Chapter 30 The Ultimatum
RYAN'S POV
The ultimatum I gave Lisa surprised everyone, including myself. My brain hasn’t fully processed the words before it left my mouth desperation had started to override the careful patience I had been practicing for weeks. I had been giving Lisa her space, respecting her boundaries, watching from a distance as she healed and grew stronger without me. But watching her prepare to leave with Adrian pushed me past some invisible breaking point I had not known existed.
Lisa turned to face me fully, her silver eyes flashing with anger that made her wolf visible just beneath the surface. She was magnificent when furious, power radiating from her in waves that reminded everyone why she was Alpha and I was merely the Beta.
"This is hilarious , you are giving me an ultimatum?" she demanded, her voice sharp enough to cut through anything. "After everything? You do not get to control my choices, Ryan. That is the whole problem. You and everyone else treating me like I am something to be managed rather than someone to be respected."
She was right, I had been trying to manage her, to control the situation, to force an outcome that served my desperate need for a reconciliation to happen rather than her genuine healing.
"Lisa, I just..." I started, but she cut me off with a raised hand.
"No. I am done listening to your excuses and explanations and justifications for why you failed me when I needed you most. Adrian's father is critically ill. He needs support, and I am going to provide it because that is what leaders do for each other. This is not about romance or choosing between mates. This is about being a decent person."
She walked past me into her quarters, the door closed with finality that felt like true judgment. I stood in the hallway feeling like the ground had opened beneath my feet, swallowing everything I thought I understood about our relationship and my place in her life.
She left with Adrian and Nathan the next morning. I watched from my window as they loaded boxes into vehicles as if she was going for a year. Lisa did not look back at the pack house, she did not search the windows for one last glimpse of me. She just left, taking a piece of my soul with her, she had really moved on.
Daniel stayed behind, officially as acting Alpha during Lisa's absence, but really to keep an eye on me. Everyone knew I was spiraling, my control fraying at edges I could no longer contain.
The pack house felt empty without Lisa's presence. My whole life felt meaningless. Every room held memories that tortured me with their specificity. The training grounds where I had taught her to fight before her exile, back when we were young and stupid and thought love alone could conquer everything. The Alpha's office where she led with wisdom that I was only now truly appreciating, making decisions that balanced compassion with strength in ways I could never manage.
The mate bond ached constantly, Lisa's absence was like a physical wound that would not heal. I felt her through the connection, distant and muted but still there, still mine in the only way that mattered to destiny even if it no longer mattered to her heart.
I threw myself into Beta duties with obsessive focus, handling patrol schedules and territory disputes and training regimens with efficiency that impressed even Daniel. But everything reminded me of Lisa. A young wolf asked about Alpha protocols and I remembered Lisa establishing new guidelines. A border dispute required diplomatic skills and I recalled watching Lisa negotiate with visiting packs. Even the coffee in the pack house kitchen tasted wrong because Lisa had changed suppliers to support a local business.
Elder Catherine found me brooding in Lisa's empty office three days after she left, staring at paperwork I could not focus on while the mate bond caused my life to wreck.
"You look like death visited you," Catherine observed, settling into a chair across from the desk without invitation. "How long are you planning to punish yourself?"
"As long as it takes," I muttered, not looking up from reports I was not even reading.
"You know what your problem is?" Catherine asked, her ancient eyes seeing through every defense I tried to maintain. "You have been seeing Lisa as your mate, your responsibility, your burden to protect. You have never just let her be the woman you love without all the baggage."
I looked up then, frustration bubbling over me. "The mate bond makes it complicated. We are destined to be together. That comes with responsibilities."
"The mate bond makes it simple," Catherine corrected, her voice sharp with the authority of someone who had seen generations of wolves make the same mistakes. "You belong together. Destiny chose you for each other before you were born. But belonging is not the same as deserving. Right now, Ryan, you do not deserve her. So figure out how to become the man who does."
The words settled into my chest like stones, heavy and beyond what I could carry. Catherine stood, smoothing her skirts with hands that had seen decades of pack drama and heartbreak.
"Lisa does not need you to protect her or manage her or control her choices," Catherine continued, moving toward the door. "She needs you to see her, to choose her freely, to love her loudly enough that she never questions whether you will stand beside her when things get hard. Until you understand that distinction, you will keep losing her."
She left me alone with truths I did not want to face but I could no longer avoid.
The days blurred together in Lisa's absence. Pack duties filled my time but not the emptiness in my chest. I felt her through the mate bond at odd moments, flashes of emotion that told me she was safe and functioning and moving forward without me. Sometimes I felt happiness that was not mine, lightness that suggested she was laughing or enjoying herself, and those moments hurt worse than sadness would have.
Nathan sent brief updates through Daniel, professional reports about Alpha Dominic's recovery and Lisa's diplomatic meetings with Western Pack leadership. The messages were deliberately vague about Lisa's emotional state or her relationship with Adrian, which told me everything I needed to know. Nathan was protecting her privacy, which meant there were things happening I would not like.
A week into Lisa's absence, my phone buzzed with a message from an unknown number. I almost deleted it without looking, assuming it was spam or a wrong number. But I changed my mind on second thought.
The photo loaded slowly. It was Lisa and Adrian at what looked like a formal Western Pack event, both of them were dressed elegantly and they stood close… too close. Adrian's hand rested on Lisa's waist, possessive and familiar. Both of them were smiling, genuine happiness evident in their expressions and body language.
The message attached read simply, "She's moving on. Can you?"
I recognized what Sophia was trying to do, she was trying to manipulate me. The anonymous number, the perfectly timed photo designed to inflict maximum damage, the message crafted to make me doubt myself more. This was her revenge for being exiled, her final attempt to destroy what remained of my relationship with Lisa.
But knowing it was manipulation did not make the image hurt me less. I stared at Lisa's smile, at the way she leaned slightly into Adrian's touch, I had not seen this ease in her around me for months. The photo might be staged or taken out of context or deliberately misleading, but the happiness in Lisa's eyes was real. She was genuinely enjoying herself away from Moonstone, away from our broken mate bond, and away from me.