[ELENA'S POV]
The wedding altar stood before me, draped in white roses and silver ribbons, but all I could see was the ring on *her* finger.
My fiancé—no, my *mate*—had just slipped our bonding ring onto the hand of my bridesmaid, Sophia Chen, in front of three hundred pack members.
"I, Adrian Blackwood, Alpha of the Crescent Moon Pack, choose Sophia Chen as my true mate."
The words echoed through the ceremony hall. Someone gasped. My mother's hand flew to her mouth. But I just stood there, frozen, my white dress suddenly feeling like a costume for a play I'd never auditioned for.
Then I saw them—floating words appearing in my vision like translucent text messages:
*[Don't worry! The Alpha is just testing you! He wants to see you fight for him!]*
*[He's being stubborn! Cry a little and he'll give you everything!]*
*[Grab the ring back! He'll definitely put it on your finger himself!]*
What the hell?
I blinked hard, but the messages—these bizarre floating comments—didn't disappear. They just kept scrolling past my eyes like some kind of supernatural social media feed.
I looked up at Adrian. His ice-blue eyes watched me with barely concealed expectation, a slight smirk playing at his lips. He actually thought this was *working*. He thought I'd collapse, beg, make a scene.
The old Elena might have.
The Elena who'd spent five years pining after the future Alpha, accepting his hot-and-cold treatment, believing that his cruel games meant he cared.
But something snapped in that moment. Maybe it was seeing Sophia's triumphant smile. Maybe it was the three hundred pairs of eyes waiting to watch me humiliate myself. Or maybe it was those ridiculous floating messages telling me this was all some romantic test.
I picked up the microphone with steady hands.
"Congratulations to Alpha Blackwood and Miss Chen. May your bond be eternal."
The hall erupted in chaos.
[ADRIAN'S POV]
She wasn't supposed to say that.
Elena was supposed to cry, to rage, to *feel something*. That's how this worked. I'd seen it in my parents' relationship—my father would push, my mother would break down, and then he'd swoop in to comfort her. Proof of love. Proof of need.
Instead, Elena Sterling stood at the altar in her silk wedding gown, looking at me like I was a stranger who'd bumped into her on the street.
"What did you just say?" My voice came out harsher than intended.
My wolf snarled inside my chest. *Wrong. This is wrong. Our mate—*
I shoved the feeling down. My wolf had always been too soft where Elena was concerned.
"I said congratulations." Her green eyes were clear, untroubled. "I'm happy for both of you."
The Sterling pack and Blackwood pack had arranged this alliance six months ago. Our territories bordered each other, and a union between the Alpha families would create the most powerful pack on the East Coast. It was supposed to be simple—a political marriage that would benefit everyone.
But somewhere along the way, I'd started to want more. I wanted Elena to *need* me the way I found myself thinking about her. I wanted to see passion in those cool green eyes, wanted to crack that composed exterior she always wore.
So I'd pushed. Tested her. Kept her at arm's length while pulling her close. Classic Alpha behavior, right? Make her work for it. Make her prove her devotion.
Tonight was supposed to be the culmination—I'd give the ring to Sophia, Elena would lose her composure, and then I'd magnanimously choose Elena anyway. She'd be grateful, emotional, *mine*.
"Elena." My mother stepped forward, her voice sharp. "This is inappropriate. You and Adrian had an agreement."
"We did," Elena agreed calmly. "But Adrian just made a public declaration choosing another mate. That nullifies our agreement."
My father's face went purple. "Do you understand what you're doing? The Sterling pack needs this alliance!"
"Perhaps you should discuss that with your son. He's the one who broke the engagement." Elena turned to Sophia, who was still kneeling beside me, clutching the ring I'd so stupidly given her. "Sophia, aren't you going to thank the Alpha and his family for this opportunity?"
Sophia had been obsessed with me since high school. She was beautiful—dark hair, dark eyes, curves in all the right places—but she came from a minor pack family. Under normal circumstances, she'd never have a chance at being Luna.
