Coming Home After My Alpha’s BetrayalChapter 1
Nyx’s POV
I was never meant to wear the title of Luna.
From the very beginning, I was destined to fade into the background of the packhouse—a quiet presence, a nameless shadow following the Alpha whose voice ruled everyone, while his mate was reduced to nothing more than unpaid labor under his own roof.
I never dreamed of diamonds. Never asked for flowers. All I wanted was a single vow honored. Just one.
A cruise.
Thorne—Alpha Thorne Darkhowl of the Darkhowl Pack—had promised it back when there was still warmth left in him. Back when his embrace felt like shelter instead of a cage, when his wolf smelled of earth and strength instead of blood, steel, and gun smoke.
“I swear,” he had murmured once, lips buried in my hair, his presence wrapping around me like protection, “when we make it big, I’ll take you everywhere. Across oceans, across borders. Just you and me. Moonlight and open water. No pack. No burdens.”
That was before the empire.
Before wealth and authority twisted his wolf into something unrecognizable.
Before love hardened into obligation.
Before I became Luna only on paper, while in reality I served everyone but myself.
And now—today—was my forty-eighth birthday.
No one remembered. No quiet wishes, no ceremonial howl, not even a candle flickering on the table. The pack celebrated victories, promotions, births—but never me.
Still, a foolish part of me hoped.
Maybe tonight would be different.
I mentioned it after dinner.
He sat sprawled in his leather chair, methodically rubbing a stained cloth over a wolf-bone dagger, polishing it like a sacred heirloom. An old Western droned from the television, ignored by everyone. Inside me, my wolf curled inward, exhausted but stubbornly hopeful.
“Do you remember what you said to me,” I asked softly, “when I turned eighteen?”
He didn’t bother glancing up. “You’ll need to be more specific.”
I swallowed. “You promised we’d travel. You said we’d see the world together. That once the work was done and our son was grown, we’d finally go—on a cruise. Just the two of us.”
His laugh was low and cutting, stripped of any warmth. “Have you lost your mind? You think you deserve something like that? Look at yourself, Nyx. You’re nothing but bones and wrinkles. You really think anyone would welcome you aboard a luxury ship? They’d probably think you wandered in from the streets.”