Dante’s POV ~ Flashback When Cyrus and I first met, we weren’t exactly on good terms. He was the son of a Beta—a literal spoiled brat who thought the world revolved around him. I, on the other hand, was just a low-ranked trainee for the special forces unit of the pack, trying to prove myself to earn a higher rank. I was only 13 years old then and had been one of the few to survive a brutal training session where we had to hunt each other like literal prey. The memory of that day still made me feel uneasy. The fear, the adrenaline, the feeling of being hunted, and having to fight for my life. It wasn’t really the worst situation—after all, I had my first kill when I was only 7 years old. But still, I lost a lot of close friends during that training session. Friends who had become like family to me, being an orphan and all. At the end of the training, I ranked third out of twenty-five trainees left, with a body count of seven. Seven lives taken by my hands. Some I barely knew. Oth
Dante POV ~ Flashback I hid behind the bush, trying to control my breathing as my heart pounded in my chest like I had just fought a war. Cyrus was staring down at me, blinking in confusion. “Now, what are you doing?” Before I could respond, I heard Amaya’s voice. “What is it now? Have you come to annoy me again?” Her voice sounded like that of an angel—sweet and melodious but also filled with irritation, like she was already used to Cyrus being a pain in her ass. From my hiding spot, I could barely see her face between the leaves, but I knew she was standing just a few feet away. I shook my head frantically at Cyrus, mouthing, Don’t you dare say anything. But he raised a brow and looked at me like he was clearly enjoying this. “Who’s there?” Amaya asked, and I froze. Cyrus glanced down at me, smirked, then turned back to her. “No one.” “I swear I heard something.” Cyrus shrugged. “You’re just hearing things. Maybe you should get your ears checked.” I heard her scoff as
Amaya POV“I want a divorce,” I said, but there was no response.“I said I want a divorce,” I repeated louder this time, clenching my fists at my sides.Alpha Dante finally looked up from his desk, staring at me like I had come to throw another tantrum. “You are tired. Go and have a nap or something,” he said dismissively. I bit down on my lips and, in annoyance, slammed the divorce papers I had secretly gathered on his desk. “What is this?” he muttered in irritation, flipping through the papers. “These are the divorce papers. I have my signature already on them. All that’s left is your signature.” His brow furrowed, and his jaw clenched. Then suddenly, he tore the papers into shreds, causing me to gasp. “What… what do you think you are doing? I spent months gathering that… why would you…”“I will not divorce!” His voice thundered, causing me to flinch. He tossed the shredded papers across the room. “You are my wife. The Luna of the Moonshade Pack. How dare you ask for a div
I woke up the next morning with a very high fever, but I still managed to get out of bed. Outside my bedroom window, I could hear chants from protesters who wanted me gone from the pack. This had become a routine; they did it every morning until they were chased away by the guards. I got dressed and headed downstairs to join Dante for breakfast. Although I didn’t want to, he had insisted, not giving me much of a choice. So, against my will, I had to see him every morning before he left the packhouse. Today was different, though. Kara was sitting at the breakfast table, smiling as she poured Dante a cup of coffee. “Good morning, Amaya,” she said, as if she wasn’t sitting in my house, at my table, sharing coffee with my husband while I sat at the far end, away from both of them. “Good morning,” I muttered, keeping my eyes down. Dante, on the other hand, didn’t look up. He was busy reading something on his tablet. “Amaya, you look pale,” she added just as I was about to take a bi
The next days that followed, I started noticing Dante more often in the house than before. Although we never truly had a proper conversation, he wasn’t yelling like he used to. “My husband has been really cold and distant lately.” I overheard a conversation between two maids while I was walking down the hallway. They were whispering, but I could hear them clearly. “Do you have a child yet?” the older maid asked while the younger one shook her head. “I wanted to wait, but now… I don’t know. Maybe it was a mistake. He’s barely home, and when he is, it feels like we’re strangers.” “Ah, that’s just what happens with newlyweds. Men get restless, but trust me, once you give him a child, everything will change. He’ll return to his loving self. That’s how it’s always been.” I froze upon hearing those words. A child? Was that the answer? But Dante had never asked for one, which is why I never even considered it. But now… maybe… just maybe. That night, I found mysel
Dante’s POVI was at a pack meeting when I got the call that Amaya had been stabbed—by not just anyone, but one of my own men.“What?” I barked into the phone, startling the Alphas around me. My heart pounded violently in my chest, and for the first time in years, true fear gripped me.I left immediately, shifting into my wolf and racing toward the hospital. By the time I arrived, I was breathing heavily, and my hands were shaking.The doctor was waiting for me.“The wound was deep,” he started. “She lost a lot of blood. It will take at least a month for her to fully recover.”I frowned. “A month?” That didn’t make sense. With her wolf, she should be healed in a week at most.“There’s… something else.” The doctor hesitated.“Spit it out,” I growled.“Your wife was weeks pregnant, Alpha… but she lost the child due to the trauma.”Everything stopped.A ringing in my ear drowned out all other sound, and my eyes turned red. The doctor’s mouth was still moving, but I couldn’t hear him.Pre
Dante POV Five Years Ago – Flashback “Did you sleep well?” I asked, running my fingers through Amaya’s silky hair as her head rested on my lap. “No,” she pouted, turning her face up to look at me. I smirked, brushing a loose strand behind her ear. “And why is that, princess?” She huffed dramatically. “Because you weren’t there.” It had only been a short mission—three days at the border—but she acted as if I had been gone for months. I chuckled, trailing my fingers down her jaw. “I told you I’d come back.” “You’re always leaving,” she muttered, crossing her arms. “And one day, you won’t.” My smirk faltered. Amaya was the Alpha’s only daughter, raised in the safety of the packhouse, protected like an egg. She had never known real war, real danger. And yet, she feared losing me more than anything. I gently tilted her chin up, forcing her to meet my gaze. “I will always come back to you.” She blinked, her emerald eyes searching mine for a moment before she whispered, “Promise?