Her eyes flickered with calculation before she prostrated herself fully. "Thank you, Alpha Blackwood. I'll be a worthy Luna."
"No—" I started to say, reaching for Elena.
But she'd already turned away, pulling out her phone like this was just another business meeting that had run long.
My wolf was howling now, clawing at my control. *Go after her. Fix this. She's leaving.*
The floating comments I'd started seeing a month ago—ever since that strange meteor shower—appeared in my vision:
*[The Alpha messed up big time…]*
*[He's panicking now! Look at his hands shaking!]*
*[This wasn't in the original plot! What's happening?]*
Original plot? What the hell did that mean?
I grabbed Elena's wrist as she walked past. "We're not done."
"Actually, we are." She pulled free with surprising strength. "Enjoy your wedding night, Alpha."
Then Elena Sterling, the woman I'd spent months trying to break down, walked out of our wedding ceremony without looking back once.
Chapter 3
[ELENA'S POV]
I made it to the parking lot before my hands started shaking.
The rational part of my brain was screaming that I'd just destroyed a critical pack alliance, embarrassed my family, and thrown away five years of… whatever Adrian and I had been.
But the rest of me felt lighter than I had in months.
My phone buzzed with messages:
*Mom: What are you doing?! Get back here!*
*Dad: Elena Marie Sterling, this is not how we raised you.*
*Aunt Claire: Honey, are you okay? I'm coming to find you.*
I ignored them all and opened my rideshare app. The wedding venue was an hour outside the city—plenty of time to figure out what the hell I was going to do next.
Those strange floating messages appeared again:
*[Go girl! But this is going to hurt later…]*
*[The Alpha will come after her for sure]*
*[Ten bucks says he shows up at her apartment within 24 hours]*
A car pulled up—black sedan, license plate matching my app. I slid into the back seat.
"Airport, please. International terminal."
The driver nodded and pulled away. Through the rear window, I watched the elegant stone venue disappear behind trees. Somewhere in there, Adrian was probably having a meltdown. Or maybe he wasn't. Maybe he was relieved.
My phone rang. Adrian's name flashed across the screen.
I declined the call.
It rang again immediately. Declined.
Then text messages started flooding in:
*Adrian: Pick up.*
*Adrian: Elena, this is childish.*
*Adrian: I know you're upset but we need to talk.*
*Adrian: Don't make me track you down.*
The last message made my wolf stir uneasily. Adrian was an Alpha—and a powerful one. If he wanted to find me, he absolutely could.
I opened a browser and searched for red-eye flights. London looked good. I'd always wanted to visit the British packs, and my college roommate had extended an open invitation to her family's territory in Cornwall.
The floating messages reappeared:
*[Ooh, running away to England? Classic!]*
*[The Alpha is definitely going to follow her]*
*[This is getting good…]*
"Excuse me," I asked the driver, "how fast can you get to the airport?"
He glanced at me in the rearview mirror, took in my wedding dress and probably my frantic expression. "Faster if you tip well."
"Done."
Twenty minutes later, I was power-walking through departures in a $10,000 Vera Wang gown, pulling my emergency go-bag (thank god for paranoid personality traits) behind me, and booking a one-way ticket to London Heathrow.
My phone wouldn't stop buzzing. Adrian's calls mixed with my parents, pack elders, even some of the wedding guests. I turned it off completely.
The gate agent's eyes widened when she saw me. "Miss, are you—is everything alright?"
"Wedding emergency," I said, which wasn't technically a lie. "I need to get on this flight."
Something in my face must have convinced her because she processed my ticket without further questions.
I found my seat—thank god for first class and last-minute bookings—and finally allowed myself to breathe.
I'd done it. I'd actually walked away from Adrian Blackwood.
The woman in the seat next to me was staring. "Honey, are you running from or to?"
I thought about it for a moment. "Both."
She laughed and ordered us both champagne. "Story of my life. I'm Margaret."
