Selene's point of view.
After leaving the dining room I made my way towards the private quarters. The moment the heavy oak door closed behind me, I slumped against it, pressing my back hard against the door's wooden frame.
Oh god, No," I whispered to the empty room. "No, no, no.
But my wolf wasn't listening.
She was RAGING inside me, clawing at my consciousness with a fury I hadn't felt since the night James died. But this wasn't grief or pain or loss. This was raw, primal NEED.
"MATE!" she howled, the sound reverberating through every cell of my body. "GO BACK. OURS. CLAIM HIM. NOW."
"He's Luna's boyfriend," I said out loud, hoping the words would break through the wild pull inside me. "He is my daughter's chosen partner. We can't… this can't happen."
"MATE!" my wolf growled again. She didn't care about rules, logic, morals, or the problems this would bring. She only cared about one thing—Kade Frost was ours. "
"Go back. Complete the bond," she demanded.
I pushed myself away from the door and stumbled across the room. My body wouldn't listen to me—my wolf was fighting to take over. I hadn't lost control like this in years.
I reached my private sitting area and collapsed onto the velvet chaise, pressing the heels of my palms against my eyes. Think. I needed to THINK. To analyze this logically, the way an Alpha should.
But it seemed impossible. How could I think when every instinct screamed at me to run back downstairs, to push Luna aside, to claim what my wolf insisted belonged to us?
"Stop it," I commanded, using the Alpha voice that made entire packs submit. "Stop this right now."
My wolf snarled in defiance, refusing to obey—which was something that should have been impossible. Wolves and their human half were supposed to be in harmony, working together. But the mate bond had awakened something primal in her, something that no longer recognize my authority.
"He's twenty-four years old," I said firmly, trying another approach. Hoping I could reason with her. "I'm forty-two. That's an eighteen-year gap. It's inappropriate. It cannot happen."
My wolf showed me a flash of memory—Kade's green eyes meeting mine across the dining table, the recognition in them, the same desperate longing I felt. "Age meant nothing to wolves when it came to true mates." my wolf said in protest while showing the previous memory.
"He's a Beta. I'm an Alpha. The power imbalance alone..."
She didn't listen instead resulting in her showing another memory— the memory of the moment when he instinctively reached out to catch me when I stumbled. The sparks when our hands touched. The way his scent had wrapped around me was like coming home.
"He's dating my DAUGHTER!" The words came out as a shout, echoing through the room walls.
With that my wolf finally stop flashing memories of him in my head.
I stood up with shaking legs and walked towards the window, looking out over the pack lands bathed in moonlight.
My fingers moved unconsciously to my neck, to the spot where James's mating mark used to be. After three years it had faded, turning from a strong, clear mark into a light scar. But I could still feel it—the phantom connection to a bond that death had severed.
"You were my mate," I whispered, tracing the old mark. "My one true mate. The Moon Goddess herself blessed our bond. How can there be another?"
But I knew the answer. I'd studied wolf lore my entire life, I have access to the pack's ancient library with texts going back centuries.
Second-chance mates.
Rare, but not unheard of. When a wolf loses their mate to death—not rejection, not betrayal, but death—it is said that sometimes the Moon Goddess shows mercy by granting them another chance at love.
The legend says it's supposed to be a GIFT.
A blessing after unspeakable loss.
But not like this. Never like this
I made my way to the mansion's private library—a smaller version of the pack's main collection, filled with books that the pack had accumulated over decades. My hands found the volume I needed almost automatically: Sacred Bonds and Divine Mercy by Elder Thornwood.
I flipped through the pages I'd once read years ago, back when James was still alive and second-chance mates were merely academic curiosity to me.
( The Moon Goddess, in her infinite wisdom, does not leave her children to suffer eternally. When a true mate bond is severed by death, she may grant another—not to replace what was lost, for that is impossible, but to offer healing. To show that love, though transformed, can bloom again.")
The next passage made my hands shake:
("However, the Goddess's timing is her own. Second-chance bonds may form immediately, or decades later. They may occur with wolves the widowed has known their entire lives, or complete strangers. The bond recognizes no barriers of age, rank, or circumstance—only the soul's compatibility." )
Age. Rank. Circumstance.
The book didn't mention family bonds. Didn't address what happened when the Moon Goddess's "mercy" destroyed a daughter's happiness.
I slammed the book closed, the sound sharp in the quiet room.
"I don't want this," I said to the empty air, to the Moon Goddess herself if she was listening. "I didn't ask for this. I was FINE. I'd made peace with being alone. Why would you do this to me? To Luna? To him?"
But there was no answer. Just the steady pull of the bond in my chest, pointing downstairs towards kade like a compass.
My wolf pushed against my consciousness again, but weaker this time. Not because she was giving up—but because denying the mate bond was causing her physical pain.
And i could feel it.
It was like a slow ache in my chest, spreading through my ribs and down my body. Like something inside me was being stretched too far.
This was the example of what happens when wolves reject their mates. When they denied the sacred bond the Moon Goddess created.
It hurt.
It was SUPPOSED to hurt.
The pain was both punishment and warning—a biological imperative demanding we follow our destined path.
But I am an Alpha. I have endured worse things that would have broken lesser wolves. I had held my pack together while grief tried to tear me apart. I had lived through rogue attacks, political threats, and years of pressure.
So I could endure this too.
I would HAVE to endure this.
Because acknowledging the bond by claiming kade as mine—would destroy and betray my daughter in the most fundamental way possible.
