- Aria

My eyes snapped open to the sound of my twins screaming their tiny lungs out. The nursery camera on my phone was glowing at two in the freaking morning.

Ugh! Not again.

I let out a heavy sigh that felt like it took a piece shit of me with it.

“Luca, they’re crying again,” I called out with annoyance, even though I already knew he wasn’t home.

Messy-haired and crooked-shirted, and my boobs aching like crazy because of breastfeeding, I swung my legs out of the big, empty bed. The sheets were cool on my side, untouched since Luca left the mansion a year ago. He hadn't come back yet. Probably won't be until tomorrow morning at our second anniversary party, just in time for the pack run and to pretend we were a happy family for a few hours.

I padded down the silent hall and dashed into the nursery. If the twins didn't make noise tonight, I felt like I was the only ghost living here.

The twins, Adrian and Aurora, were standing up in their cribs, their teary little faces scrunched and red with misery. Their howls weren't just cries but were full-blown wolf cub whines, a sound that could cut glass and my patience simultaneously.

I rushed to the crib, trying to figure out who was the louder one tonight.

"Shhh, my little monsters," I murmured, scooping up Aurora first. She had that great smell of milk and baby powder, and her tiny body felt fragile against mine. "Mom's got you."

Adrian wailed louder, a clear protest at not being picked up first. Typical boy. Seriously, even as a two-year-old, he's a little alpha in the making, demanding all the attention.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you, Your Highness," I said, lifting him with my other arm.

I was the Luna, but honestly, I felt more like the live-in babysitter, doing everything on my own.

Raising two toddlers at once was not easy, but I was getting good at it. I carried them to the kitchen, even though my back screamed in protest.

In the kitchen, I warmed up some milk while rocking both twins. They quieted down while they drank, their tiny bodies finally relaxing in my arms.

Silver, my wolf, stirred in my mind. Her presence was a constant comfort, even if I couldn't shift yet. She was empathetic, more so than any wolf I had ever heard of, and she could feel the twins' distress as keenly as I could.

"The tension is getting to them," she murmured in my head. "The pack is uneasy. Luca is too. They can feel it."

"And what about me?" I shot back, my mental voice sharper than I intended. "Do I get to be uneasy, Silver? Or am I supposed to just smile and play the perfect little Luna for a husband who never wants me?"

Silver stayed quiet for a second, but I could feel her warm, knowing presence buzzing in the back of my head. "You've always been stronger than you realize, Aria."

"I'm tired of being strong," I whispered to the empty room, the words swallowed by the silence. "I just want to be happy."

But in StormRidge, happiness felt like a currency I didn't have.

I looked out the window at the vast forest surrounding the StormRidge pack lands and wondered where Luca was now. Was he with Ivy? The thought sent a bitter taste in my mouth. Probably laughing with her and touching her. Probably giving her the version of himself I never got. All the things a Luna was supposed to have… but somehow I was the one left alone in this house with babies on my hips and silence in my bed.

I pushed the thought away. It didn't matter anymore.

I'd known what I had to do for months, but tonight, that choice became absolutely set in stone and final. I was done with this loveless, hollow life. Done with playing house for a man who couldn't stand the sight of me.

An unexpected heat that forced us together, leading to a pregnancy that wasn’t supposed to happen, and a Council mandate that didn’t care about feelings—that’s how I ended up married to Luca Stormbourne, Alpha of StormRidge Pack, the man everyone believed was destined for another she-wolf, while I was never meant to be anything more than the mistake that complicated his future.

For two years, I had endured the cold shoulder, the public neglect, the whispers of the pack members who still saw me as the wolf who trapped their Alpha with an accidental pregnancy. But now, I had my children to think about. They deserved to be raised in a place where their mother wasn't a pariah, where they weren't the children of a Luna who was never wanted.

After an hour, the twins finished their milk and started getting sleepy. Adrian buried his face in my neck, and I could feel his warm, milky breath. Aurora was already deep asleep and was a total dead weight in my arms.

As I carried them back to their cribs, my heart just ached with how much I loved and wanted to protect them. I tucked the blankets around them with gentle care as I watched their little chests rise and fall.

Then, I went back to my room and checked my phone. There was an unread message from Ivy Castemont.

"Happy anniversary, Luna. I hope you don’t mind that I’m the one he’s celebrating with."

I stared at the words for five full seconds, clenching my jaw so tight it hurt.

"Wow, classy," I spat out, feeling a bitter taste in my mouth.

I deleted the message and took a deep breath. But before I could spiral too much into my own anger and hurt, another message popped up, this one from Nova.

"Need me to burn anything for you tonight? Anything at all? Just say the word."

Despite everything, a small smile touched my lips.

"No, thanks. But I'm taking you up on that offer soon."

"Good. I've got the gasoline ready."

I put the phone down, feeling a little better. I wasn't completely alone. I had Nova and my kids.