"Elena."
"Well, Elena, I don't know what he did, but any man who lets a woman walk away in that dress is an idiot."
If only she knew the half of it.
The plane pushed back from the gate. I watched through the window as Boston grew smaller below us, then disappeared entirely into clouds.
My phone, which I'd turned back on for airplane mode, showed 47 missed calls and over a hundred texts. The most recent from Adrian simply said:
*You're going to regret this.*
I deleted it and closed my eyes.
For the first time in five years, I was completely, utterly free.
[ADRIAN'S POV]
Three days.
Elena had been gone for three days, and I was losing my goddamn mind.
"Alpha, the Sterling pack representatives are here," my beta, Marcus, said carefully from the doorway of my office.
I didn't look up from the contract I'd been staring at for the past hour without reading a single word. "Tell them I'm busy."
"Sir, this is the third time we've rescheduled—"
"I said I'm busy!" The papers on my desk flew everywhere as my control slipped. Marcus's eyes flashed gold as his wolf responded to the Alpha command, but he held his ground.
"With all due respect, you're not busy. You're obsessing." He stepped inside and closed the door. "You need to fix this or move on. The pack is starting to worry."
Move on? My wolf snarled at the suggestion, clawing at my insides. We hadn't slept properly since Elena left. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw her face at the altar—calm, composed, utterly done with me.
"I know where she is," I said quietly.
Marcus sighed. "Adrian—"
"London. Cornwall specifically. She's staying with some college friend's pack." I'd had my trackers working overtime. It had cost me three favors and $50,000, but I'd found her.
"And what exactly are you going to do with that information? Drag her back? That worked so well the first time."
I finally looked up at him. Marcus had been my best friend since we were kids. He was one of the few wolves who could talk to me like this.
"I made a mistake," I admitted. The words felt like pulling teeth.
"You think?"
The floating messages appeared again, glowing in my peripheral vision:
[The Alpha is spiraling!]
[He hasn't eaten in three days]
[Someone needs to tell him the female lead is actually happy in England…]
Female lead? These messages were getting weirder. Ever since that meteor shower last month, I'd been seeing them. At first, I thought I was going crazy. Then I started to realize they were… predictions? Commentaries? I still didn't understand it.
But they'd been right about one thing—I'd pushed Elena too far.
"What about Sophia?" Marcus asked.
I growled. Sophia had been calling non-stop, convinced we were actually engaged now. "I never wanted Sophia. It was supposed to be a test—"
"A test Elena didn't know about and didn't agree to take." Marcus crossed his arms. "You treated your mate like a game, and you lost. Accept it."
"She's MY mate!" The windows rattled with the force of my Alpha voice. "The bond—"
"What bond? You never completed the mating ceremony. You never even told her you felt the mate pull, did you?"
I looked away. The answer was no. I'd felt the bond snap into place six months ago, the moment Elena had walked into the alliance negotiation meeting wearing that green dress that matched her eyes. It had nearly knocked me on my ass.
But I hadn't told her. I'd thought… I'd thought if she didn't know about the bond, I could make her choose me anyway. Make her fall for me on her own. Prove she wanted me, not just the mate bond.
Stupid. So fucking stupid.
"The pack merger is falling apart," Marcus continued. "Elena's father is furious. Your father is threatening to step back in as Alpha if you can't handle this. And Sophia is telling everyone who'll listen that she's going to be the next Luna."
"Over my dead body."
"Then do something about it." Marcus headed for the door. "But maybe this time, try actually talking to Elena instead of playing mind games."
After he left, I pulled up Elena's contact on my phone. The last message I'd sent—You're going to regret this—glared back at me.
I deleted it and typed something new:
I'm sorry. I was wrong. Please come home so we can talk.
I stared at it for a long moment, then deleted that too.
Words wouldn't fix this. I'd spent months using words to manipulate, to test, to push. Elena wouldn't believe anything I said now.
I needed to show her.
I opened my laptop and booked a flight to London.