And I'd rather die than do that.
I walked to my vanity, catching my reflection in the mirror. My amber eyes were still glowing with my wolf, still fighting me for control. My silver was messy now, making me look devastated.
What does he think of me? A widowed Alpha old enough to be his mother, fighting a bond that neither of us asked for?
It doesn't matter what he thinks." I told my reflection firmly. "Or what I feel—none of it matters. Luna is my daughter. She loves him. She has built her entire future around him."
My wolf whimpered—actual distress now instead of rage.
"I know," I whispered, gentler. "I know it hurts. But we can't have him. We can't."
The pain intensified, spreading to my bones. This was just the beginning. If I continued to deny the bond, the pain would worsen. Days would become unbearable. Weeks might break me.
But It doesn't matter because i was stronger than this, and i will not submit to fate if fate was this cruel.
****
Twenty minutes later, I finally composed myself enough to return downstairs. I washed my face, fixed my hair, and reinforced every wall I'd built around my emotions over the past three years. My mask was back on—the mask of the calm, strong, and untouchable Alpha Selene Whitmore.
The pain was still there, beating under my ribs, but I could handle it. I would handle it.
When I walked down the grand staircase, the foyer was empty. But from the coat room, I heard voices—Luna's bright laugh, Marcus's deeper tone, and beneath them… Kade's voice. The voice that made my wolf ears perk up despite everything.
I forced myself to move toward the sound, with each step I took measured and deliberate.
They were near the front door. Luna was already wearing her coat, chattering happily. Kade stood slightly apart, his expression was neutral. Marcus was helping Luna with her scarf, but his eyes snapped to me the moment I appeared.
He could sense something was off with me. I saw it in the way he narrowed as he set his gaze on me. It was his Beta instinct to protect his Alpha kicking in even when he didn't understand the threat.
"Mom!" Luna's face lit up the moment she also spotted me. She ran to me and hugged me tightly, making a twist of guilt rise in my stomach. "Thank you so much for tonight—for welcoming Kade, for giving him a chance. I know you have been worried, but I told you—he's perfect."
Over her shoulder, I saw Kade flinch. Barely noticeable, but I caught it. And when Luna released me and I looked at him directly, I saw it all in his green eyes.
The same torment I felt.
The same desperate recognition.
The same understanding of how utterly, devastatingly wrong this situation was.
His jaw tightened. His hands clenched at his sides. His whole body was stiff with tension. From his reaction I could tell that he was fighting every instinct to stay still when everything in him wanted to move towards me.
I understood completely. Because I was doing the exact same thing.
"It was lovely to meet you, Kade," I said, using a polite, formal tone. The words tasted like lies. "Take care of my daughter."
His green eyes held mine for a moment too long. And in that moment, I saw everything—desire, guilt, and determination. telling me he was making the same choice as me.
"Always, Alpha," he said, his voice sounding soft and a little bit rough at the same time, "I'll protect her with my life."
The promise burned through both of us. Because we both knew what he was really saying:
(I'll stay away from you.
I'll do the right thing.
I won't destroy her happiness.)
Luna smiled brightly, unaware of the silent war happening around her. She grabbed Kade's hand and pulled him toward the door.
"We should go. I know today has been a long day for you and you need rest, and I need to get to work." She turned back to me, still smiling. "Dinner next week? Maybe at our place this time?"
"Perhaps," I said. "I'll check my schedule."
Marcus opened the door, and cool night air rushed in, carrying away some of Kade's scent—that pine and storm combination that my wolf mourned losing.
Luna led him out into the darkness. But at the last moment, Kade looked back.
Our eyes met one final time and the bond screamed in both of us.
Then he turned away, following Luna to the car parked in the circular drive. I watched through the open door as he opened her door first—the gentleman he'd been raised to be—before walking around to the driver's side.
The engine started. Headlights cut through the darkness. The car pulled away, taking him farther from me with every second.
The pain in my chest intensified until I had to press a hand against my ribs to keep me from gasping.
Marcus closed the door quietly. When he turned to me, his expression was grave.
"Selene..."
"Don't," I said, holding up a hand. "Whatever you think you saw, whatever you think you felt—don't."
"He's her mate," Marcus said softly. "Isn't he? Kade is Luna's true mate, and I think they just don't know it yet..." He said confirming that he didn't suspect a thing between me and kade.
"No." The word came out sharp, final. "He's not."
Marcus frowned, confused. "But I felt something. The energy in that room was..."
"It doesn't matter what you felt," I interrupted. "Luna has chosen him. They're building a life together. Sometimes wolves form bonds that aren't fated but are still strong and real. That's what this is."
It was a lie, and we both knew it. But Marcus, loyal Marcus who'd been my rock through everything, simply nodded.
"If you say so, Alpha."
After he left, I stood alone in the empty foyer, surrounded by portraits of past alphas who had led this pack through centuries of challenges. All of them were watching me now with painted eyes that seemed to judge.
I moved to the window, looking out at the dark forest, at the territory I'd protected and nurtured for three years alone.
Kade's car's taillights had disappeared down the long driveway. He was gone. Back to Silver Lake territory. Back to Luna's side where he belonged.
My wolf whimpered, in pain.
The ache in my chest kept pulsing like a second heartbeat.
This was my life now. This was the price of choosing my daughter's happiness over my own soul's longing.
"I will never acknowledge this bond," I whispered to the empty foyer, to the Moon Goddess, to fate itself. "Never."
The words felt like a vow and a curse at the same time.