Sera’s POV:Mom got up and I heard her walk to the door, heard it open and then Luna Skye's voice drifted up the stairs soft and careful.

"Samantha, I made some tea. How is she doing?"

"Thank you but I'm fine." Mom's voice had an edge to it I'd never heard before, sharp and cold. "She's holding strong."

"I was hoping to sit with her for a while, to see if I could be of help or comfort."

"I don't think that's a good idea. Sera needs her family right now."

"Samantha." Luna Skye's voice went high and tight. "I'd like to think of myself as family. We've been close since we mated with Kieran and John."

"I would have said the same yesterday but after what your son did to my baby I think we need to rethink certain things. I need to protect Sera and we both know the pack won't protect her the way they would someone who wasn't rejected by the future Alpha. The least I can do is make sure she's around the right people."

"I love her like a daughter."

"But not enough to fight for her. Skye, you are my Luna and I will respect and obey you in all things but this. My daughter is out of bounds to anyone from your family from this day forward."

The door slammed. Footsteps pounded back up the stairs and the bed shook when Mom sat down hard, her hand going to my hair but her fingers trembled so bad against my scalp I could feel each shake.

Hours crawled by. The sun came up. I didn't move throughout the night except to breathe and even that hurt because my chest felt too small for air, like my lungs had shrunk down to nothing overnight.

"I don't know what to do, Ser."

Ash's voice pulled me back and I realized Mom had left at some point, that time had slipped away while I'd been drowning inside my own head, and now my brother sat on the edge of my bed with his face in his hands.

"I've been with Cade all night." His words came out muffled through his fingers. "Trying to talk sense into him, trying to make him see what he's throwing away but it's like talking to a wall, like he can't hear anything except his own voice saying you're not strong enough."

My stomach twisted. All night Ash had been fighting for me while I'd thought he'd chosen Cade.

He dropped his hands and looked at me and his eyes were red and swollen. "I kept telling him there are different kinds of strength, that you have so many of them, but he won't listen and I don't know what else to do."

I reached for his hand and squeezed because there was nothing else I could do, no words that would fix this or make it better.

"Look at me, I'm supposed to be comforting you and I'm the one falling apart." He tried to smile but it came out wrong, twisted and broken. "The gods know I've tried but I can't..."

His whole body went rigid in that way that meant mindlink and I knew before he even looked at me that Cade was calling him back.

"I'm not going," he said but I pushed at his shoulder hard.

"Ser, no, I'm staying."

I pushed harder and shook my head because he couldn't choose me over his best friend forever, couldn't keep picking sides when both sides would tear him apart.

"Let me at least wake Dad."

"No, let him sleep. I'm fine, I'm just going to sleep anyway." I mindlinked the lie to him and watched his face shift through doubt before landing on reluctant acceptance.

"Okay but I'll be back soon, I promise."

He left and I counted his footsteps down the stairs, out the door, into his car that started with a roar and faded into nothing.

The house went quiet except for breathing from my parents' room, deep and even in sleep.

I sat up. My legs shook when I stood but I made them work, made them carry me to my closet where I pulled out my backpack and started shoving clothes inside without looking at what I grabbed because it didn't matter, none of it mattered except getting out before I destroyed what was left of my family.

Downstairs in the kitchen I filled another bag with food that wouldn't go bad, my hands moving fast and quiet because I'd spent eighteen years learning how to be invisible in a house full of werewolves.

Out to my car. Back inside for Mom's blanket. To my desk where I stared at blank paper until the words finally came.

Dear Mom, Dad and Ash. Please don't be angry with the Alpha family. I'm leaving so you can live your lives the way they were meant to be. Don't find me. You raised me well. I love you always.

I put the note on my bed with my keys. Went to the garage for the camping gear. Loaded the tent into the trunk. Checked everything twice because there wouldn't be a second chance at this, no coming back once I left.

Standing in the driveway I looked at the house one last time, at the window where my room was, at the front door where I'd run in and out a million times, at the porch where Dad used to sit and wait for me to come home from school.

My hands wouldn't stop shaking when I opened the car door. Wouldn't stop when I put it in reverse and started backing down the driveway because this was it, this was me choosing to leave everyone I loved to save them from the mess I'd made just by existing.

The wheels crunched over gravel. The house got smaller in my rearview mirror. The street opened up in front of me empty and dark except for streetlights casting yellow pools on the pavement.

I put the car in drive.

My foot hovered over the gas pedal and for one second, just one, I thought about turning around, about going back inside and crawling into bed and letting them figure out what to do with me.

But then I pressed down and the car lurched forward and I was moving, leaving, gone.