Too Late, the Luna Has Already Moved On

Chapter 2 – I Don't Want It

Jake's POV

The Elders' Chamber lobby was full.

Every wolf in the room found somewhere else to look when I walked in.

Good. I wasn't in the mood to be gawked at.

I took a seat and checked my phone. The screensaver was my Luna Angela — my Angel — caught mid-laugh in sunlight, the kind of photo that happened when someone wasn't paying attention to the camera. I'd set it two years ago and never changed it.

My thumb moved across her face before I caught myself.

Getting soft, Marco muttered.

I know.

She's going to make this difficult.

She never makes anything difficult. That was the whole point of Angela. Seven years of proof.

Marco didn't answer. That was new.

The mind-link opened before I could think about it.

Jake. My grandmother's voice, warm and unhurried, the way it always was before she said something she knew I didn't want to hear. You and Angela have been mated a full year now. When are you giving us pups?

We're young, Grandma. There's no rush.

No rush! A pause. Your grandfather's health is improving, but we're not getting younger. It could be any day.

Grandma—

Don't change the subject. Her tone shifted. Not anger. Something quieter and harder. I've heard the rumors, Jake. You mustn't mistreat that girl.

Three seconds of silence.

Did you hear me?

I pressed two fingers to my temple. Yes. I hear you.

I closed the link before she could say anything else.

My fingers went back to drumming the armrest. I'd sent Angela a mind-link twenty minutes ago. The rejection wouldn't be long, just involving the severance of our Mate Bond, and requiring her acceptance of my rejection in person.

Where are you? I linked her.

The lobby door opened.

Angela walked in.

I stood automatically, about to give her my chair. A nearby wolf vacated his before I could. Alpha perks. I sat back down.

She looked at me once. Then away.

I noticed, without meaning to, that she was wearing the grey dress. The one she'd bought herself for pack functions. She'd asked me once if I liked it. I hadn't answered. I couldn't remember why.

I also noticed I was still wearing yesterday's clothes. The shirt she'd laid out for me.

I filed that away and looked at the entrance instead.

Something pulled in my chest. Low and familiar.

The bond.

Even half-severed, it still recognized her. I pressed it down and looked away.

"You're late," I said.

"I'm not." She lifted her chin. "I'm exactly on time."

Her face was pale. She hadn't slept. I could tell from the tightness around her eyes, the way she was holding her jaw.

"Grandma mind-linked me this morning," I said. "Don't tell her or Grandpa about the annulment. They can't handle that kind of news right now."

"What did she say?"

"She wants pups." I kept my voice level. "Sooner rather than later."

Silence.

Then Angela laughed.

Not a real laugh. Something dry and hollow that didn't reach anywhere.

I clenched my hand once under the armrest. Released it.

"Last chance," she said. The laughter was already gone. "Jake. Are you really going through with this?"

Adrienne was at home waiting.

Six months. That was all I was asking for.

“Are you thinking of backing out now?” I snapped at her impatiently. Adrienne was at home waiting for me. The sooner I got back to her, the sooner all this would be over.

She didn't answer. Instead she reached into her bag and slid a document across to me.

Property division agreement. Neatly formatted. Ten pages. Her signature already on the dotted line.

I read through it slowly. She was taking almost nothing.

Why?

I didn't ask it out loud. I turned the pages and looked for the angle — the buried clause, the leverage. Angela wasn't stupid. Seven years of watching her had confirmed that much.

I found nothing.

She's trying to trap you, Marco said. Don't sign it.

But I couldn't see how. The document was clean. Almost insultingly so.

Or, Marco said slowly, she just doesn't want anything from you anymore.

That's not possible. Angela always came back. She always had.

Adrienne only had six months left to live.

The plan was to stay with Adrienne through her final months and afterward return to Angela. We’d continue to live under the blessings of my grandparents and the Moon Goddess, the same as before.

In my mind, Angela had never been indispensable. Throughout our time together, it was obvious she had very few boundaries.

I had once gotten annoyed with her and deliberately pressured her to give things up. Never once did she refuse me. She would come up to me, holding out the result with a smile on her face and say, “Jake, look! I did it! How awesome is that?”

Time and time again, she had proven to be an obedient mate, and for seven years, I had tested and confirmed it countless times.

If not for Adrienne appearing in my life, our matehood might’ve continued in this vein, unchanged.

However, just picturing Adrienne coughing up blood, her face miserable and stubborn, hurt me until I could barely breathe. Already I could tell that her wolf was weakening. It wouldn’t be long now.

Was she trying to blackmail me? After all, she had once forged records to frame Adrienne. I knew for a fact that she hated Adrienne with a passion I didn’t understand.

The receptionist called us in and we stood before the court of Elders.

I was the first to step up.

“I, Jake Weiss, reject you, Luna of the Fireflies Pack, as my mate.”

Angela, who was beside me, spoke up next. “I accept your rejection and forfeit my title as Luna.”

With just a few words, our matebond was severed. One second I was her mate. The next we were strangers. It felt like a huge chunk of my soul was missing. I looked down at my hands. Foreign. No longer a part of me. Separate.

Marco howled painfully, the dissolution of the matebond tearing him apart.

No longer whole, I looked at her. And saw that she felt the same.

The intensity of our broken matebond must be wreaking havoc on her wolf too.

It took ten seconds.

Ten seconds to undo a year of mating and seven years of whatever came before it.

Now, in our Moon Grace Period. I couldn’t even look at her.

According to Pack Lore, the Moon Goddess would be granting us what was called a Moon Grace Period. During the 30 days of the moon cycle, mates could withdraw their rejection. After this period ended, the rejection would become permanent.

Without another word. We walked out into the corridor. The other pack members moved past us, unhurried, carrying their ordinary business. Nobody knew. Nobody stopped.

I looked at her profile. Still unreadable. Still pale.

"You can keep the Luna quarters during the Moon Grace Period," I said. "I'll keep the monthly transfer going. As long as you don't say anything to Grandma and Grandpa."

She said nothing.

I took that as agreement and kept walking.

My car was in the lot. Adrienne's Florals was twenty minutes away.

I pushed open the shop door. The smell of cut flowers hit first. Adrienne looked up from behind the counter.

I set the receipt on the counter.

"We're done," I said. "Angela didn't fight it."

Adrienne looked down at the paper. Something moved across her face that I didn't have a name for.

I told myself it was relief.

Angela's POV

Healers' Quarters.

The curtain rings scraped against the rail as Rosalie drew the privacy screen closed.

She sat across from me with her healer's face on — careful, neutral — but her hands were still for once. That meant she was worried.

"Angela." She said my name like a question. "Are you sure?"

I kept my hand flat on the table.

"You've been preparing for this for months," Rosalie said. Her voice dropped. "You asked me to help regulate your cycle. You were trying really hard for this pup. You—"

"Rosalie."

She stopped.

I looked at her. My oldest friend. The one person in this pack who had never once asked me to be smaller than I was.

"Yes," I said.

The word came out clean. No shake in it. Nothing she could catch hold of.

"I don't want it."