Chapter 3 – Wolves Without Leashes
1163 Words
DARIUS POV
The scroll lay open on his desk.
Red wax seal. Gold-trimmed parchment. Words that bled with magical intent.
The Divorce Alpha Club.
It sounded like a joke.
But his wolf wasn’t laughing.
Fenrir still hadn’t stirred. Not even a growl. Not even a flicker of presence in the back of his mind. His other half—his power—silent.
And the warning in that scroll?
It burned.
Literally. When he tried to throw it into the fire, it screamed.
Darius had never feared witches. He’d hunted them. Broken curses with his bare hands. But whatever Nora and those women had done… it was beyond witchcraft.
This was divine.
This was punishment.
And he was going to end it.
His Beta leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. “Still thinking you’re the victim?”
“I didn’t reject her to hurt her,” Darius muttered.
Leoric scoffed. “You told her she was weak. In front of your entire court. You laughed when she cried.”
Darius flinched. “She was clinging.”
“She was yours.”
A beat passed.
Darius stared at the scroll again.
“I need to see her.”
Leoric rolled his eyes. “And say what? ‘Sorry I treated you like dirt, but now I can’t shift without whimpering like a pup, so maybe let’s talk’?”
“I don’t need your sarcasm.”
“No, you need a miracle. And from what I’ve seen?” Leoric pushed off the wall. “She stopped believing in those.”
NORA POV
I burned the scroll before he could answer it.
Zara had written it with poetic venom. Reya enchanted it so it couldn’t be ignored. I just… signed my name.
It felt symbolic.
Powerful.
Stupid.
Now I stood in the center of our ward circle, staring at the ring Darius had once given me. A moonstone band. Beautiful. Cold. I’d never taken it off—not even when he rejected me.
Now I couldn’t take it off.
Literally. It fused to my finger like a cursed relic, pulsing once a day like a heartbeat from a dead past.
“Still won’t come off?” Reya asked, watching from her spellbench.
“Nope,” I said. “Thinking of just cutting the finger off.”
“That’s the spirit.”
I smiled faintly. “It’s like a ghost of the bond. Still trying to pretend it exists.”
“It doesn’t,” Reya said firmly. “We erased it.”
“Then why does it still hurt?”
She didn’t have an answer for that.
But I had bigger problems.
Mei’s ghost sister was showing up every night now. Not speaking. Just standing in corners. Watching.
Lyra’s ex-mate had gone missing—vanished after a mental break.
And Zara?
Zara was acting different.
Wilder.
More volatile.
We were changing.
And I was starting to wonder if it was too late to change back.
ZARA POV
I wasn’t a patient person.
Patience was for diplomats. Or therapists. Or tea drinkers.
I was a sword person.
So when I sensed the rogue wolf trailing me through the marketplace, I didn’t wait to confirm it.
I ducked into an alley, pulled my blade from the sheath hidden in my coat, and waited.
A moment later, he followed.
Young. Maybe twenty. Blue eyes. Cheap shoes.
“You’ve been watching me for ten minutes,” I said. “That’s either creepy, or fatal.”
He raised his hands. “Wait—I’m not—”
“Spit it out or I start slicing.”
“I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to join you.”
That made me blink.
“What?”
He took a cautious step closer. “The Divorce Alpha Club. I know who you are. What you did. I want in.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What’s your name?”
“Caden. My alpha rejected his mate—my sister. She tried to kill herself two weeks ago. When she woke up, she kept whispering your name.”
My grip on the sword loosened.
He wasn’t lying.
I could feel it in his words. In his posture.
“Your sister… what’s her name?”
“Delilah.”
I remembered her. A delicate little thing who used to run wildflower stands near the old temple grounds.
She’d always wanted to find her fated mate.
And when she did… she got destroyed.
I sheathed my sword.
“You’re in,” I said.
Because revenge wasn’t a club.
It was a movement.
Later at the Club HQ,
The energy in the room was different tonight.
Thicker. Heavier.
We were growing.
Not just stronger, but louder.
Mei sat cross-legged on the couch, muttering chants that made the walls flicker. Lyra was brewing something purple that smelled like sass and sorrow.
Reya was mapping out a hex grid of every alpha still in power who had broken a bond.
Caden sat in the corner, eyes wide, like he couldn’t believe this was real.
And Nora?
Nora was glowing.
Not literally. But something about her was shifting. Her voice had more steel. Her walk more weight.
She was becoming the kind of alpha they feared.
And maybe… the kind of alpha we needed.
“I got word,” Reya said. “The High Council is holding a secret summit. Emergency session. They’re calling it ‘The Alpha Crisis.’”
I raised a brow. “Cute.”
“They’re looking for us.”
“Let them look,” Lyra said, stirring her brew. “They’ll only find ashes.”
Meanwhile at the High Council Chambers,
“The curse has destabilized twelve bloodlines,” the Grand Alpha roared. “Shifters are losing control. Wolves disappearing. Packs splitting.”
A young councilor stepped forward. “We’ve tracked it to five women. All rejected. All bonded to powerful alphas. They formed some kind of alliance.”
“What are they called?”
He hesitated.
“The Divorce Alpha Club.”
The silence was immediate. Then laughter.
“Sounds like a joke,” one elder sneered.
“She destroyed my son,” another hissed.
The head priestess stood from her throne.
“They’ve awakened Vespera.”
That silenced everyone.
“They are not just witches. Not just women. They are the moon’s revenge. And if we don’t stop them…”
She paused.
“They will stop us.”
Nora POV
The city looked softer at night.
Gentler.
Like maybe it didn’t hate me.
I held the moonstone ring up to the sky. It shimmered faintly.
Then, like it had a will of its own, it cracked.
Split in two.
I gasped.
Pain seared up my arm—but not burning. Not like before. This pain was release.
Freedom.
The ring shattered completely.
And I heard the words in the wind again.
“You’ve broken your chains.
Now break theirs.”
I turned back inside.
We weren’t just running from fate anymore.
We were running toward it.
- Writer
