YENA

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. It felt like a knife to the heart.

And not just a single stab wound.

It was like Nolan, my beloved husband, who I cherished more than anything in the world… had driven a knife into my heart and twisted it.

How could he do this? How could he even think of such a horrible thing? Let alone go through with drawing up all this paperwork?

Just days ago, he finally told me he loved me. It felt so true at the time.

But…

The knife went deeper and twisted harder when he brought up Gina’s name.

He said that it wasn’t about her. That he didn’t love her.

But how could it not be?

Why would he divorce me, if he didn’t have a plan for who he would marry next? Nolan could not be a bachelor. If we separated, he would remarry immediately.

He claimed that this was for me.

That apparently serving me with divorce paperwork was somehow something he was doing for my own sake. For my own good. Something he was doing to make me happy.

What Nolan had been saying about my not being able to study abroad, and be the werewolf princess, if we went to war… it made sense.

But why couldn’t he have just told me about all that sooner? Just given me the information, and trusted me to make my own choice? Trusted me not to leave him?

If Nolan had only told me those details before I made up my mind, and applied for schools, and started everything in motion… if he told me back then that I couldn’t travel unless we divorced… I would have understood, and I would have brought it all to a stop.

The only thing that made sense was that this wasn’t about me at all.

It was about one simple thing.

Gina.

He must have decided that he had a better option, now, for a more suitable mate.

Gina wanted him back.

And she had a legitimate family lineage, like a princess was supposed to. And she was thin and pretty in that model-like, typical way that famous women are supposed to be.

She fit the image better. She looked like a Luna queen.

And she wanted to give him children right away.

That must have been the deciding factor, I realized.

Nolan wanted a wolf cub. And I wasn’t ready.

He was the one who wanted a way out of this marriage, because he decided he could do better than me.

He wanted the life that Gina could give him.

He wanted her now.

And not me anymore.

NOLAN

Yena stared down at the divorce papers silently for a long, long time.

Just tell me no, Nolan pleaded with her in his mind. Please.

Finally, without looking up at Nolan, she said, “I need some time to think about it.”

Keeping her head down, she rubbed at her eyes with the back of her hand, maybe dabbing away some tears before they could fall.

Nolan’s heart sank.

This was not the reaction he had been hoping for. This was not right.

He had convinced himself that this plan was a calculated risk. That it would turn out the way he wanted it to.

And he thought that he had braced himself for the possibility the plan would backfire. But nothing could prepare him for this. Nothing could prepare him for losing Yena.

She did not say yes to the divorce… but she basically said maybe.

If she truly loved him, she would have said no.

Suddenly Nolan understood one thing.

Yena was not certain that Nolan was her fated mate. She did not know that yet…

And it was something a wolf had to discover on their own.

Nolan knew Yena was his destiny from their very first night together.

Maybe he had taken some time to admit it to himself. But his wolf sure knew, from the very beginning.

Nolan wondered what Yena’s wolf said to her, about him.

Did she tell Yena that Nolan and his wolf were their fate?

And if so… what had Nolan done to make Yena want to fight against such a strong instinct?

How did he screw things up with her so badly?

With a surge of regret and dread, Nolan thought back to their talk on the dance floor at his birthday. Back when that night was going well, before Gina showed up and threw a bomb into his marriage.

He had finally found the courage to tell Yena that he loved her.

And she finally revealed how unhappy she had been, wondering if he did.

Nolan had made her wait too long.

He had been afraid of giving himself to Yena completely but didn’t realize that he had been hurting her so badly all that time.

Maybe it was just something she could not get over.

Maybe it was that she was angry about Gina, still.

Or maybe, the bottom line was just this: Yena wanted freedom more than she wanted Nolan.

She loved her dream more than she loved him.

Finally, Yena tore her eyes away from the divorce forms on the table before her and met Nolan’s anxious gaze.

He looked into her blue eyes and tried to read in them what she was feeling. What was the reason. Why she would even want to consider divorcing him.

But their connection was fading. And all he saw in her eyes were tears welling up.

“I need some time alone,” she said.

She stood, picked up the folder, and left the room.

YENA

I waited until I had made it down the hall, into my studio, and closed the door behind me before I let the sobs fall out.

Leaning my back against the door, my legs gave out underneath me and I slid down to the ground.

I forgot I had been holding the divorce forms in my arms. The folder fell to the floor and the papers scattered everywhere. There were so many of them.

I felt empty inside. Hollow, where my heart used to be.

I left the papers on the floor and walked over to one of the couches. I lay down, rested my head on a pillow, and curled up into a ball. Suddenly I felt cold, and terribly tired.

There was a throw blanket on the back of the couch. I wrapped it around me and took my phone out of my pocket.

I called Lucy. While it rang, I set the audio to speakerphone, and then carefully placed the phone on the pillow beside me.

“Hey,” Lucy answered. “Yena, how’s it going? I was just thinking about calling you tonight!”

“Hi Lucy,” I said. “Do you have time to talk?”

“Of course,” she answered quickly. “Goddess, you sound terrible. What’s wrong?”

I grabbed another pillow and hugged it to my chest. More tears were coming.

“I… I don’t even know… where to start.” I was struggling to get words out between hitches in my breath.

Lucy sighed audibly. “Oh, Yena, I’m so sorry, whatever it is that’s happened. Take a breath, okay?”

I did what she said.

“And one more, okay? Deep breath in… and out…”

I blew my exhale out hard. It did help. And so did the sound of my friend’s voice.

“Thank you, Lucy,” I told her. My voice still warbled, but it was a little more even.

“Of course. I’m glad you called me. Now, what’s going on?”

“It’s Nolan…” I started.

There was a sound on the phone like a rush of wind. Like a dragon exhaled into the receiver.

“What did Nolan do, Yena? What did he do now?”