Elle
The morning light filtered through Lena's thin curtains, pale and unforgiving. I had barely slept. The Council's threatening message still sat on my phone like a stone in my stomach.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Glen's face twisted in anger, heard Kai's small voice begging for my cooking instead of my presence, felt the sharp ache in my hip and the deeper, raw tearing in my chest. My body felt heavy, like gravity had doubled overnight. Luna Decay was not just killing me slowly. It was making every breath feel like borrowed time.
Lena had left early for work, promising to return by lunch. The apartment was quiet except for the low hum of the city outside. I sat at the small kitchen table with a cup of tea that had gone cold, staring at the suitcase I had dragged here the night before.
My hands still trembled slightly when I remembered the security guards blocking the elevator. Glen's orders. The Council's warning. The walls were closing in, and I was running out of air.
A sharp knock sounded on the door. Three firm raps. Not Lena's gentle knock.
My stomach dropped. I knew before I even stood up who it would be.
I opened the door to two men in crisp dark suits with the Pack Council emblem pinned to their lapels. They looked exactly like what they were: enforcers of order, men who had spent their lives making sure the hierarchy stayed exactly where it belonged. The taller one had cold eyes and a thin mouth. The shorter one carried a tablet and wore an expression of barely concealed disgust.
"Michelle Bellarie," the taller one said without greeting. "We are here on official Council business. May we come in?"
I wanted to slam the door in their faces. Instead, I stepped aside, my legs feeling like they belonged to someone else. Pain flared in my hip as I moved, a hot spike that made me bite the inside of my cheek. They entered without waiting for a proper invitation, their shoes clicking against the floor like judgment.
The taller one looked me up and down slowly, his lip curling. "So this is the wolfless human disgrace causing trouble for one of our finest Deltas. Pathetic."
The words landed like a punch to the gut. I felt heat rise in my cheeks, but I kept my spine straight even though my knees wanted to buckle. "What do you want?"
The shorter one tapped his tablet. "We have been informed that you are pursuing a divorce from Delta Glen White and considering return to the human Lower City. Both actions are unacceptable. The mate bond is sacred. Your son carries strong wolf blood. If you continue this foolish path, the Council will have no choice but to remove Kai from your care and place him in a proper werewolf household."
The threat hit harder than anything Glen had said. My breath caught painfully in my throat. Kai. They would take my son away from me. The boy I had nearly died to bring into the world. The boy who still sometimes looked at me with that small flicker of reliance even while learning to despise me for being human.
"You can't do that," I whispered, but my voice cracked. The pain in my chest sharpened, spreading outward until it felt like my ribs were cracking open. Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall in front of these men.
"We can and we will," the taller one replied coldly. "You are a human. You have no rights here beyond what your mate grants you. Continuing this rebellion will only prove what we have always known. Humans are weak. Unworthy. A disgrace to any pack they touch."
The shorter one nodded, his eyes flicking over me with open contempt. "Delta White has been patient with you. Many in the pack urged him to dissolve the secret bond years ago. He showed mercy. And this is how you repay him? By embarrassing him publicly and threatening to run back to the slums?"
Every word scraped against old wounds. Six years of swallowing insults. Six years of smiling while being treated like I was less. Six years of loving a man who never truly chose me in public. The pain was visceral now, a deep, burning tear that made my hands shake and my vision blur at the edges. I felt small again. Invisible. Worthless.
But something else stirred beneath the hurt.
The ECHO SYSTEM hummed to life in my head, responding to the spike in my emotions. A faint status window appeared.
[ECHO SYSTEM Level 3 – Neural Interface Strengthening]
[Opportunity detected.]
One of the men had left his neural tablet on the coffee table while he lectured me. It was still unlocked, glowing with Council documents. My mind reached for it instinctively, the same way I had reached for the elevator panel the night before. The System guided me. Lines of code flickered across my vision, simple at first, then clearer.
I focused.
