When the Luna Walked Away

The night I bled into the earth, I stopped being his Luna.

I remember the cold sting of betrayal more clearly than the blood matting my fur. The rogue attack came swift and brutal, ripping through the silence like a blade. I was fightingfighting for my pack, for my life, for the tiny heartbeat fluttering in my womb that Martin didnt even know about.

He should have been at my side.

Instead, through the chaos, I saw him veernot toward me, not toward the Luna he had sworn to protectbut to her.

Marcella.

Even now, the memory burns like acid. Her crimson hair was a flame in the moonlight, her scream slicing through the din. She faltered as a rogue lungedand Martin ran. I watched it happen. He didnt hesitate. He didnt look back.

He chose her.

Not once, not in a moment of peace or confusion. But in battle, when choices cut deepest.

I shifted mid-lunge, fur tearing through skin as my wolf took control. A rogues fangs snapped inches from my throat, but I met it with a snarl and steel-edged fury. My claws slashed, my jaws crushed bone. Still, I fought alone.

Nearby, he shielded her with his own body.

Alpha, I roared through the mind-link, pain blistering my voice. He didnt respond. Maybe he didnt hear meor maybe my voice no longer reached him.

It was then I knew.

The pup inside me would never know his fathers love, only the shadow of his absence.

---

Hours before the ambush, I had ridden behind Martin, watching the way his shoulders tensed beneath his black coat.

He didnt glance back at me, not once. Marcella, thoughshe rode beside him like she belonged there. Every brush of her hand, every flicker of her gaze, was met with a response. A smile. A softening.

She was newer to the pack than most. An outsider once, now seemingly his second heartbeat.

My fingers curled around the reins tighter. My wolf growled in my chest, restless. We were Luna. Or we used to be.

I hadnt told him about the pregnancy. The timing had never felt right. His attention was always on someone else. How do you share a joy when the person you love looks at another like shes his future?

I had waited for a better moment.

It never came.

---

Back in the battlefield, blood soaked the ground like spilled ink.

The clash of teeth and snarls still echoed, but my fight was over. One of the rogues had gotten closetoo close. Its claws slashed across my stomach and I fell, hard, the pain immediate and consuming.

But it wasnt just the gash that stole my breath.

Something deeper broke inside me. A severing. A silence.

I pressed a trembling hand to my abdomen, my claws retracting as the shift faded. I didnt need a healer to tell me. I felt it. The absence where there had been a spark.

No. The word was air and grief and denial.

My world tilted. My body ached, my heart bled, and stillhe hadnt looked back.

---

After that night, nothing remained.

Not my trust. Not my pup. Not the illusion of love I once clung to.

The bond between us, once strong and shimmering, now frayed like a torn banner in the wind. I dont know if it can be mended. I dont know if I want it to be.

All I know is this: I will rise from what he left behind.

Even if I have to become the very thing that haunts the night.

The days after the rogue attack dragged by like an endless winter. Though I returned to my duties as Luna, everything felt alteredoff-kilter in a way that couldnt be undone. I tried to fall back into routine, to carry on as though nothing had changed. But everything had. Especially me.

The pack carried on with their lives, laughing, training, working as though that night hadnt carved a hollow space inside me. But I hadnt healed. I couldnt. Not when I was the only one mourning a life no one else even knew had existed. Martin remained blissfully unaware. And he would stay that way. I couldnt tell himnot now. Not when his loyalty, his affection, his gazehad long since drifted elsewhere.

I buried myself in obligation. Dawn patrols. Combat drills. Council briefings. Each task I completed felt more like a performance than a purpose. I wasnt leadingI was surviving. A ghost wrapped in Lunas skin.

It didnt take long before the murmurs started.

Have you seen Luna Ella?

She barely speaks to anyone lately.

Maybe the trauma changed her

They thought I was out of earshot. They thought their whispers didnt reach me. But they did. And I let them talk. Let them speculate. It didnt matter anymore.

---

That afternoon, I was standing near the sparring ring, watching two young warriors clash with the easy confidence of those who still believed themselves invincible. My arms were crossed, my mind far away, when I felt a familiar presence draw near.

Even before he stepped into view, I knew it was him.

The scent hit firstpine needles and damp soil. The scent of home. Or what used to be.

My wolf stirred at the familiarity, but I pushed her back. She had cried for him long enough. Not today.

Ella. His voice was lower than usual, tinged with caution. Like he knew something had fractured between us but couldnt name it.

I turned, my gaze cool and unwavering. What do you want, Alpha?

His expression flickered with something that looked like concern, but I didnt trust it anymore. Too little, too late.

Youve been... distant, he said carefully. The pack notices. They need their Luna.

I laughed, a sharp, humorless sound. They need someone who gives a damn. Right now, thats not me.

He stepped forward, frowning. Youve always been strong. Youve held this pack together during harder times than this.

