CHAPTER FIVE

Serena’s POV

The room went still.

For a heartbeat, I didn’t feel my own pulse. The air was thick with the scent of betrayal, Nathan's musk, Clara’s perfume, and the faint, bitter edge of my own heartbreak.

Lily stirred beneath my skin, her growl low and dangerous. Kill him.

“No,” I whispered to her, my hand trembling. “We don’t do that.”

Then let me. Her voice was pure fury, claws scraping against my control. Let me rip his throat for what he’s done.

Nathan stepped toward me, bare chest gleaming in the lamplight, his eyes sharp and commanding like nothing had happened. “Serena ”

“Don’t.” My voice shook, but the power beneath it didn’t. “Don’t you dare say my name.”

He froze mid step, sensing the shift in me. My wolf was rising, hurt, betrayed, protective. The air pulsed with my energy, faint silver ripples tracing down my arms.

Clara clutched the blanket to her chest, eyes wide. “Serena, please, it’s not ”

“Not what?” I snapped. “Not you in my bed? Not his scent all over you?”

Lily snarled inside me, her voice breaking through my chest. She lied. She poisoned us both. She’s been waiting for this.

I blinked against the tears burning my eyes. “You planned this, didn’t you?”

Clara shook her head, trembling. “No! It just it just happened ”

“Liar!” Lily’s snarl slipped through me before I could stop it. My voice came out layered mine and hers overlapping in a terrifying echo.

Nathan’s gaze hardened. “Get control of yourself.”

That broke something inside me. “Control?” I whispered. “You want to talk about control? You tried to control everything, my body, my choices, our child.”

He flinched, just once, then his jaw locked. “I did what I had to do.”

“For who? The pack? Or her?”

His silence was answer enough.

Lily raged. End him. Tear him apart. He’s not your mate anymore!

“No,” I murmured again, clutching my stomach. The faint throb of the pup inside reminded me what was at stake. “He’s not worth our blood.”

Nathan’s tone turned cold, authoritative. “You’re still my Luna, Serena. Whether you like it or not.”

Something inside me snapped clean in two.

“I’d rather be rogue,” I said.

He blinked. “You don’t mean that.”

“I do.” My voice dropped to a whisper, sharp as glass. “I reject you, Nathan Voss. Alpha of Silvercrest. As mate, as husband, as bond.”

The world tilted.

A surge of power ripped through me, hot, violent, tearing. My mark burned against my collarbone, the silver ring of bond light flaring once before it shattered into dust.

Nathan staggered backward, hand clutching his chest. “Serena stop ”

Lily howled inside me, her voice breaking with pain and freedom all at once. Let it burn!

I screamed as the rejection hit, the pain raw and divine. It was like fire and ice colliding in my veins, breaking every thread that tied us together.

Clara gasped, backing away. “Nathan!”

He groaned, falling to his knees, but I could barely see him. The room spun, my vision dimming at the edges.

Lily tried to steady me. Breathe, Serena! The pup protects the pup!

I clutched my stomach, trembling. “I can’t Lily, I can’t ”

Yes, you can! she growled, her voice fierce, wrapping around my fading consciousness like a shield. We’ll survive him. We always survive.

The last thing I saw before everything went dark was Nathan’s face, shocked, angry, but underneath it, afraid.

And then nothing.

When I woke up again, my body ached all over. The room was empty. The sheets smelled wrong, his scent still clinging to everything like rot.

My wolf whimpered softly inside me. He’s gone.

“Good,” I whispered, though my voice cracked. “He can keep the pack. I’ll keep my soul.”

Outside, thunder rumbled. A storm had gathered again wild, heavy, alive.

And through the window, far in the distance, I could swear I felt something else.

A pull. A thread. A heartbeat that wasn’t Nathan’s.

Lucien.

The bond I had rejected began to fade, but another older, darker, waiting stirred awake inside my chest.

Lily’s tone softened. He felt you.

I turned my face to the rain, tears hot against my skin. “Then maybe the Goddess hasn’t finished punishing me yet.”

But deep down, I knew the truth.

This wasn’t punishment.

It was the beginning.

Pain.