Dante POV"I can't believe she would try to kill herself," Kara said, sitting in the passenger seat of my car as we drove toward the beach."I don't know... she never showed any signs."If anything, she was like a machine. Showing no emotion, yet so desperate to escape. That was all she talked about—divorce, freedom, leaving the pack.But killing herself? That didn't seem like her. The Amaya I knew had been scared of death."She's weak," Kara scoffed, crossing her arms. "I told you from the start, Dante. She never belonged here."My grip on the steering wheel tightened."She wasn't weak," I muttered.Kara let out a humorless laugh. "You're defending her now?"My jaw clenched, but I didn't respond.Because the image of her pale, lifeless body wouldn't leave my mind.Had she really considered that?Had I pushed her that far?"She survived three years with me," I said, taking a sharp turn. "That's not weak."Kara rolled her eyes. "Whatever. At least she didn't succeed. That's all that ma
Dante POV ~ Flashback I hid behind the bush, trying to control my breathing as my heart pounded in my chest like I had just fought a war. Cyrus was staring down at me, blinking in confusion. “Now, what are you doing?” Before I could respond, I heard Amaya’s voice. “What is it now? Have you come to annoy me again?” Her voice sounded like that of an angel—sweet and melodious but also filled with irritation, like she was already used to Cyrus being a pain in her ass. From my hiding spot, I could barely see her face between the leaves, but I knew she was standing just a few feet away. I shook my head frantically at Cyrus, mouthing, Don’t you dare say anything. But he raised a brow and looked at me like he was clearly enjoying this. “Who’s there?” Amaya asked, and I froze. Cyrus glanced down at me, smirked, then turned back to her. “No one.” “I swear I heard something.” Cyrus shrugged. “You’re just hearing things. Maybe you should get your ears checked.” I heard her scoff as
Dante’s POV ~ Flashback When Cyrus and I first met, we weren’t exactly on good terms. He was the son of a Beta—a literal spoiled brat who thought the world revolved around him. I, on the other hand, was just a low-ranked trainee for the special forces unit of the pack, trying to prove myself to earn a higher rank. I was only 13 years old then and had been one of the few to survive a brutal training session where we had to hunt each other like literal prey. The memory of that day still made me feel uneasy. The fear, the adrenaline, the feeling of being hunted, and having to fight for my life. It wasn’t really the worst situation—after all, I had my first kill when I was only 7 years old. But still, I lost a lot of close friends during that training session. Friends who had become like family to me, being an orphan and all. At the end of the training, I ranked third out of twenty-five trainees left, with a body count of seven. Seven lives taken by my hands. Some I barely knew. Oth
Dante’s POV For over a week, I had been occupied with so much work in the pack that I barely had time to rest an arm. All of this, I did on purpose as a way to distract myself from thinking about Amaya—her face and the way she glared as she yanked her hand away from me. I didn’t mean to hurt her. “But you did,” Mako taunted. “Shut up,” I snapped back. “It was a mistake, okay?” “Whatever you say,” he grunted. I sighed in frustration, running a hand through my hair before returning my attention to the files in front of me. We had been taking in more rogue pups than usual, and it had been challenging to integrate them into our packs—worse, finding them a stable home since the orphanage was getting overcrowded. It was already difficult scanning through each individual file, trying to stop myself from thinking about Amaya—yet here I was, also dealing with my beta sitting across from me, scrolling through his phone in complete silence. Cyrus had been here for nearly an hour now, b
Amaya POVFor the next few days that passed by, I could feel my body getting weaker and my muscles aching all over. The healer came every evening as Dante had instructed, giving me the same liquid that was supposed to help me. But none of that was working. If anything, I felt worse. Getting out of bed began to feel like a chore, and the sight of food made me throw up. At first, I thought it was stress, but now I wasn't so sure. Even Suri started looking at me differently, but I would easily brush it off. After all, that was the least of my worries. Her words from days before had been the only thing on my mind. I didn't give her an answer because I didn't know what to say, but now I couldn't stop thinking about it. Could I really leave? "I am escaping," I blurted out to Suri, who was helping me brush my hair. "What? Really?" she said, surprised. "I thought about what you said. You are right, I don't want to stay." "Oh, Luna... you don't know how happy I am to hear you
