Chapter 3: I Chose My Own Ruin
867 Words
Aria POV
Damien Cross.
Of all the people on this earth.I hadn't heard from him in almost two years, but I recognized the name the same way you recognize a scar — instantly, without having to think about it. We grew up together, our packs neighboring, our families tangled by old alliances. He was my friend before he became someone the whole country whispered about.He had also wanted to be more than my friend. For years.
I chose Damon anyway.Sable let out a sound that was not quite a laugh. 'And how did that work out for us?' she said dryly.I typed back before I could change my mind.Send me the address.His reply came in seconds.DAMIEN CROSS .Tonight. 8pm. Come alone.I called Nora and Jade first."Get to my place," I told Nora. "Bring Jade. I need both of you right now."
“How bad?" she asked."Bad enough that I have a plan." She didn't ask anything else. Twenty minutes later they were both at my kitchen table and I was laying everything out — the anniversary, Damon running after Evelyn, the Council, the word obligations, and Damien's message sitting open on my phone between us. Jade stared at the screen. "Damien Cross texted you personally.""Yes." "The same Damien Cross whose pack has five hundred wolves and who dismantled the Ironwood Alliance without blinking." "That's the one." Nora leaned back in her chair with a slow smile spreading across her face. "He's always had a thing for you."
“I know," I said. "And tonight we're going to use that." The three of us talked fast and sharp for the next hour — every humiliation mapped out, every angle covered, a plan that didn't just give me a way out of a marriage Damon didn't want but gave me something to build with. Something with teeth. By the time I stood up to get dressed, Nora looked satisfied in that quiet, dangerous way of hers.
“Walk in there like he needs you," she said. "Not the other way around."
The estate was not what I expected. Gated. Guarded. Set back from the road behind old trees, the kind of property that didn't show up on any public map. Two wolves waved me through the moment I said my name — he had told them I was coming. Of course he had. He had been sure I would show up before I even said yes. A man led me through the house without a word. Dark wood, high ceilings, the kind of quiet that belonged to serious money. No decorations that screamed wealth. Just the weight of it, settled into the walls.
Damien stood at the far end of a room, back half-turned, a glass in one hand. He was different from the last time I'd seen him. Broader. Colder around the edges. The boy who used to look at me like I was something he was afraid to reach for had been replaced entirely by someone who had clearly stopped being afraid of anything a long time ago.
He turned when he heard my heels on the floor.Dark eyes found mine and stayed there."You actually came," he said."You knew I would." I didn't sit. I crossed my arms and looked at him straight on. "So say what you have to say."Something moved at the corner of his mouth. Not quite a smile. He set his glass down, reached for a document on the desk, and held it out.
“One year as my Luna. Public, formal, Council-recognized. I get the political stability I need for treaty negotiations. You get extraction from the mate contract with Damon — legally, cleanly, with my pack's name behind it." He paused. "And you get whatever you're planning to do to them."I went still. "I didn't say I was planning anything.""You didn't have to." His eyes were steady on mine. "I know that look, Aria. I've always known that look."My jaw tightened. I glanced at the document.
‘Why?" I asked. "Why me? Why now?"He held my gaze for a beat too long. "Does it matter?"It matters to me."Another pause. Quieter than the last one.
“Because you deserved better," he said simply. "You always did." The room felt smaller suddenly. I looked away first, jaw tight, and reached out and took the document.
“I have conditions," I said. Damien Cross smiled — slow, certain, like a man who had been waiting a very long time for exactly this moment. "I expected nothing less.
I read through the contract at home that night, spread flat across my bed, going through every clause line by line.Everything was exactly as he had described.
Until the last page.
One paragraph. Small font. Clean, quiet language that sat at the bottom like it was nothing — like it was just another formality buried in paperwork.
I read it three times before the words landed fully.Upon conclusion of this arrangement, all prior mate bonds involving Luna Aria shall be considered permanently and irrevocably dissolved.I sat back slowly.
This wasn't a contract for one year.This was Damien Cross cutting Damon out of my life. Forever.And the most terrifying part?
I didn't want to put the pen down.
- Writer
