Moonwake Vengeance The Rejected Luna’s ReckoningChapter 1
At the birthday moot, my pup was just about to blow out her candles.
Alaric Vargan leaned in with a smile, his tone light—as if he were sharing a harmless jest with the gathered pack members.
"Lily, little one, your mother and I are breaking our mating bond. Why don't you make a wish for Aunt Raven Frosthollow to give you a little brother?"
The smile froze on my daughter's face. Her golden eyes—so like mine—filled with tears in an instant.
The next second, she burst into howling sobs, the small wooden fork slipping from her trembling fingers and clattering against the stone floor of our den.
Alaric clicked his tongue in irritation, his wolf's displeasure rippling through the bond we still shared.
I couldn't take it anymore. I scooped Lily into my arms and carried her to her sleeping chamber, her small body shaking against my chest.
After I finally got her to sleep, her breathing still ragged from crying, I took the bond rejection scroll and found Alaric in his study.
"I've marked it with my blood."
He blinked, clearly caught off guard. After all my desperate clinging before, all my pleas to the pack elders, he hadn't expected me to let go so easily.
But relief washed over his face almost immediately, his shoulders dropping as tension left his frame.
"Should've accepted this sooner. Don't worry—Raven's still young in her wolf years. She's not cut out to raise another female's pup. The child stays with you."
For six moons, he'd done everything to force this bond rejection. Cut off my share of the pack's hunting grounds. Refused to speak to me through our mental link. Moved tribute and territory claims beyond my reach. Every cruel trick an Alpha could use against his unwanted mate.
And now, at our daughter's birthday moot, he said this in front of witnesses.
Fine. If he wanted to cast us out so badly, I'd grant his wish.
I just hoped that when the truth came out, he wouldn't regret it enough to want to die.
——
Alaric took the blood-marked scroll, barely able to contain the smile tugging at his lips. He was already sending a mental summons to the pack elders before the blood had dried.
"Yes, it's done. She's accepted the rejection."