Melissa pov
I felt a twinge of joy as I noticed Linda's face momentarily burn with shame and anger at my words. She opened her mouth to speak, but Marcel spoke over her, his voice hoarse. “Pregnant? Linda, what the hell are you talking about? That’s news to me,” he said, his eyes bulging
I froze, my heart stuttering. For one fleeting second, hope sparked in my chest. Maybe she was lying, maybe this was just another one of her cruel, twisted games to break me.
But Linda’s smirk only widened, her chin tilting up with that smug, untouchable arrogance that made my wolf ache to lunge at her throat. “Don’t believe me?” she said, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. “Fine. Let’s settle it. We’ll go to the pack doctor right now and confirm it with ease.”
I wanted to scream, to tear the marble walls down with my bare hands. But my feet started to move on their own accord, and I followed them to the hospital, each step ripping a bigger hole in my chest. I was burning, suffocating, but I couldn’t stop.
On reaching the pack hospital, it had the usual scent of herbs and a suffocating and sharp antiseptic smell that clung to everything. The doctor bowed low as Linda swept in, her hand still wrapped around Marcel’s arm like she owned him. I hung back, arms crossed tight over my chest, my heart pounding so hard I thought it’d crack my ribs.
The wait was torture, minutes dragged like hours. The doctor poked, prodded, scribbled notes, his face vague. Finally, he looked up, his eyes flicking to me, then Marcel, before landing on Linda.
“Congratulations, Luna Linda,” he said, his voice flat. “You are a few weeks pregnant.”
The world spun around me, and my stomach dropped, like I’d been kicked off a cliff. Pregnant! The word clawed into my brain, sharp and relentless, shredding everything I had once clung to.
My heart didn’t just break…it shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.
Marcel’s face went pale, like he’d seen a ghost. “No… that’s not…” His voice shook, caught somewhere between shock and guilt. “Linda, you and I…we didn’t…”
She cut him off with a laugh, sharp and cold, looping her arm tighter through his. “Oh, we did, Marcel. Over and over. Or what, you forgot already? Want me to remind you of the nights?” She leaned in, her lips brushing his ear, her voice a cruel whisper. “Or should I paint the picture for Melissa?”
I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to rip my ears off, anything to stop her voice from sinking into me.
I turned to Marcel, begging with every piece of me for him to say something, anything, to prove her wrong. But he just stood there, silent, his eyes dark with guilt he couldn’t hide. That silence hit harder than any punch, cut deeper than any claw.
He hadn’t just betrayed me in that courtroom. He’d betrayed me in the dark, in secret, night after night.
“Melissa,” he said finally, his voice rough, pleading, as he stepped toward me. His hands reached out, like he could pull me back from the edge. “Please, just listen. It doesn’t have to end like this. I still want you. You can still be mine, not as Luna, but…”
That word mistress triggered me. I laughed, a raw, broken sound that scraped my throat. “Your mistress? After everything I’ve done for you? I fought for you, Marcel. My love for you was above anyone I knew. I built you from nothing to everything you can only dream of, and you think I’ll crawl into your shadows while she wears my crown?” My voice cracked, loud and wild. “Screw you.”
Linda’s nails dug into his arm, her eyes flashing. “No way,” she snapped. “I’m not sharing him. Not with you, not with anyone. You were never Luna material, Melissa. You’re pathetic, chasing something that was never yours.”
I spun on her, tears burning my eyes but refusing to fall. “I’ll never be his mistress, Linda. Never.” My chest heaved, every word shaking with rage. “You can play queen for now, but listen closely, both of you. I’m coming for that throne. It’s mine, and I’ll take it back. And when I do, I will burn all of you to the ground.”
Linda’s laugh was grating, slicing through the sterile hospital air. “You? Take his throne?” She sneered, her eyes glittering with venom. “You’re just a woman, Melissa. Weak. The pack would sooner follow a stray dog than a female alpha.”
Her words were meant to break me, and damn it, they stung. But beneath the pain, something hotter stirred, a fire I hadn’t felt in years, hungry and alive.
Later, alone in my room, the weight of it all crashed over me. I collapsed onto my bed, the sheets still had a faint scent of him, and I broke down. Quiet, gut-wrenching sobs shook me until I could barely breathe. The man I had loved, the man I poured my soul into, had torn me apart.
And the worst part? Even now, my stupid heart still ached for him.
“No more,” I whispered hoarsely, as though speaking to the very bond that tethered my soul to Marcel’s.
The bond-oh, the cursed mate bond, felt like a chain of molten iron in my veins. Every thought of Marcel tugged and pulled, demanding I forgive him, demanding I crawl back, begging me to be the fool who worshipped him again.
“No,” I whispered, though my voice shook. “No. I won’t… I can’t.”
