Upgraded From The Alpha To The Lycan King

WREN~ The bedroom door slammed so hard the wood split near the hinges. I didn’t jump. My body already knew the sound of his rage better than it knew the sound of safety. “You just had to open your f*****g mouth,” Jax said, voice low and ugly. He stood in the middle of our room still half-dressed, belt unbuckled, the scent of the s*x with the two other women thick in the air. “You couldn’t stay quiet. You couldn’t just turn around and leave like a good Luna.” I stood barefoot on the cold floor in a thin white tank and sleep shorts, blood already drying on my split lip. The two maids were gone. They had scrambled out the second his fist first connected with my face. Smart girls. I used to be smart once too. “I asked for a divorce, Jax” I said. My voice came out steady even though every breath pulled at the fresh bruises on my ribs. “That’s all. I didn’t do anything wrong. I walked in, saw you f*****g both of them on our bed, and I only said I wanted out legally.” He crossed the room in three long strides. His hand locked around my throat and shoved me backward until my spine hit the dresser. Perfume bottles and the little silver frame of us as kids—me missing a front tooth, him with freckles and that easy smile—toppled and shattered on the floor. “You don’t get to ask for s**t,” he snarled, face inches from mine. “You are my wife. You are my Luna. This pack is mine because of what your parents did, and you don’t walk away from that, do you hear me?” I laughed. It came out broken and wet. “My parents died for you. They bled out so the Beta's son could wear the title they never got to give their own blood. They trusted you with everything because I loved you, because you were my best friend. Because I stood in front of the entire pack and said you were the one I wanted.” His grip tightened, my vision flickered at the edges. “They made the right choice,” he said. “Look at what this pack is now. Strong. Feared. You were never going to lead it, Wren. You know that. Girls like you don’t run packs. You decorate them for men.” I stared up at him and felt something cold settle under my ribs. The boy who used to sneak me chocolate after pack meetings was gone. The one who carried me home on his back when I sprained my ankle at fifteen was gone. This man in front of me right now had used my parents’ sacrifice like a ladder and then pissed on their memory the second the crown sat on his head. “I understood that the second you stopped coming home at night,” I whispered. “I understood when you started f*****g other women. I understood when you started hitting me for confronting your wrongdoings. What I never understood was how you used the same mouth that promised me forever to look me in the eye while you f****d my staffs on our bed.” Something dangerous flickered across his face. For half a second I saw the old Jax—the one who used to press his forehead to mine and swear no one would ever hurt me. Then it vanished under pure Alpha black. He backhanded me hard instantly, enough that I hit the floor at once. My elbow cracked against the wood. Pain shot up my arm and settled behind my eyes. I stayed down for one breath, tasting blood, then pushed myself up onto my knees. “Get up,” he ordered. I did. Slowly. The left side of my face already felt tight and swollen. My ribs ached from the earlier kicks he gave me. Still, I stood. “I’m done,” I said quietly. “I loved you longer than I loved anyone. I loved you when you were just the Beta’s son with too many f*****g freckles and a temper that scared everyone. I married you because I thought we were still those two people. My parents died believing that. They died thinking you would protect me the way they never got the chance to.” Jax’s jaw flexed. He took a step closer. But I didn’t back up. “You don’t get to leave,” he said. “The bond is permanent. You are mine Wren and decide when I'm tired with you. The pack will never accept a rejected Luna walking free after everything your parents gave me. Do you think I do not see what you want to do?” I met his eyes and felt the last soft piece of me finally go quiet. “I already denounced it.” I dropped. His entire body went still. The tension in the room thickened until it pressed against my skin like a physical weight. My wolf whimpered somewhere deep inside me, still half-bound to his, still stupidly loyal to the boy he used to be. But I ignored her. “What did you just say?” His voice was almost soft. “I denounced the mate bond this morning,” I repeated, clearer this time. “Before I walked in here. Before I found you with them. I went to the old stone circle at the edge of the territory, yes I damned the consequences of being murdered by rogues and took the risk—the same place my father used to take us when we were kids—and I did it. It’s done. The bond between us is thinning. By tonight it will be gone” Jax’s face drained of color, then flooded with pure black fury. He grabbed the front of my tank top and yanked me forward until our noses almost touched. “You cannot do that,” he growled. “You don’t get to decide that. Your parents gave me this pack. They gave me you. You are my f*****g Luna and I own you, I own the bond and I decide when to reject you not the other way round.” “Not anymore.” My voice didn’t shake. “I’m leaving today. Pack a bag if you want the ring back. Otherwise I’m walking out with the clothes on my back and whatever money is still in my name. The same name my parents died protecting.” His free hand rose like he was going to hit me again. I didn’t flinch. I just looked at him—at the man who once promised to die for me and felt nothing but the dull, exhausted ache of loving someone who had already killed the version of himself I fell for. “You loved me once,” I said. “I know you did. But love doesn’t look like this. And I’m not dying slowly in this house just to keep the title of Luna for a man who used my parents’ graves as a stepping stone to his ambitions.” Jax’s breathing turned ragged. The Alpha command in his voice dropped lower, darker. “If you walk out that door, Wren, I will make sure every pack on this continent knows you as a traitor. I will make sure no one takes you in. I will hunt you. And when I find you, I will remind you exactly who you belong to.” I smiled through the blood on my teeth. It hurt. “Then hunt me, Jax” I said “Go to any length of the world and hunt me” I stepped back and his hand fell away from my shirt like he’d been burned. For the first time since the night my parents died and the pack crowned him, he looked uncertain—not guilty. I turned toward the door. My legs felt like they belonged to someone else. Every step sent fresh pain through my ribs and face but I kept walking. Behind me I heard him start to move, heard the heavy thud of his boots coming after. I didn’t run. I reached for the door handle, already tasting freedom and terror in the same breath— And Jax’s voice cut through the room. “Wren.” I stopped with my hand on the wood. “You walk out of this pack,” he said, low and deadly, “and I swear on everything your parents gave me… I will make you regret the day you ever thought you could leave me.”