That was the first thing I felt raw, burning pain that pulsed through every vein like molten silver.

The bond had snapped, but its ghost still lingered.

My body convulsed once, twice, before I gasped awake. Cold sweat slicked my skin, the sheets twisted around me. Every breath hurts. Every heartbeat throbbed like a wound that refused to close.

Lily whimpered inside me, weak but alive. You broke him, she whispered. And he nearly broke us.

I tried to move, but a sharp ache in my chest made me cry out. The air smelled of storm and ashes the aftertaste of a shattered mate link.

The door burst open. Nathan stepped in, half dressed, eyes bloodshot and wild. His scent hit me like a wave of ice.

“Serena!”

I flinched back, every nerve in me screaming. “Don’t touch me.”

He froze mid step. For a moment, he just stared, the Alpha façade cracked wide enough to show some human panic. “You rejected me,” he said hoarsely. “Do you even know what that does?”

“Yes.” I forced the word out through clenched teeth. “It ends us.”

He raked a hand through his hair, pacing. “It doesn’t end anything. It just leaves us both bleeding.”

“Good,” I whispered. “Then now you know what it feels like.”

He stopped, jaw tightening. “You think this makes you free? You think you can walk away and raise that pup under my name?”

Lily snarled beneath my skin. Our pup, not his!

I bared my teeth in something close to a smile. “It’s not your name that matters anymore, Nathan. You gave that up the moment you betrayed it.”

His voice hardened, layered with Alpha command. “I am still your Alpha.”

“You lost that too.”

For a second, his control cracked. He grabbed the edge of the dresser, knuckles white, fighting the invisible pull between us. The bond might be broken, but the echo of it still burns under our skin.

He took a breath, steadier now. “Listen to me, Serena. I’m offering you something that might save both of us.”

I laughed at a brittle, humorless sound. “Save us? You tried to kill our child.”

He didn’t flinch. “Because I thought it wasn’t strong enough. But if the healer was wrong, if the pup survives, fine. Have it. Raise it.”

The way he said it made bile rise in my throat.

“Then what?” I whispered.

“Then you stay as my wife.” His eyes locked on mine, cold, deliberate. “You’ll still be Luna. You’ll live here. But you’ll stop pretending this child binds us.”

I stared at him, unable to breathe. “And what about her?”

His silence told me enough.

“She stays too,” I said, voice trembling.

He nodded. “Clara will remain in the house until she gives me a child. After that ”

“Stop.” My hand flew to my chest, as if I could hold my breaking heart in place. “You want me to stay and watch another woman carry the pup you actually want?”

He exhaled, frustration darkening his eyes. “It’s politics, Serena. You and I both know the Moon Goddess made a mistake pairing us. I’m giving you a way to keep your title and your life.”

Lily erupted inside me, pure fire. Rip out his throat! How dare he!

I trembled, her rage vibrating through me. “You’re giving me nothing but humiliation.”

“Better that than exile.”

I laughed bitterly. “You don’t have the power to exile me anymore.”

“I do,” he snapped, voice echoing with command. “I’m still Alpha of Silvercrest.”

“Then rule your pack,” I said quietly. “But you will never rule me again.”

The words rolled out on instinct, no power, no ceremony yet the air shifted. The remnants of the mate bond shattered completely, a final spark of light flickering between us before it went dark.

Nathan stumbled, breath hitching, hand over his heart. “Serena ”

I turned away, tears stinging my eyes. “You made your choice, Nathan. Now live with it.”

Lily’s voice was low, proud. We did it.

I nodded weakly. “Then why does it hurt so much?”

Because you loved him, she whispered. And because your heart still remembers.

I gathered what little strength I had and headed for the door. My legs shook, but I didn’t stop. Nathan didn’t follow.

Outside, the night wind hit my face cold, clean, alive.

Somewhere far beyond the Silvercrest borders, a wolf howled. It wasn’t Nathan’s call.

Lily lifted her head, ears pricking. That’s him.

“Lucien,” I breathed.

The sound pulsed through me like a heartbeat answering another.

And for the first time since everything fell apart, I felt the faintest flicker of warmth.

Not safe. Not love.

Just… the promise of something waiting in the dark.