"Luna, Alpha Ravyn has sent another divorce agreement." Beta Corvine's voice was careful, almost brittle, as if a single wrong word might shatter Luna Seraphine's fragile state of mind.
His Luna had been bedridden for months after saving the pack from a chemical attack, yet her husband, Alpha Ravyn, had not shown her any care or concern. He was currently outside celebrating with his new lover, Daisy, while he sent Corvine to deliver yet another divorce agreement.
This was already the seventh divorce agreement the Alpha forced him to deliver to his Luna.
"He said he would reconsider if you agreed to accept Daisy as your co-Luna. He's been telling the pack you'll accept it anyway, that you love him too much to go through with a divorce and…"
Corvine froze, the rest of his sentence died in his throat. Luna Seraphine's pale fingers reached out for the pen, and her movements were steady as she flipped through the papers and signed her name at the bottom of the document. There was no hesitation, and the room was filled with the quiet scratch of pen against paper. She handed the papers back to Beta Corvine, smiling gently at his shocked expression.
'Finally, you've learned your lesson after seven chances,' her wolf, Marsha, echoed in her mind. 'We are free of that wretched scum. This is the final time he can humiliate us!'
Yes. In her seven years of marriage, Seraphine had received a total of seven sets of divorce documents in her marriage to Alpha Ravyn.
The first had come before Ravyn traveled to the Grimroot Pack. Either she divorced him, or she allowed him to become the sole signatory to the pack's accounts.
The second arrived on their seventh wedding anniversary. He wanted Daisy, her former nanny's daughter, to move into the pack house like when they were little.
The third came on Seraphine's birthday. Daisy would be the nanny of their son Bryan, so Seraphine could 'focus on pack duties.'
The fourth arrived on Alpha Ravyn's own birthday, requesting Daisy as his personal assistant.
The fifth came after Daisy publicly humiliated her before the pack. Ravyn sent the papers and demanded Seraphine overlook the disrespect or accept the divorce.
The sixth arrived on Bryan's sixth birthday. Daisy should move into the Luna's chamber, since Seraphine "never used it anyway."
Each time, Seraphine had torn the papers apart in front of the beta, her expression calm even as her heart cracked a little further. With every refusal to divorce, Daisy managed to invade every part of her life and claim it for herself.
But this time Daisy and Ravyn had gone too far.
To accept Daisy as co-Luna was an insult to her dignity. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. Seraphine finally understood that her marriage had been dead long before today.
Whatever remained was no longer worth saving.
She was tired of fighting for Ravyn's attention, begging for his care, and waiting for affection that never came.
She would take her son and leave the pack for good.
While Alpha Ravyn was the second-richest man in New York City, few knew that much of that success rested on her shoulders. Her strategies, negotiations, and secret abilities strengthened his pack's administration, making it the second largest to the Grimroot pack.
As such, Seraphine knew she had the ability to give her son a good life, even if she left the pack.
"Luna…" Corvine finally breathed, eyes wide as he stared at the signed document. "Why did you sign this time?"
Seraphine looked up at him and smiled faintly. "My mother once told me that seven is the number of perfection," she said quietly. "If something can't be saved six times, it won't be saved on the seventh."
'You should have left him the very first chance you got,' Marsha complained. 'I have never liked him since I laid eyes on him. I still don't get what you saw in him all those years ago! That son of a bitch needs to die!'
'Language,' Seraphine scolded. 'His parents have always been good to me. They treated me better than even my own.'
'You are right about that,' Marsha said apologetically, but then she continued to rage about Ravyn. 'That bastard Ravyn deserves to burn in hell!'
Seraphine agreed, but she had other more important priorities. Bryan must be missing her. She peeled the sheet away and swung her legs over the side of the bed.
Corvine gasped. "Luna! You can walk?"
Everyone thought that the chemical attack had left her paralyzed. Even doctors had written her off as a lost cause. But she had her own medical skills that she had painstakingly honed to treat her own condition, along with Marsha's own healing ability.
Now she could walk again. Pain flared with her every step she took, sharp and warning, but she only endured it. After spending two months bedridden, she welcomed pain that came from walking on her own two feet.
Her lips curled into a smirk, but she said nothing. Two months confined to a bed and one month of slow recovery had given her more than enough time to think, and the realization was simple.
A broken marriage was like a cracked egg. No matter how carefully you tried, it could never be put back together.
"Tell Ravyn," she said calmly, "that a co-Luna won't be necessary. He should just make her Luna once the divorce is finalized."
Corvine didn't argue. Secretly, he was happy to see her resolve in walking away from the people unworthy of her sacrifice.
Luna Seraphine had been the most powerful Luna the pack had ever known, except her own husband had never appreciated or acknowledged it. Their union had been a mistake from the very beginning.
Years ago, watching humans freely choose who they loved, the packs had envied them. The elders had begged the Moon Goddess to free them from the mate bond. Their wish was granted, and with it came lust, infidelity, and fractured loyalties.
Men like Alpha Ravyn had no idea how complicated human love truly was, like the freedom to desire many, yet willingly commit to one. Instead, he despised being bound to Seraphine.
If that fateful night had never happened, he would never have married her at all.
But Seraphine could never hate that night, for it gave her Byran.
As Seraphine opened the hospital door, loud, celebratory music crashed into her ears, as if mocking her lack of invitation.
"What's going on?" she asked.
Corvine lowered his head shamefully. "The coronation ceremony. Alpha Ravyn is announcing Daisy as co-Luna. Alphas from other packs were invited without their Lunas. He said you wouldn't dare refuse."
Seraphine smiled, but her eyes were empty. She knew the Lunas would have stood against such injustice.
Marsha howled in outrage. 'The nerve! I'm going to rip his throat out!'
"I see," Seraphine kept her calm as she took back the divorce papers and walked out of the pack hospital, still dressed in her thin hospital gown. It seemed like she had to confront her future ex-husband before meeting her son.
Corvine opened his mouth to stop her, but words failed him when he caught the determined look in her eyes. From a distance, the music grew louder. Pack members she had bled for stared as she passed, their eyes filled with confusion, curiosity, and disbelief.
When she entered the ceremonial hall, the room fell apart. Gasps rippled through the crowd.
"Luna Seraphine?"
"She's alive?"
"She's walking, no wheelchair, no crutches…" they were too shocked to say anymore.
'What has that garbage and that bitch been telling people?' Marsha roared angrily. 'How could they believe that we'll die so easily?!'
Seraphina knew Ravyn and Daisy must have been spreading tales.
Alpha Ravyn, handsome, composed, powerful, froze mid-speech. "Sera," he said, voice soft but eyes glacial. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be recovering?"
Yes, that was Ravyn. Keeping up his appearance among guests and pack members with gentle words wrapped in a frozen gaze. Never once had he looked at her the way he looked at Daisy.
'Sera, allow me now,' Marsha stirred inside her, trying to take over but Seraphine did not give her the chance.
'Not yet. Besides, there are many Alphas. Our strength would not match theirs. Don't fight the enemy in their comfort zone.'
Marsha was calmed by Seraphine's words, knowing her human had a plan.
"Is that Luna Seraphine?" One of the guests whispered. "She looks… diminished."
Her hair was dull from weeks without proper care. Her skin was pale from sickness. The hospital gown clung awkwardly to her frame, painfully out of place among silk and jewels.
Seraphine ignored them all. Before Ravyn could reach her, she stepped forward and pressed the papers into his chest, stunning him.
"You're free to make her your only Luna," her eyes were equally cold as she gazed at Ravyn. "I've signed the divorce papers."