion, suspension, confinement — I accept it all. But you will not take her.” The enforcer hesitated. “This is irregular, Alpha. The law—” “I am the Alpha,” Valerius said, his voice carrying the weight of command. “She stays. I will punish her on my own.” The enforcer exchanged glances with his men. Finally, he nodded. “But there will be consequences for this, Alpha. The Council will not overlook it.” “I understand,” Valerius said coldly. “You may go.” The enforcers filed out, their boots heavy on the wooden floor. The room fell silent. I looked at Valerius. For a moment — just a moment — something warm flickered in my chest. He had protected me. “Why?” I asked, my voice shaking. “You think I’m guilty. You hate what I did. Why would you stake your position to keep me out of their hands?” Valerius looked at me without warmth. “The detention cells are damp and filthy,” he said. “If you went in there, you would come out broken even if you survived.” “My mother’s health has worsened. She will only take the medicinal broth when you prepare it. No one else can make it the way she tolerates. ” The warmth in my chest died instantly. “And there are countless other matters in the palace that require your attention. Right now, no one else can manage them as efficiently as you do.” He paused, then added, “So you need to stay alive.That’s why I kept you here.” I stared at him and suddenly I understood that Isolde had been right. He didn’t keep me because I was his mate. He kept me because I was useful. I started laughing. It came out broken and bitter, and once I started I couldn’t stop. Valerius’s brow furrowed. “Are you insane?” “If someone better came along,” I said through the laughter, my voice shaking, “someone more obedient, more capable, better at your palace, would you replace me?” Valerius was silent for a moment. Then he straightened his collar and answered with the honesty. “If such a person existed,” he said, “and caused no disruption to my work, then yes. I would consider it.”
I laughed even harder, until my stomach cramped and the burns on my back split open again. Valerius looked at me with cold distaste, as if I were irrational as he suspected. He turned away, walked to where Isolde stood by the door, and offered her his arm. She leaned into him with tears still wet on her face. They left together. The carriage rolled away into the distance. I returned to the small guest house on the palace grounds alone. By nightfall I was burning with fever. Two days passed. Valerius did not come. On the third afternoon, the door opened. Isolde walked in, several older she-wolves following behind her. Her hand was wrapped in excessive white bandages, and she wore a victorious smile. “I’m surprised,” she said, settling into the main chair. “Even under suspicion of treason, Valerius still protected you from the cells. It seems you do have some small worth to him after all.” “Worth?” I said quietly. “You heard what he said. He just needs someone to prepare his mother’s medicine.” “Does that matter?” Isolde leaned forward. “As long as you hold that Luna title, I find you unbearable. Do you know what Valerius said to me recently, Sera? ” “He said you’ve become bitter and resentful lately. That seeing you makes him uncomfortable.” She stood suddenly and swept her hand across the small table. The medicine bowl shattered on the floor. “Since Valerius won’t handle you properly,” she said, “I will. Take her out.” The she-wolves moved forward and grabbed my arms before I could react. I was weak with fever, my body uncooperative. They dragged me out of the house and into the street. They brought me to the busiest market square in the territory, where everyone could see. Isolde positioned herself in the center and began to cry. “Look, everyone! This is our Luna! She burned sealed Council maps out of jealousy because Valerius values my work! ” “She even tried to scald my hands so I could never draw another map! And she walks free while loyal wolves suffer!” The crowd began to gather, their faces hard. “She burned defense maps? That’s treason!” “She attacked a Council Gamma?” Isolde held up her bandaged hand. “These hands serve the pack’s defense. She wanted to destroy them because she couldn’t bear that Valerius respected my abilities!” Someone threw a rotten vegetable. It hit my shoulder. Then stones. I tried to stay upright, but a heavy kick caught my ribs and I collapsed onto the cobblestones. I curled inward, trying to protect my head. More blows came. Fists, boots, things I couldn’t see. Then a boot came down hard on my right hand, the hand I needed for healing. Crack. The pain was so sharp the world went black. When I woke, I was lying on a bench in the Council Elder’s meeting hall. A healer was setting my hand in a wooden splint. “You’re fortunate,” he said quietly. “One of the Elders was passing through the square and saw what happened. He had you brought here.” He finished tying the splint and looked at me seriously. “Your small finger is fractured. One of your ribs is broken.” I stared at the splint for a long time without speaking. Then I pushed myself upright and walked to the great hall where the Council Elders heard grievances. “I am here to file charges against Gamma Isolde,” I said, my voice steady despite the pain. “For inciting public violence, orchestrating an assault, and causing severe bodily harm. I have witnesses.” Three days later, the Council brought Isolde in for judgment. The case was too public to ignore, too many witnesses to dismiss. Despite attempts from the palace to intervene, the Elders handed down their ruling. Twenty lashes. Six months suspension from her Gamma duties. Confined to quarters during that time. I stayed in the pack clinic for the remainder of the week, staring out the window as my body slowly knitted itself back together. Seven days later, I returned to the palace. I pushed open the door to my quarters and found the room in ruins. Shattered porcelain covered the floor. Valerius sat in the center of it all, his expression dark as a storm. He looked up the moment I entered. “You reported her to the Council?” His voice was flat and dangerous. “You had Isolde arrested?” I stepped over the broken pieces and said nothing. “I’m asking you a question!” Valerius shot to his feet and grabbed my shoulders so tight I felt my bones grinding together. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? The Council’s annual strategy is next month — her entire career depends on it! You’ve destroyed her reputation and her future!”