My jaw tightened. The restraint Id clung to for weeks began to slip. Do you think I exist just to be strong for others? To smile and nod while Im crumbling inside? Im not here to be your convenient Luna. I wont keep pretending everything is fine just because its easier for you.

He straightened, his jaw clenched. Thats not what I think of you.

Isnt it? My voice rose, sharper than I intended. Since the moment Marcella showed up, youve been blind to everything else. Blind to me. She so much as blinks wrong and youre at her side. Meanwhile, I was dying right in front of you.

Martins mouth opened, then closed again. He looked stunned. This has nothing to do with Marcella.

This has everything to do with her, I snapped. Every moment you rushed to her. Every time you passed me over like I didnt exist. You might not have meant to choose her, but you did. Repeatedly.

He looked down, a flicker of shame crossing his features. I was trying to protect her.

I know, I said, cutting him off before he could continue. I understand your role. Youre Alpha. You protect the pack. But that night? That ambush? You didnt protect me. You didnt even ask if I was okay. You looked right through me.

He stood there, still and silent.

I lost something that day, Martin, I said quietly, the words tasting like rust. And you didnt notice. You didnt ask. You didnt care.

He finally spoke, his voice hoarse. What do you mean? What did you lose?

The truth clawed at my throat, begging to be released. I lost our child, I wanted to scream. But the words never came.

What would it change? He hadnt known. He hadnt seen me. And now now it was too late.

Leaving wasnt a snap decisionit was the slow unraveling of years spent in quiet agony. A gradual erosion of trust built on moments I tried to dismiss, on hopes I desperately clung to. I kept telling myself hed come back to me. That the way he looked at Marcella wasnt what it seemed. That his attention would eventually return to where it belongedwith me. But deep down, I knew I was only fooling myself.

Every stolen glance between them, every time he stood by her side instead of mine, chipped away at the love I had for him. I watched myself shrink in the space where I once stood proudly as his mate. I remained quiet, watching the man who vowed to protect and cherish me give the best parts of himself to someone else. For so long, I had refused to see the truth. I believed the strength of our bond would be enough. But it wasnt.

The night of the attack forced me to look at reality without the veil of denial. What I witnessed then couldnt be undone. That single moment confirmed what I had been unwilling to accept for years: Martin had already left me in every way that mattered. The only thing still binding us was memoryand even that was fading.

I sat in our room that evening, beside the wide window where moonlight spilled across the floor. My eyes drifted over the shadows, but all I could see were the memories. Not of one major betrayal, but of countless tiny ones. Little things that added up until I could no longer carry their weight.

It began slowly, almost innocently. Marcella was a newcomer then, the daughter of another packs Alpha. Martin had welcomed her with the kind of attentiveness hed once reserved for me. I brushed it off, telling myself it was part of his dutydiplomatic courtesy, nothing more.

But then came the nights he didnt show up for dinner. The mornings I found them training alone, laughing like old friends while I lingered in the background. Meetings that were postponed or forgotten altogether, replaced with vague reasons involving pack strategy or inter-pack relations. Each excuse gave me another reason to swallow my disappointment. Each time, I told myself this was temporary. That he still loved me. That I was overreacting.

But that lie shattered during the ambush.

In the middle of chaos, instinct should have guided him. And his instinct drove him toward her. Not me. Not the Luna. Not the mother of his unborn child. He didnt even glance in my direction. He didnt hesitate. His choice in that moment said everything. And something in mesomething vitalfractured.

I understood then that I had become background noise to him. A presence, a duty, but no longer a priority.

Now, seated in silence and staring at the half-packed bag on the floor, I knew what I had to do. I couldnt keep surviving in a space where I was invisible. Where love was an afterthought and loyalty a fading promise.

I moved toward the desk, my footsteps muffled by the thick rug beneath my feet. My chest ached, but it wasnt grief anymoreit was clarity. Strange, how that realization brought a sense of freedom. Not peace, exactly. But release.

With a trembling hand, I picked up the pen. The blank paper before me seemed to mock the years Id spent trying to fix something that was already broken. What words could ever express the quiet devastation of being forgotten?

Still, I wrote.

Martin,

I spent so long holding on, believing we could find our way back. That all thisyour distance, your silence, your choiceswere temporary. I convinced myself that your heart still belonged to me, even when all the signs pointed elsewhere.

But its clear now. Youve been slipping away from me for years. And Ive let it happen, telling myself that love meant patience. That it meant staying, even when staying hurt.

I know now that love doesnt mean becoming invisible. It doesnt mean standing in the shadow of another woman while my mate looks through me like I was never there. Youve chosen Marcella in ways you wont admit. And maybe you think you havent. Maybe youll deny it. But Ive seen the truth in your actions.

I cant continue to exist in this bond, not like this. Not when its one-sided. I deserve to be seen. To be valued.

This is where I end it.

Ella

I signed it with steady hands, my decision made. There was no turning back now. And for the first time in a long while, I wasnt afraid.