Chapter 1
On our sixth anniversary, I carried two gifts into Alpha Travis Wolfe’s Alpha office, a black velvet box with the keys to the Lamborghini Revuelto he’d been obsessing over, and a pregnancy test with two pink lines. Tonight, I wanted to give him everything: the car of his dreams, and the news that he’d be a father again.
But the moment I stepped inside, my world shattered.
Alpha Travis Wolfe wasn’t alone. Lorie Hale, my best friend, my daughter’s Luna-godmother, sat on his desk, blouse undone, lips swollen, his hand gripping her thigh.
My wolf whimpered inside me, claws scraping against my skin, but the worst wasn’t what I saw; it was what I heard. Alpha Travis Wolfe’s phone rang. His irritated growl snapped through the room: “I paid you to keep quiet. I gave you the money so you’d give the heart to Lorie Hale, not Joan. Joan’s dead now.”
The ground vanished beneath me. Joan, our little pup, was supposed to have her miracle. I signed the “alliance papers” Alpha Travis Wolfe gave me, trusting my mate. But he tricked me. My daughter’s heart hadn’t gone out to her. It had gone to Lorie Hale.
When he ended the call, Lorie Hale smiled sweetly, brushing her fingers over his chest as if what I had just heard wasn’t enough to rip me in half.
“I still can’t believe you did all that for me,” she whispered. “You really gave me her heart.”
The betrayal tore me apart. My Alpha. My best friend. My pup’s murderer.
And I had signed her death.
So I packed my things and walked away, a quiet promise burning behind my teeth: I will make them ache for what they stole. A Luna’s hunt begins when her wolf is crushed, and she turns pain into blood.
--
Stella’s POV
The night was ripe with secrets. I could smell it before I even stepped into his office.
My wolf stirred inside me, restless beneath my skin, as if she already sensed what my human heart was too naive to see. Tonight was supposed to be perfect, our sixth anniversary.
A night of surprises, of love, of renewal. I had gone to Alpha Travis Wolfe’s office, my mate and the leader of the Wolfe Pack, clutching two gifts,symbols of the life we were supposed to have built together.
In one hand, I carried a black velvet box. Inside was the key to a Lamborghini Revuelto, a car Travis had been obsessing over for months. It had taken every connection, every string I could pull within the pack to get it for him. But I had done it, because he was my mate, my husband, my world.
On the other hand was something far more precious. A pregnancy test with two faint pink lines. Proof of new life growing inside me. A promise. A second chance at joy after so much grief.
My lips curved into a wide smile as I pushed open his office door without knocking, eager to see the look on his face when I handed him both gifts.
I almost wished I hadn’t.
Because what I walked into changed everything.
Alpha Travis wasn’t alone.
Lorie Hale, my best friend, sat perched on his desk like she owned it, her blouse gaping open, her lips bruised and swollen. She whimpered softly as his mouth devoured hers, his hands gripping her thighs possessively. His tie hung loose around his neck, the scent of desire thick in the air.
My wolf growled low in my chest, its claws pressing against my skin from the inside. My best friend. My mate. Together.
For a long, agonizing moment, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. The keys dug into my palm, the test trembled in my fingers, but I was frozen, staring at the scene before me like it was some twisted nightmare.
Because it couldn’t be true.
Lorie, who had been with me in the delivery room when my daughter Joan was born. Lorie, who had sworn to be Joan’s godmother. Lorie, who held me when I cried after the endless nights of waiting for a miracle.
And now she sat there whimpering beneath my husband’s touch.
The betrayal was a blade shoved straight into my chest. My breath hitched, my vision blurred with hot tears, and my wolf howled in anguish within me.
I wanted to scream, to shift, to rip Lorie away from him and tear her throat out. But my body was frozen in place, rooted to the doorway.
Then his phone rang.
Alpha Travis winced in irritation and pulled away from Lorie’s lips. His hand, however, never left her thigh as he snatched up the phone.
“What do you want now?” he snarled, his voice sharp and laced with menace. “I paid you to keep quiet. Don’t test me.”
Lorie pouted, her hand sliding over his chest, possessive and smug.
“I already gave you a huge amount for the transplant,” Alpha Travis hissed into the phone. “You know how much I’ve spent to make this disappear.”
The word froze my blood. Transplant.
My wolf went eerily still. My ears rang as I forced myself to listen, every instinct sharpening to predator’s focus.
I couldn’t hear the reply from the other end, but Travis’s voice cracked through the room, vicious and cold. “I already gave you the money so that you would give the heart to Lorie, not Joan. Joan is dead now, so why are you trying to threaten me?”
