“Thank you, Council Lucius.” Michael ended the call and slowly set the phone down, exhaling as if he had been holding his breath for minutes.-
“Michael… are you sure about this?” Kathy’s voice broke the silence, filled with hesitation. She turned to face him, her eyes clouded with worry. “If what happened comes out if the Council learns the truth – your father will be in serious trouble.
What he did… ordering us to disregard your bond with Elaine and continue with our mating… it will all be questioned.”
“I don’t care about him,” Michael said sharply, his jaw tightening. “What he did to us was wrong. If he had just let us make our own decisions if he’d let us speak to Elaine before everything fell apart – maybe we wouldn’t be in this mess.”
He turned away, pacing toward the window where the late afternoon light cast long shadows across the room. “Maybe Calvin wouldn’t be living in constant fear of losing his mate if Roselyn decides not to accept him. Maybe you wouldn’t have to hide my mark under your clothes every day… as if it’s something shameful. A mark that should have been a symbol of pride, of unity – but instead, it became a reminder of failure and betrayal.”
Kathy’s eyes glistened with tears. She looked down, her hand instinctively brushing over the faint mark on her neck. Every time she saw it in the mirror, she could still hear Elaine’s voice broken and cold- uttering those last words that haunted her. The mark was more than a bond. It was their punishment, their eternal reminder of the pup itl we had taken from Elaine, and the trust they had destroyed.
A knock broke through the heavy silence. Michael turned, his expression hardening as Calvin entered the room. His clothes were dusty from patrol, and the tension in his posture said more than his words could.
“I heard Elaine is here,” Calvin said, his voice low but edged with unease.
Michael nodded. “Yes. She’s here for Roselyn. I think she plans to talk to her about your mating.”
Calvin exhaled, the sound trembling. The worry etched into his face was unmistakable. “So I have to be ready… to be rejected,” he said quietly, his eyes dropping to the floor.
“What do you mean?” Kathy asked, stepping forward. “Did Roselyn say something?”
Calvin shook his head. “No. But think about it, Kathy – after everything Elaine went through here… after what we did to her – do you really think she’ll tell Roselyn to accept me? To stay with a mate from this pack?”
His voice cracked slightly. “If I were her, I wouldn’t.”
Kathy frowned and moved closer to him, her tone firm but kind. “Elaine isn’t like that. She’s fair, Calvin. Whatever else happened, she’s not someone who lets bitterness cloud her judgment. She won’t let her pain decide Roselyn’s future – not if she can help it.”
??/p>
Calvin looked up, his eyes full of uncertainty. He wanted to believe her, but doubt was a heavy weight on his chest. He sighed and murmured a quiet prayer to the Moon Goddess – for Roselyn’s heart, for Elaine’s forgiveness, and for strength to face whatever came next.
“So what happens now?” Calvin asked, eager to change the topic before the silence suffocated them all.
“I’ve contacted Council Lucius,” Michael replied, his voice calm but laced with determination. “He’ll be here tomorrow.”
Calvin’s eyes widened. “You… called Lucius? Why?”-
“When I saw Elaine earlier,” Michael said slowly, “I felt something the bond. It’s faint, but it’s still there. When I marked Kathy, I felt it break… or I thought I did. But it’s not gone.
I want to know why. I need answers.”
Calvin stared at him, disbelief mixing with fear. “But if you tell Lucius what happened – your father-“
:..
“I don’t care!” Michael snapped, his voice echoing across the room. His fists clenched at his sides. “I stopped caring about my father’s pride a long time ago. He made his choices, and I made mine.
But I won’t let his mistakes define this pack any longer.”
The room fell silent again. Outside, the wind whispered against the windowpanes, carrying with it the faint scent of rain.
For the first time in years, Michael felt the stirrings of something he had buried long ago the need to face the truth, no matter the cost.
??/p>
The next day, Michael waited in his office, staring blankly at the papers spread across his desk. The morning light filtered through the tall windows of the pack house, but it brought no warmth-only a pale, distant glow that mirrored the emptiness gnawing at his chest. He had been waiting for Council Lucius since dawn, replaying everything that had happened in his mind, searching for answers that refused to come.
He didn’t understand what was happening to him. Ever since that day-the day he marked Kathy-something inside him had shattered. He felt the bond break, sharp and unnatural, like a thread being torn from his very soul. And then came the chaos. Elaine’s painful cry still echoed in his ears, a sound so haunting that it visited him even in sleep.
The image of her collapsed form in Darius arms, the scent of blood and anguish, had burned itself into his memory.
Then the doctor’s grim face, the quiet voice that followed: “She suffered a miscarriage… she doesn’t want to see anyone except Alpha Darius.”
That sentence had changed everything.
If that wasn’t enough, Darius himself emerged later, his expression heavy with something between sorrow and fury. He had informed them that Elaine had requested a transfer to their pack. His father had tried to refuse, claiming it would be improper for one of their ranked wolves to leave, but Darius had been unyielding. When Darius wanted something, there was no stopping him.
Since Elaine’s departure, nothing had been the same. The pack felt different-colder, emptier. The warmth that used to fill their home was gone. His relationship with his parents had become strained to the point of breaking.
By the time he ascended as Alpha, Michael had made his decision. He relocated his parents -and Kathy’s-to the other side of the territory, far from the pack house. No one entered his home without his permission, not even family. His mother had pleaded with him to reconsider, tears streaming down her face as she begged for understanding. But Michael had steeled himself.
There was nothing left to reconsider. His father’s ambition had destroyed too many lives.
He had gotten what he thought he wanted-Kathy as his mate, a future, a family-but at what cost? Their lives were built on betrayal and guilt. Kathy had lost her sister, her confidante, her best friend. The bond between the two sisters, once so unbreakable, had withered because of obedience to his father’s will. And now, even the story of their mating-a tale that should have been one of love and destiny-was tainted.
How could he ever tell his son, Leo, the story of how his parents came to be, when every part of it was a reminder of the pain they caused? How could he teach his son about honor, about love and the sacredness of the mating bond, when his own bond was born from deceit?
And then there was Nathan. Elaine and Darius’s son.
Michael couldn’t explain it, but something inside him knew. He could feel a connection-a pull that went beyond reason or blood. When he saw the boy, something stirred in him, something that felt achingly familiar. It was the same instinct, the same warmth he felt toward Leo. A part of him wanted to deny it, to dismiss it as guilt, but deep down, he couldn’t.
Nathan felt like his.
A knock broke through his thoughts.
“Come in,” he said, his voice low but steady.
Calvin, his Beta, stepped inside. “Alpha, Council Lucius is at the gate and will be here in a few minutes.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.