Amaya POV“So much for wanting to step out,” I sighed as I plopped onto my bed. Suri followed soon after, holding a tray with my breakfast and placing it by my nightstand. Then she rushed to the drawer and pulled out the first aid kit before hurrying to my side and kneeling in front of me.“Your hand, Luna,” she said, and I winced as she gently unwrapped the bandage. The wound was still tender, looking even worse than before. I was no doctor, but it looked like it was getting infected.Suri clicked her tongue and bit down on her lip. “I am going to have to clean this again,” she said, and without warning, she applied an antiseptic solution to the wound. I hissed in pain and tried to pull my hand away, but she held it firm.“I’m sorry, I know it hurts, but I have to clean it properly to prevent it from spreading,” she said, but that didn’t stop me from gritting my teeth.“You don’t have to be so rough,” I muttered, clenching my jaw as the antiseptic burned my skin.“You say that like I
Amaya’s POV“I didn’t come to this pack just to work as a maid, Luna. I came here to find my little brother.”I stiffened. She mentioned her brother just yesterday, but nothing about him being missing.“When I was twelve, rogues attacked my old pack,” she continued. “They burned everything down. Killed most of our people. I don’t even remember much about that night—just fire, screaming… and my little brother crying.”A lump formed in my throat, but I didn’t say anything.“He was only six years old,” she whispered. “Too young to fight, too young to understand what was happening. I tried to protect him, but then we got separated in the chaos. I never saw him again.”She pulled the bandage tighter around my hand, but I barely noticed the sting.“I searched for him for years, but I never found a trace,” she said. “Until a few months ago, when I heard rumors that some of the surviving rogues had been taken in by this pack.”My breath caught in my throat.Dante had indeed been taking in str
Amaya’s POV I slammed the door behind me, gripping my chest as I tried to calm the storm raging inside me. My breath came in uneven gasps, my heart pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears. Ryder’s voice still echoed in my head. “I promise you, Amaya! This isn’t over! I will come back for you… I will get you out of here even if it kills me.” Fuck that bastard! Why did he have to come here? I had gotten so used to being numb, but now the emotions were flooding back with so much force, and I couldn’t handle it. I squeezed my eyes shut, pressing my back against the door to keep myself from collapsing. My knees were weak, my entire body was shaking. I really wanted to believe him. I desperately wanted to believe his words, but Dante wouldn’t let me go. He would never let me go. So why did Ryder have to remind me of a situation I had come to accept as my reality? Why did he have to come here and shatter the numbness I had worked so hard to build? I needed that numbness. It was
Dante’s POV“Step. Away. From her.”The words left my mouth before I could stop them, but I didn’t care. I had been watching them for a while and had managed to hold myself back while he hugged her—because of Mako, who had warned me not to do anything foolish, and also because she wasn’t hugging him back. That was good.But now, watching her wipe his tear, even Mako couldn’t hold back his jealousy. He growled in my head.Ryder froze and turned his head slightly to meet my gaze. His eyes were still glassy, filled with emotions he had no fucking business feeling. His arms were still wrapped loosely around my mate.“Mine.”The word echoed in my head, but this time it wasn’t just my thought. It was my wolf’s.For a moment, I almost smirked, thinking he was on my side, but he was quick to remind me how this was my fault—our mate was finding comfort in someone that wasn’t me.My fists tightened, and I was barely holding back. Barely.I took a step forward, and the maid beside Amaya flinched
Amaya’s POV“Oh, you are awake,” she said.Suri immediately bowed her head. “Good morning, Miss Kara.”Kara glanced at her and gave a small nod in acknowledgment before shifting her attention back to me. “How are you feeling, Amaya?”“I didn’t know you knock.” The words came out before I could stop myself, and I noticed her smile falter for just a second before she let out a soft chuckle.“I was just trying to be polite,” she said. “After all, you’ve been through so much. I didn’t want to startle you.”I stared at her, waiting for her composed expression to crack, but she was good. Too good.“Sweet of you,” I muttered and turned my attention to the food tray.I could feel her gaze on me before it narrowed to the barely eaten meal. “You haven’t finished your breakfast?”Why do you care? I wanted to say. Instead, I shrugged. “I’m not hungry.”Kara sighed and shook her head, looking at me like she was disappointed. “Amaya, you need to start taking better care of yourself. You are part of