He Wounded Me for His Mistress, Now His Memories Will Destroy Him

The Blood Moon Pack crowded around the stone platform, waiting for their Alpha to claim his Luna. Wolves lined the clearing all the way to the pines. Kael bent over my neck. His dark hair brushed my cheek, and the familiar pine scent on his skin brought back years of councils, injuries, and sleepless nights spent keeping him on his feet. His fangs grazed the arch of my neck. Metal screamed inside my head. The vision had the weight of memory. A wall collapsed across the battlefield. Enemy wolves poured through the breach as metal split and bone cracked under the fallen stones. A beam pinned me to the ground. Blood soaked through my healer’s coat and ran into the dirt. Kael stood a few feet away with his back to me and both arms around Selene. He never turned, even when enemy claws closed around my throat. I died outside the edge of his attention. Kael’s fingers found mine and pulled me back to the clearing. It was our old signal. Before every public rite, he reached for my hand and expected me to steady him. I had mistaken dependence for love for years. His hand made the difference plain. I planted both palms against his chest and shoved. The pack gasped. Kael stumbled back, and the mark on my neck remained unfinished. “Elara?” He looked from me to the watching elders. Anger tightened his jaw. My throat still burned where the remembered claws had torn it. I faced the elders behind him. “I reject the mark.” Every wolf in the clearing heard me. Kael released his Alpha aura. The pressure rolled across the platform and drove several younger wolves to their knees. I stayed upright. I unclasped the Chief Combat Healer’s silver medallion and held it out. “I also resign my position.” Whispers spread through the clearing. Every patrol relied on my remedies, and half the warriors there carried scars I had closed with my own magic. Kael came forward and closed one hand around my wrist. His Alpha aura made the medallion tremble against my palm. “What is this?” he snapped. “A game? A tantrum because I’ve been tending to Selene? Her life is fragile. You should understand that better than anyone.” His thumb pressed into an old training bruise on my wrist. Any explanation would become another charge of jealousy. “Let go, Kael.” “When you stop this foolishness. The pack needs you. *I* need you. End it now, and I’ll be lenient.” Lenient. A laugh caught in my throat. His grip tightened. “Don’t test me, Elara. You won’t survive alone. Without this pack, without me, you have nothing. Three days outside and you’ll crawl back begging.” I turned my wrist against his thumb and drove my knuckle into the pressure point I had taught him years ago. His hand opened. I left the platform. His roar followed me across the clearing and into the trees. He called after me as if we were still bargaining over Selene. My bags were already packed beside the infirmary door. Before dawn, they would be across the Blood Moon boundary with me.