But this life, this marriage, it was suffocating me. Tomorrow, at our anniversary party, I'll end it for good. I would tell Luca I wanted to sever our bond. I'd finally ask the Council for an annulment on the grounds of an unwilling union.

The thought of leaving him was terrifying, but the thought of staying was worse.

I walked to the closet and pulled out a small, worn-out bag from my teenage years. I started packing a few essentials, just in case. A change of clothes, a toothbrush, a photo of me and Nova from before I came to StormRidge, and a small, wooden wolf figurine that my mother had given me before she died.

Suddenly, the front door downstairs slammed open. Keys hit the floor, and I heard heavy footsteps coming right up the stairs.

My wolf, Silver, went on high alert inside my head, building a low growl in my chest.

I froze, and for a second I just stared at the hallway, wondering who the hell would be coming into the house at this hour. My heart hammered against my ribs as I realized with a jolt that the footsteps were too heavy to be anyone else but Luca.

My husband. He was home early.

I quickly stuffed the half-packed bag under the bed and sat on the edge of the mattress, trying to look like I had just woken up. My mind was racing. What was he doing here? He wasn't supposed to be back until morning.

My bedroom door was thrown open with so much force that it hit the wall.

Luca stood there, a dark silhouette in the dim hallway light. The moment he walked in, his pine and whiskey smell just filled the air and knocked the wind out of me.

He leaned against the doorframe like he owned the whole damn world and had just decided to stroll back into mine. His chest was heaving; he looked furious, exhausted, and smelled like booze.

He stared at me without saying anything for a moment. Finally, he broke the quiet with a low and menacing voice.

“You’re packing.”

I blinked, clenching my jaw tight. “Wow. How observant for someone who disappeared for a year.”

He stepped inside, closing the door behind him with a slow shove that somehow felt louder than the slam.

“Don’t do that,” he said.

“Do what? State facts?” I let out a sharp, totally humorless laugh. “I haven’t seen you since the twins’ first birthday. I think I've definitely had the right to notice you exist.”

Luca ran a hand through his hair, pacing once like a caged wolf. “Aria, you know why I had to leave.”

“Do I?” I snapped. “Because all I know is you left without a goodbye, without a message, and even without checking if your kids were alive.”

Something dark flashed in his eyes, but I just didn't care anymore.

“You think I didn’t want to come back?” he growled.

I rose from the bed with every nerve in my body screaming. “No, I think you didn’t care to.”

Luca took a step closer, towering over me, and Silver bristled inside my head.

“You think I didn’t want to see them?” His voice cracked. “You think I didn’t think about them every damn day?”

I let out a cold laugh. “Oh, poor you. It must’ve been exhausting to think about them from afar. But I was the one doing all the work: feeding, changing, soothing, training, and lying about where their Daddy was for a whole year."

His jaw clenched until I thought his teeth might shatter. “I stayed away because I had to.”

“No, you stayed away to be with your old crush because you wanted to,” I countered. “Don't pretend things were different just because you've been sober long enough to remember you have a family.”

His eyes darkened. “You think I was with Ivy all this time?”

I shrugged. “I think you were with anyone but us.”

Luca snatched the edge of the dresser, clenching his hand so hard the wood started to creak. “Aria… stop talking like this.”

“So what? You disappear for a year, and I’m supposed to greet you with a welcome-home kiss and a casserole?” I snapped. “What do you want me to say, Luca? That I missed you? That I waited? That I wished for you to walk through that door?”

His voice dropped to a whisper, raw and jagged. “Did you?”

I felt my throat tighten, but I kept my face straight. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

Luca looked at me then. Perhaps this was the first time he really looked at me. His eyes swept over my rumpled pajamas, the dark circles under my eyes, the messy hair I didn’t have time to care about, and the bitterness in my voice.

And for the first time, he looked genuinely scared.

“Aria… what are you planning to do?”

I held his stare. “Tomorrow, in front of the Council, I’m going to ask to sever our bond.”

His breath punched out of him like he’d been stabbed.

“No.” The word popped out instantly. “No, you’re not.”

“I am determined.”

He shook his head and took a step toward me. “No one severs a Council-forged bond. Besides, it’s against my grandfather’s wish, and I won’t dishonor him.”

“I’ll be the first.”

His hand darted out and caught my wrist. It wasn't rough, but I couldn't pull away.

“You’re not leaving me.”

I kept staring, absolutely refusing to back down. “You left me first.”

“If you ask the Council to end us…” His nostrils flared, his wolf pushing beneath his skin. “I will drag you off that stage myself.”

I ripped my wrist from his grip. “Then tomorrow, we’ll find out who I’m more afraid of—you or living like this for the rest of my life.”

Luca’s chest rose and fell like he was trying not to shift right there.

“Don’t you dare!”

I stared at him, the man who had been gone for a year and still somehow expected me to stay frozen in place waiting.

“I already did.”

And for the first time since the day we were forced into marriage, Luca Stormbourne looked like he might break.

****