Chapter 5
The next day, I was surprised when Luna Aura Munoz humbled herself to visit me. As the Luna of the Munoz Pack, she rarely paid me any attention, let alone stepped foot into my quarters. Her presence alone was enough to make my wolf stir uneasily within me, sensing the tension that clung to the air like a storm about to break.
She began with a casual question about Isabela, her tone light but laced with something sharper beneath the surface. Then, without preamble, she got straight to the heart of the matter.
“You’re probably aware of what Alpha Damien clarified in front of the werewolf media recently.”
I nodded, my throat tightening. Of course I was aware. How could I not be? His words had echoed in my mind all night, a relentless reminder of the reality I’d been trying to ignore.
Luna Aura smiled with satisfaction, her sharp eyes glinting like shards of ice. “I never expected Alpha Damien to take it so seriously.”
“You know how it is—there’s no airtight wall against rumors, and over the years, bits and pieces have emerged.”
“But Alpha Damien has always brushed them aside, never bothered to set the record straight.”
She raised an eyebrow slightly, her gaze piercing. “Who would’ve thought? As soon as he heard about Alyssa Carr’s separation, he wasted no time clarifying his mate bond with you.”
She let out a dramatic sigh, her tone dripping with false sympathy. “But I never thought he’d even deny Isabela.”
My chest constricted at her words, but I forced myself to remain still, to not let her see the pain she was digging into. My wolf growled low in my mind, a sound of both anger and sorrow, but I pushed it down.
“That guy’s really been consistent, hasn’t he?” Luna Aura continued, her voice almost mocking now. “He’s been into Alyssa since he was young, right up until she got mated. When he agreed to bond with you, I thought he’d finally moved on.”
I sat in silence, my mind racing. Luna Aura wasn’t wrong. Alpha Damien had never cared to address rumors before. In the werewolf world, where hierarchy and reputation were everything, he’d always been confident enough to let the whispers die on their own. This was the first time he’d made such a public fuss.
I knew about Alyssa Carr. She was one of Luna Aura’s preferred choices for a mate for Alpha Damien. The daughter of the Carr Pack’s Alpha, she was everything a Luna should be—elegant, powerful, and unshakable. But back then, she was already promised to another and soon mated.
When Alpha Damien and she ran into each other occasionally at pack gatherings or during inter-pack negotiations, nothing ever seemed out of the ordinary. I had never connected the two of them.
Little did I know, Alpha Damien had been carrying a torch for her all these years. So, when he agreed to Gamma Brayden’s request to bond with me, it was because the woman he loved had mated someone else.
“Laura,” Luna Aura said, her voice softening in a way that felt more dangerous than comforting. She reached out and patted my hand, her touch cold. “You’ve always been clever.”
“You might be unnoticed, and maybe it doesn’t matter.”
“But what about Isabela? Do you want her to live in the shadows like you?”
Her words hung in the air, heavy and suffocating. I felt my wolf’s whimper, a sound of despair that echoed in the depths of my mind. I wanted to argue, to defend myself and my daughter, but the truth of her words cut too deep.
Luna Aura left, her presence lingering like a shadow even after she was gone. The house fell quiet, the only sound the rustling of the wind outside.
Under the pergola, the shadows of withered flowers lay scattered across the ground. The wind carried away the wilted petals, sweeping them into obscurity, as if they had never existed.
I took out my phone, my fingers trembling slightly as I unlocked it. Once again, I opened those messages on WhatsApp, the words staring back at me like a lifeline.
Reading over and over the line: “As long as you’re willing, Isabela will be my only pup.”
Tears streamed down my cheeks as I typed my reply to Beta Kevin Fernandez, my heart aching with both sorrow and resolve.
“Come get me. I can’t stay at the Munoz Pack any longer.”
As I hit send, I felt the weight of my decision settle over me. It was time to leave the shadows. For Isabela. For myself. For the future we deserved.
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