Chapter 8
I looked up-and there he was.
On the yacht anchored just across the harbor, Alex stood frozen, his eyes locked on us like a predator who’d just found his prey. His jaw tightened. Then-crash. The glass in his hand exploded against the deck, shattering into a thousand pieces, drawing startled glances from the guests around him.
I turned away from the fire in his gaze.
“Let’s go, Luke,” I said softly, but firmly.
The cruise ship began to pull away, slowly slicing through the moonlit waves. But his eyes didn’t leave me-not for a second. His alpha aura, once magnetic, now felt suffocating… like something toxic trailing behind us, refusing to let go.
A few days later, I stopped by Luke’s company to deliver some documents.
As I pushed open his office door, my heart stopped.
Alex was there.
Flanked by a group of his enforcers, his scent thick in the air-dominant, bitter, uninvited. It was the weekend, and the office was nearly empty. The energy inside, however, was charged. Electric. Dangerous.
His wolf was near the surface. I could feel it.
“Fiona…” His voice was hoarse, nearly breaking.
I stood still, my expression icy.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
He took a step forward. His bloodshot eyes were sunken, his wolf aura unstable, fractured.
“Come home. Please.”
“The three of them… they’re gone. I ended it. I swear. Just give me one more—”
I laughed. Cold. Sharp.
“Home? Whose home, Alex?”
I raised my left hand, the moonlight catching the ring on my finger. It glinted like defiance.
“You seem to have forgotten-we severed our bond. You marked others. You made your choice.”
I tilted my chin.
“This is my pack now. This is my home. And as for you? Your den still reeks of those women you picked over me.”
His face drained of color. He staggered back, as if my words had landed like claws across his chest.
“Fiona… my wolf… it’s awakened now. I feel it. I know you’re my true mate. I didn’t before, but now-”
“Twenty days.”
I cut through his pleading with the sharpness of a blade.
“I was comatose in the infirmary for twenty damn days. Fighting for my life. And my father?”
My voice shook, but I refused to break.
“He was chained in a bathroom like an animal. And your men let him die there.”
+15 Bonus
His pupils contracted violently. His wolf energy faltered-stumbling back in shame.
“I… I didn’t know. Fiona, if I had-”
“Would you have saved him?” I snapped.
“Would you have undone it all? Would he be breathing now?”
Suddenly, he lunged toward me, grabbing my wrist with a desperation that reeked of guilt.
“Fiona, I was wrong! I haven’t shifted properly since you left. I can’t eat, can’t sleep. I need you. Now that I’ve sensed the bond- please, just one chance. Let me make it right!”
Before I could answer, Luke moved.
With the force of a true Alpha, he slammed Alex to the ground in a single blow. Alex’s body hit the floor with a thud that echoed through the room.
“Get your hands off my mate.”
His voice was laced with venom.
Then he turned to his guards.
“Break him.”
Fists flew. Claws bared. Blood splattered across the polished tiles. Alex curled into himself, shielding his ribs—but he never stopped looking at me. Even as his jaw cracked, even as his blood painted the floor.
Then-snap.
The sound of a leg breaking tore through the air.
Luke pulled me into his arms, his embrace firm, protective, his wolf form quivering beneath his skin.
“If the Elders didn’t forbid it,” he growled into my hair, “I would’ve ripped out his heart for what he did to you.”
I gripped his hand tightly, feeling his claws retract at my touch.
“He’s not worth it,” I whispered. “Don’t let him stain your soul.”
Luke turned to security, his voice a lethal command.
“From this moment on, he’s banned from this company. If he gets within a hundred feet-attack first, ask later. I want him to remember his place.”
Behind us, Alex was dragged out like discarded prey. A long smear of crimson trailed behind his broken form.
The next time I saw him was at a high-profile shifter gala.
He wore an expensive suit that couldn’t hide his decay-his limp, the hollowness in his eyes, the broken aura of an Alpha who’d lost everything.
I was chatting in the moonlit garden when I caught sight of him, limping toward me like a ghost chasing the only light it remembered.
“Fiona.”
My eyes narrowed. I turned without hesitation.
“Fiona, wait-please.” His voice cracked like brittle ice.
I stopped. Turned.
“What do you want?”
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he raised one hand and gestured behind him.
And then I saw them-three trembling, familiar figures, being dragged forward by guards.
Jessica. Elsa. Catherine.
They dropped to their knees before me. Head bowed. Bodies shaking.
Like traitors awaiting judgment from the Luna they tried to destroy.
