Chapter 7: The Luna Who Was Supposed to Be Dead

For the first time in my life, I woke up without feeling the weight of the Blackwood bond pressing against my chest.

The silence inside my wolf was strange.

But it was peaceful.

Ash had kept his promise. He never pressured me to accept him as my mate, never asked me to return the feelings he had carried for eight years, and never once mentioned Adrian unless I brought him up myself.

Instead, he gave me work.

Three months after my arrival, I was helping manage the eastern territory of the Thorn Pack.

I reviewed patrol reports, settled disputes between pack members, and helped the healers organize supplies.

I was slowly becoming useful again.

Not because I was Adrian Blackwood's Luna.

Not because I was Rowan's mother.

But because I was Elara.

One afternoon, Ash entered my office with a folder in his hand.

"We received a message from Blackwood."

My fingers stopped moving.

"What kind of message?"

He placed the folder on my desk.

"They want to know if we have any information about you."

I stared at the sealed document.

"What did you tell them?"

"Nothing."

I looked up at him.

"Why would they suddenly care?"

Ash's expression darkened.

"Because Adrian has started questioning your death."

My heart gave a strange beat.

"He received my ashes."

"He did."

"Then why doesn't he believe I'm dead?"

Ash was silent for a moment.

"Because the healer who reported your death disappeared two days later."

I froze.

The room suddenly felt colder.

"What happened to her?"

"No one knows."

I stood up and walked toward the window.

For three months, I had convinced myself that I was finally free.

But Adrian was starting to look for me.

Ash stepped closer.

"If you want, I can send you somewhere farther away."

"No."

The answer came immediately.

I had spent enough of my life running because of Adrian.

"I'm not going to spend the rest of my life hiding from him."

Ash watched me carefully.

"Then what will you do?"

I looked down at the Blackwood seal on the folder.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Let him search."

A faint smile touched my lips.

"He needs to understand that the woman he ignored is gone. Whether I'm alive or dead shouldn't matter to him anymore."

But that night, everything changed.

A messenger arrived from Blackwood territory carrying a second letter.

This one was addressed directly to me.

My hands trembled slightly as I opened it.

Elara,

If you are alive, I know you can hear me.

Come back.

I don't care about the dissolution anymore.

I don't care about Selene.

I just want you to come home.

I stared at the words for a long time.

Home.

The word used to mean the Blackwood estate.

It used to mean Adrian.

It used to mean Rowan.

Now it meant nothing.

I folded the letter and placed it on the table.

"Burn it," I said.

Ash didn't move.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

He took the letter and walked toward the fireplace.

As the flames consumed Adrian's words, I felt something inside me finally disappear.

The last thread connecting me to Blackwood had been cut.

But before the letter completely burned, Ash noticed something written on the back.

His eyes narrowed.

"Elara."

I turned toward him.

"What?"

He held the paper toward me.

There was a single sentence hidden beneath the fold.

Selene knows you are alive.

My blood ran cold.

"That's impossible."

"Apparently not."

Ash's expression became serious.

"And there's more."

He pointed to the bottom of the page.

She knows where you are.

Before I could speak, a howl sounded from outside the pack house.

It was followed by another.

Then another.

Ash immediately moved toward the door.

"Stay here."

"What happened?"

"Our border guards have spotted strangers near the northern boundary."

My wolf suddenly raised her head.

There was a scent in the air.

Faint, but familiar.

I walked to the window and looked toward the dark forest.

For one terrifying moment, I recognized it.

Selene.

She had come for me.

And this time, I wasn't going to let her decide what happened to my life.