The tablet screen glitched for half a second. Then a small file popped open on its own. A corruption record. Payments. Bribes from a rival pack to influence Council decisions on territory rights. Small enough to be hidden, big enough to matter.
I didn't plan it. The words simply left my mouth, calm and clear.
"You speak of loyalty and worth," I said, my voice steadier than I felt. "Yet one of you has been accepting payments from the Bloodfang pack to sway votes on eastern territory disputes. Three transfers last month. Account details are right here."
Both men froze. The taller one's face drained of color. The shorter one lunged for the tablet, but I had already stepped back. The System had copied the file and sent it to an anonymous drop I didn't even know I could access.
The taller one recovered first, but his voice had lost its earlier confidence. "How did you… That is a lie. Fabricated."
"It's not," I said quietly.
The air in the apartment grew thick. The shorter man's hands trembled as he snatched the tablet back. The taller one stared at me with new wariness, like he was seeing something dangerous for the first time.
They had come here to belittle a wolfless human, to threaten a powerless wife. Instead, they were facing someone who had just exposed their dirty secret with a thought.
For the first time, real power fantasy bloomed in my chest. It wasn't loud or flashy. It was quiet satisfaction mixed with the deep, aching pain that still tore through me. I had spent years being nothing to them. Now they were afraid of what I might do next.
The taller one straightened his jacket, trying to regain control. "This changes nothing. Pursue the divorce or attempt to leave, and Kai will be removed from your custody. Consider this your final warning."
They left without another word, the door closing behind them with a heavy click.
I sank onto the couch the moment they were gone, my legs finally giving out. The strength the System had given me during the confrontation faded, leaving me shaking and exhausted.
Tears came then, hot and silent, rolling down my cheeks as the full weight of the threat settled over me. They would take Kai. They would rip my son away and place him in a "proper" werewolf home where he would learn even more thoroughly how little his human mother mattered.
The pain was so vivid it felt physical. My chest constricted until breathing hurt. My hands curled into fists so tight my nails dug into my palms. I had sacrificed everything for that boy. Nearly died bringing him into the world. Stayed awake through fevers and nightmares. Loved him even when he started looking at me with disdain. And now the Council wanted to steal him because I dared to want freedom.
I pressed my forehead against my knees, sobs shaking my shoulders. The loneliness felt crushing. Glen had already replaced me in his heart. Kai was learning to do the same. And the pack saw me as nothing more than a mistake to be erased.
The soft blue notification appeared, gentle this time.
[ECHO SYSTEM Level 4 – Neural Dominion Unlocked]
[You successfully exposed corruption. Minor reward granted: Increased emotional resilience for 24 hours.]
The small boost eased the edge of the pain just enough for me to breathe again. But it didn't take it away. The hurt remained deep and real, a living wound that made every heartbeat ache.
I was still sitting there, trying to pull myself together, when the air in the room shimmered.
A holographic call materialized in the center of the living room. The figure that appeared was tall and commanding even in projection. Alpha Beck Rune.
He was strikingly handsome in a way that felt almost dangerous. Sharp jawline, dark hair swept back with effortless style, and piercing amber eyes that seemed to see straight through the hologram. His presence filled the space despite being only light and code. His voice, when it came, was smooth and rich, carrying the natural authority of someone who had commanded respect since birth.
"Interesting," Beck said, his gaze locking onto me with intense curiosity. A small, intrigued smile curved his lips. "I want to meet this wolfless Luna personally."
The projection held steady, his amber eyes never leaving mine. The Alpha of the most powerful pack in the city, CEO of Rune Dynamics, the man who spoke to other Alphas as equals and controlled vast territories and defense contracts with a single word, was now looking at me like I was something worth his full attention.
My heart stuttered. The pain in my chest mixed with a new, wary tension. Beck Rune was not just powerful. He was the kind of powerful that could change lives with a phone call. And right now, he was looking at me like I had just become very interesting indeed.