Chapter 2

The sun had barely risen when Anana opened her eyes, her body already aching from wounds that had not even formed yet. It was the kind of ache that settled deep into the bones, whispering promises of more pain to come. Every morning was like this now, a quiet, dreadful waiting. Not for the day to begin, but for the night to end.

Elia moved around the room in silence, drawing the curtains slowly as if she could delay the arrival of reality. The sheets were already stained from the night before. The scent of blood hung heavy in the air, metallic and cruel.

"How are you feeling today, Luna?" Elia asked, her voice soft and sad.

Anana gave a tired smile. "Like I survived a war that keeps repeating itself."

She sat up, wincing as her side throbbed. A scar ran across her ribcage, it was fresh, angry, and unhealed. It joined a growing map of pain on her body, each one etched from a night her husband spent in someone else's arms.

"You shouldn't have to live like this," Elia whispered, folding a towel tightly. "You're Luna. You're supposed to be cherished."

Anana laughed bitterly. "I'm Luna in name only."

Elia paused. "Maybe... maybe it's time to leave."

Leave. The word echoed.

Where would she go? Her family had given everything to join this pack, they had fled war, bloodshed, extinction. They had found safety here because of her. And even if she left, where would a wolfless, scarred woman belong? Who would take her in?

"I made a vow, Elia," she said instead. "I can't just walk away because it's hard."

"But it's not just hard. It's killing you."

The halls of the packhouse were different now. Anana walked through them like a ghost. The warriors barely bowed anymore. The omegas averted their eyes. Even the younger she-wolves whispered behind her back when they thought she wasn't listening.

It wasn't just the pain she carried.

It was the shame.

The rumors had spread like wildfire. That she couldn't bear pups. That her bond with the Alpha was broken. That Mira had the true connection. The gossip stung more than the scars.

Many agreed with the fact that the pack should be headed by an Alpha and his true mate, others remained indifferent.

She entered the council hall as she always did, her head held high despite the trembling feeling in her legs. The weekly leadership meeting had once been a place where her voice mattered, where she was regarded as true Luna of the pack. Now, it was a place of polite silence when she spoke.

Kade sat at the head, eyes tired but sharp. Mira sat beside him.

Anana faltered.

That was her seat.

No one spoke. No one reacted to the sudden change in things. No one objected. Mira smiled politely, her golden hair shining in the sunlight pouring through the window, her chin held high with eyes that can cause men to fall under her gaze stared at Anana, a cold satisfied smile curled at her lips.

"She looked every bit a Luna,fertile, powerful, mated", Anana muttered to herself.

She swallowed her pride and sat two seats down.

Kade didn't acknowledge her.

Her presence was slowly fading away.

Later that afternoon, Anana walked through the gardens she had planted when they first married. It had been a symbol of new beginnings then. Now, the petals looked dull, as if they too were mourning, like they knew what befell her.

She sat on the stone bench beneath the weeping willow. It was the only place in the pack that still felt like hers.

Footsteps crunched behind her.

"I thought I'd find you here," Kade said.

Anana turned slowly. "You didn't speak to me at the meeting."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "I was distracted."

"By Mira?"

His silence was answer enough.

She looked up at him. "You let her sit in my seat."

"It's just a chair, it doesn't mean anything".

"No, Kade. It's not. It's a title. A place of honor. My place."

"And you let her take it from me"

Kade sat beside her, close but not touching. "I didn't mean to hurt you."

"But you did," she said softly. "You hurt me every day."

"You think I don't hate this? Watching you bleed every night? Waking up knowing I caused it?"

"Then why keep doing it?"

He looked away. "Because when I don't, it feels like something in me is dying. The bond... it's demanding."

"And I'm expendable?"

His head snapped toward her. "No. Never."

She stood slowly. "Then act like it."

That evening, she was summoned to the healer's den.

"Your wounds are not healing like they should," the old wolf said as he examined her back. "There's too much strain on your body. Too much pain."

Anana bit her lip. "What are you saying?"

"Another month of this, and you may not survive the next bond-scar."

She sat there, stunned.

Die?

Not from war. Not from rogues.

From love.

She returned to her room and locked the door behind her.

The mirror caught her reflection. Pale. Hollow-eyed. Wrapped in silk to hide the horrors underneath.

She stripped slowly, trembling fingers undoing the clasps.

The scars stared back at her. A red, tangled mess of history. Each one a memory of betrayal, of pain, of Kade choosing someone else.

She touched one, just above her collarbone, and cried out. Fresh blood pooled beneath her fingers.

And something inside her snapped.

She wasn't Luna anymore.

She was a prisoner. A body paying for a mate bond that wasn't hers.

She dropped to her knees and sobbed.

Not just for the pain.

But for the love that once felt like forever, now reduced to scars.

Morning came.

But Anana didn't rise from bed.

She barely had strength as every morning was the same, a reminder of things she'd lost and is still losing.

Not even when Elia knocked, begging her to eat.

Not even when the guards came calling for her presence.

Not until hours later, when Kade himself burst into her chambers.

"Anana, you didn't show up for the meeting."

She looked at him with hollow eyes. "I'm dying, Kade."

He froze.

"The healer said one more scar could kill me. And yet you still go to her. Still let the bond tear me apart."

His jaw clenched. "I didn't know."

"Well, now you do."

Kade sank onto the bed beside her. "What do you want me to do, Anana? Reject her? Reject the bond? That could kill me too."

"So we're both dying. Just in different ways."

He reached for her hand. She pulled away.

"I want to live," she said.

"Then what do you want from me?"

She stared at him.

"Free me from this bondage"

He stood shiftly, "You're forever my Luna, I'll never reject you"

"You have Kade, and l know you'd return to Mira this night".

"I don't want to die" she said with tears rolling down her cheek, carving a path for hot ones to fall.

He couldn't give her what she wanted and left the room.

That night, Anana didn't sleep. She stood in the garden, beneath the weeping willow, staring at the stars.

And in the stillness, a cold breeze whispered through the trees.

"Change is coming," she whispered.

"I didn't bleed", smile curled up on her lips.

A heap of hope lingered in her heart.

Just to be destroyed with a sharp pain that caused her falling to the ground.