He shook me so hard my vision blurred. My broken rib sent sharp pain through my chest with every movement. I pulled my right hand free and held it up between us. “Isolde came to the guest house,” I said. “She brought others with her and had me dragged into the market square. She told the crowd I was a traitor. They beat me. Someone stomped on my hand and broke the bones.” I looked at him steadily. “I’m a healer, Valerius. Do you have any idea what this hand means to me?” His eyes dropped to my hand. For just a moment, something flickered across his face. Then it was gone, replaced by cold stone. “You burned her work first,” he said. “You pushed her to that point. If you hadn’t been so spiteful, none of this would have happened.” He released me and stepped back. “Why couldn’t you have been reasonable about this? Why did you have to drag the Council Elders into it and humiliate this entire pack?” “Reasonable?” I said quietly. “You mean let her cripple my hand and say nothing? Let her walk free while I lose everything?” “I was trying to survive, Valerius. Not take revenge.” “Survive?” He let out a harsh laugh. “You’re still pretending this wasn’t about jealousy? You can’t stand that she’s more useful than you.” I looked at him and felt the exhaustion settle deep into my bones. I was so tired. Too tired to argue with someone who had already decided what he believed. “Think what you want,” I said. “The Elders made the arrest. The law passed the sentence. If you’re so powerful, go tear down their hall.” I turned and walked toward the inner room. “Stop.” Valerius pushed past me and went straight to the vanity. He yanked open the bottom drawer. Inside was a small carved wooden box. My mother’s box. The one that held her final gift to me — a moonstone amulet carved with protective runes, the only thing I had left of her. “What are you doing?” My voice came out sharp with panic. I lunged forward to stop him. Valerius was taller, stronger. He held the box high above my reach with one hand and opened it with the other. The moonstone amulet glinted in the dim light. “I know this is the one thing you care about,” he said coldly. “So hear me clearly, Sera. If you ever touch Isolde again — if you ever damage her career or mine — I will destroy it.” “Valerius, you bastard!” I threw myself at him, clawing for the amulet. “That was my mother’s! Give it back!” “Remember what I said.” He held the amulet as if he were about to drop it. I froze. My whole body began to shake. Tears spilled down my face before I could stop them. “Please,” I whispered. I sank to my knees. “Please don’t. I’m begging you. Don’t touch it.” A flicker of satisfaction crossed his face, as if he had finally found the lever that controlled me. “Then behave yourself,” he said. He turned toward the door, slipping the amulet into his pocket. Just then, a voice shouted from outside. “Alpha! Emergency! The northern river has breached the barrier — the Alpha King need you to the Council immediately!” Valerius’s expression changed. He moved toward the door without hesitation. I grabbed his sleeve. “Give me the amulet back. Now.” He was already thinking about the crisis, his mind elsewhere. He yanked his arm free with more force than he intended. “Let go!” The motion carried the full strength of an Alpha’s instinct. I was thrown backward. My body slammed into the sharp corner of the doorframe. The impact was immediate and brutal. My head cracked against the wood. Something warm began streaming down my face, covering my eyes in red. Valerius stopped. He turned and saw me on the floor, blood pouring from my forehead. His eyes widened slightly. His hand lifted, as if to help. “Alpha, please!” the voice called again from outside. His hand froze in midair. Then he lowered it, closed his fist around the amulet in his pocket, and turned away. “Clean yourself up,” he said without looking back. “Stop being dramatic.” Then he was gone. I heard his boots on the stone, heard the horse’s hooves strike the ground and fade into the storm. I sat on the cold floor and tasted copper in my mouth. I touched my face. My hand came away completely red. I started laughing. In the darkness, with thunder rolling overhead and rain hammering the roof, I sat alone and laughed until my throat was raw. This was the man I had loved for two lifetimes. And in that moment, the last thread of feeling I had for him, bled out with the blood on my face and died.
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