Goodbye Alpha, I'm No Longer Your Blood Bag

_Zarelle's POV_

After three years of marriage to Alpha Calden Ashmoor, I learned my true place. I was not his Luna. I was a walking, breathing blood bank.

[Oak Clinic. Thessaly's condition is deteriorating again. The blood bond ritual is required. You know your duty. Get here now.]

Another message from Calden flashed on my phone. Once, those words would have cut deep. But all I felt was the bitter ache of cold resignation. This lunar cycle alone, I had dragged myself to the treatment room three times, offering up my blood and my strength. Each session left me hollow, trembling on the edge of collapse. And Calden? He never cared.

[Where the hell are you, Zarelle? You were three minutes late. Thessaly couldn't afford to wait.]

In three years as his wife, he had never once shown me the gentleness or patience he reserved for Thessaly.

Thessaly Ashmoor. She was Calden's beloved, until she chose his brother for the Luna title-only to end up a widow.

[Payment's been increased to 100,000. Check your account.]

He still thought I stayed for the money. That I was just another shallow Omega.

[Zarelle Stormy. What the hell were you playing at? You had twenty minutes to report to the healer. A deal was a deal.]

A deal. Yes, that was what he called our marriage.

He had never believed I was worthy of him. If my blood hadn't kept his precious Thessaly alive, he wouldn't have spared me a second glance. Three years of cold shoulders and distant silences had made that painfully clear.

I leaned back against the car seat and closed my eyes. The first time I ever saw Calden Ashmoor, it was still so vivid in my mind.

I had just arrived in the city, alone, when I was caught up in a chain-reaction collision. The accident nearly brought the city to its knees, but Calden had appeared in time to stop the disaster. That day, the heroic Alpha left an indelible mark on my heart-though I never imagined our paths would cross again.

Until he walked into my hospital room while I was having my wounds bandaged.

"Will you be my wife?"

Just those words. And my quiet, dormant heart began to race. I had never felt that way about any man in my entire life. So when I said "I do," it slipped out before I could stop myself.

Later, I learned the price behind those words.

Before our marriage was even registered, I discovered the truth: Calden had chosen me for the value of my rare blood. It kept Thessaly alive. It brought benefit to the pack.

"This union is for the good of the pack," he had told me coldly before I signed. "But your primary role is to be her donor. Whenever Thessaly needs you, you will come. In return, I'll make sure you never want for anything."

A warning. But I had been so foolishly in love by then that I actually convinced