Chapter 3
In my dreams, I returned to when Luca and I were truly in love.
Eighteen–year–old Luca held a handwritten note, his face flushed as he confessed.
“Sera, will you let me court you? I swear on the Moon Goddess I’ll worship you forever.” Twenty year–old Luca shielded me with his body as rogues beat him bloody.
“My mate can wear whatever she wants–that’s not permission for you scum to touch her.” Twenty–four–year–old Luca knelt with our mating rings, eyes glowing with his wolf’s joy. “Sera, complete the bond with me. I’ll love you, protect you, never stray from your side.” Twenty–eight–year–old Luca held Ash close, looking down at me with dead eyes.
“Seraphina, so what if it’s been ten years? I’m bored. I love Ash now.”
Dream–Luca’s face began to blur as burning pain shot across my cheek. I looked up into Luca’s furious expression.
“Seraphina, how can you be this fucking cruel?”
“Ash already knows she made a mistake, and you still made her kneel all night? She almost lost her pup!”
“Looks like you still haven’t learned your place.”
Two pack enforcers entered, baseball bats in hand.
My thoughts scrambled as I caught a glimpse outside–it was daytime.
Luca dragged me in front of Ash and forced me to my knees.
“Don’t cry, baby girl. I’m about to break her legs for you.”
The bat cracked against my leg and I screamed.
How could I forget? When I’d called Ash a homewrecker, Luca had rogues assault me as punishment.
I’d knelt on the pack house steps, bowing a hundred times, calling myself a worthless bitch over and over until Luca was satisfied.
I’d seen him carry Ash back to her room last night to tend her wounds.
But he’d never admit it. He’d just make it worse.
Bones snapped one by one until I couldn’t take anymore.
“Luca, I was wrong! I shouldn’t have made her kneel. I didn’t know she was pregnant–please stop!”
I looked up desperately, but he kicked me hard in the stomach.
Luca snarled with disgust.
“Bullshit. You’ve whelped before–don’t tell me you couldn’t smell another omega’s pregnancy.”
My wounds tore open again, and suddenly I had no fight left.
The Luca who once trusted me completely was gone. Even if I cut out my heart to prove my innocence, he wouldn’t believe me now.
As consciousness faded, Luca finally signaled the enforcers to stop.
“Maybe this’ll teach you some respect. You stay here and think about what you did. I’ll send the pack healer in three hours”
I collapsed in the pack medical center’s cold hallway as hostile stares burned into me.
“Disgusting! Serves her right–homewrecking bitch!”
“They’re such a perfect match. He’s so good to his omega, even got her that whole territory when she got pregnant.”
I lay numb as they spat on me, kicked me. They didn’t know I was Luca’s true mate.
That island was where we’d completed our bond. He’d promised to take our pup there someday to show him where his parents his parents first
became one.
Now, staring at my shattered legs, my wolf whimpered and retreated so deep I could barely feel her.
Three hours passed. No healer came.
I dragged myself to find Luca.
He sat by Ash’s bed, carefully cutting moon cakes for her.
“Lynx, don’t cut the moon cakes! Cutting them means the Moon Goddess will separate us.”
Ash pouted and pushed the plate away. Luca laughed apologetically.
“You’re right, baby. My mistake.”
But he used to tell me different.
“Sera, that’s just old wives‘ tales. The Moon Goddess blessed our bond–watch this.”
Luca had fed me pieces of cut moon cake with his own hands during our first full moon together.
“If cutting moon cakes means separation, then sharing these proves we’re meant to be together forever.”
Today, those words felt like a cruel joke.
I pulled myself back to the present and looked at him with dead calm.
“I, Seraphina Blaire, reject you, Luca Helstone, as my mate.”
Lucia Morh is a passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.