My wolf keened in my mind, pressing images of Marcel into me, the warmth of his hand, the safety of his scent, the deep certainty of his presence. It was torture and betrayal magnified a hundredfold by the bond that refused to release me.
My breathing grew ragged. My body quivered, torn between my fury and the ache that wanted to pull me back to him. “If he won’t honor it,” I said hoarsely, “then I’ll tear it myself.”
The words had barely left my lips when the door slammed open. Clara rushed in, skirts swishing around her ankles, her dark hair loose and wild. Clara was my maid and sister in all but blood.
Her eyes widened at the sight of me sprawled across the floor, my gown twisted, my cheeks streaked with tears.
“My Lady!” she cried, dropping to her knees beside me. “What did they do to you? Tell me!”
I shook my head violently, clutching her wrist with trembling fingers. “He… he chose Linda.” My voice cracked into a sob. “Clara, he…he chose her over me!”
Clara’s face drained of color. “No… no, he wouldn’t.”
“He did!” I spat, grief blistering into fury. “He called her his Luna, Clara. After everything, after my father crowned him Alpha, after I gave him everything, as if I was nothing to him. Nothing!”
Clara pulled me into her arms, rocking me against her chest like a mother would do a child, even though she was older by just a year. Her warmth pressed against my fevered skin, but it barely registered. My body was trembling too violently, heat searing through my veins as though my wolf was ripping me apart from the inside.
“I can’t bear it,” I gasped. “This bond, every time I breathe, it drags me back to him. I’ll lose my mind if it stays.”
“Melissa…” Clara’s voice shook, her eyes wide with fear. “Don’t say it. You know what tearing the bond means. Wolves have died from it. You’ll be sick, maybe crippled.”
“I would rather die free than live like this!” I cried, pushing away from her.
Shaking, I rose to my knees. My fingers dug into the fabric of my dress at my chest. My wolf snarled, resisting, but my resolve blazed brighter than her fear. I closed my eyes, reaching inward, toward that silver thread that tethered me to Marcel’s heart. That cursed rope of fire was embedded in my soul.
I must sever it- I vowed
My whole body arched back as though impaled by lightning. A scream ripped out of my throat, raw and animal. Pain exploded through me, white and hot, searing down every nerve. My wolf howled inside me, her cry of anguish so piercing it made Clara clap her hands over her ears.
“Melissa! Stop, please!” Clara sobbed, clutching at my arms as my body convulsed. “He isn’t worth your life!”
But I couldn’t stop, I wouldn’t. Tears blurred my vision, my jaw clenched against the unbearable torment.
“I… reject… the bond!” I forced the words out, each one scraped bloody against my throat.
The air in the chamber crackled with supernatural force. For an instant, it was as though lightning surged through my veins. Then the thread snapped.
The agony that followed was beyond anything words could hold. Every memory, every touch, every whisper of Marcel was wrenched out of me violently, leaving me hollow, raw, bleeding inside. My body collapsed forward, trembling, gasping for breath. My wolf let out one last shuddering howl before silence fell.
Cold sweat clung to my skin. My stomach twisted with nausea, bile rising. My limbs felt heavy, useless.
Clara caught me, pulling me into her lap. Her hands shook as she stroked my hair back from my clammy face. “You foolish, brave, beautiful girl,” she whispered through tears. “What have you done to yourself?”
I tried to smile, though my lips trembled. “I’m free,” I breathed, so faintly I wasn’t sure she heard me.
And then the darkness claimed me.
************************
When I stirred again, it was to the cool touch of a cloth against my forehead. Clara’s hands were steady, her voice low, humming an old lullaby from our childhood.
My whole body burned and froze at once, wracked with tremors. The wolf-sickness had me in its grip. Each breath felt laboured, my heartbeat was sluggish and heavy.
Sometimes I whimpered Marcel’s name despite myself. Sometimes I cursed him, teeth clenched, shaking with rage even in fever. I wasn’t in control of my tongue; the bond-tearing had shredded me open, body and soul.
Clara never left my side. She coaxed water past my lips, wiped away sweat, murmured to me as though her voice alone might tether me back to life.
“Hold on,” she whispered. “Don’t let this kill you. You’re stronger than him, Melissa. Stronger than all of them.”
I wanted to answer. I wanted to tell her I was trying, but the fever dragged me under again and again, waves of sickness that left me limp in her arms.
At dawn, when the first light spilled across the curtains, my breathing started to ease; though still shallow, it was steadier.
Clara slumped forward, exhausted, pressing her forehead against my hand. Her tears slid down onto my skin, warm and real.
“You’ll survive this,” she said fiercely, as if willing it into truth. “You’ll live. And one day, he’ll see what he threw away.”
I couldn’t open my eyes yet, but somewhere deep inside, the faintest stir of my wolf answered with a low, weary growl of agreement.