My knees buckled. The floor seemed to tilt beneath me.
My daughter’s heart… given to Lorie?
No. No, that wasn’t possible. My mind clawed against the thought, but Travis’s next words gutted me.
“Do not call me again, Doctor,” he spat. “If this leaks, I’ll ruin you.”
When he ended the call, Lorie smiled sweetly, brushing her fingers over his chest as if what I had just heard wasn’t enough to rip me in half.
“I still can’t believe you did all that for me,” she whispered. “You really gave me her heart.”
Alpha Travis kissed her wrist, his eyes filled with devotion that had never been mine. “I told you, Lorie. I’d do anything for you. Stella was too stupid to even notice. She signed the transplant papers herself. I told her it was a merger contract, and she didn’t even read it.”
A strangled breath escaped me, muffled by Lorie’s soft giggle.
Two months ago, the call had come, a perfect heart for Joan, after three long years on the list. I had dropped to my knees, sobbing with joy, because finally, finally, my baby girl was going to live.
Two days later, Joan was dead. Travis had told me there were complications, and I had believed him.
But now I know.
He killed our daughter. He killed her for Lorie Hale.
The wolf inside me thrashed, her fury burning hotter than fire. The mate bond that had once bound us snapped and frayed in my chest, leaving only agony in its wake.
Lorie, my best friend, my daughter’s godmother, had let me cry on her shoulder while Joan’s heart beat inside her chest.
Bile rose in my throat. My hands trembled violently around the gifts I had brought. One symbolizes Travis’s greed, the other our lost innocence. Both are now meaningless.
I should have stormed into that room and torn them apart with fang and claw. But the shock anchored me to the spot, a silent witness to the depth of their betrayal.
I stood there in the doorway, clutching the pregnancy test so tightly my knuckles burned white, the plastic biting into my palm. Neither Alpha Travis nor Lorie even looked at me. They didn’t know I was there. They didn’t see the storm breaking in my chest, the fire tearing through my veins. Their laughter, their whispers, their touch, it was all for each other. Not for me. Not for the mate who carried his child. I pressed the test harder into my hand, as if the pain could anchor me, as if it could stop me from shattering. But nothing could drown out the truth; they had already erased me.
And then it hit me, sharp and undeniable.
I wasn’t just Stella Wolfe anymore. I was the mother of a murdered child. A betrayed mate. And a wolf scorned.
And wolves don’t forgive.
They thought I was the woman too weak to see, too blind to strike back.
They were wrong. The fire in my chest was a wolf’s hunger, hot, patient, and inevitable.
They hadn’t just betrayed me. They had woken the animal inside me, and she would tear them both apart.
Chapter 2
Stella’s POV
Lorie’s laugh was a silk blade that cut through whatever was left of me.
“But Alpha Travis… what if Stella finds out? Aren’t you worried about what she might do?” she whispered, the words coiled with false concern.
Alpha Travis’s chuckle was venomous. “Stella? Please. She’s nothing without me. She cut her family off for me, and now she has no one. She’s powerless. If she dares misbehave, I’ll toss her to the streets where she belongs.”
They said my name like a sentence already carried out, like they had written the ending of my life long before I stepped into that room.
The gift box slid from my hand and hit the floor with a dull thud, swallowed by their whimpers. They didn’t notice. Why would they? They thought I was blind.
Lorie had sat with me the night Joan’s heart first failed, holding my hand under the sterile hospital lights. She had whispered that Joan was her light too, swearing my daughter lived on inside her. But those words had been lies, sweet poison wrapped around a stolen heartbeat.
I stumbled back, the walls closing in like a coffin. My chest burned hollow, my vision blurred, my sobs trapped in my throat until I collapsed onto the couch. The wolf inside me prowled and snarled, hungry for the smell of betrayal, for the taste of guilty flesh.
My phone buzzed. Lorie had posted: her smile pressed against a man whose face was cropped away, his hand cradling her swollen belly. The watch on his wrist gleamed, the one I had given Alpha Travis. I knew its curve like the lines of my own hand.
Counting down the weeks till we meet our little miracle, her caption read.
Something inside me shattered. The keys to the Lamborghini, the pregnancy test, symbols of my foolish hope, went flying. I smashed the velvet box against the wall until my palms bled.
In the bathroom, bile burned my throat as I retched up betrayal. On the cold tile, tears finally fell in silence as every memory replayed: the merger contract I hadn’t read, Travis’s smile when he called Joan’s transplant a miracle, the way my hands shook with relief, believing my child might live.
I had been stupid. I had been blind.
Or I had been trusting. That felt worse.
He called me a nobody. Believed I had no one. Thought I had cut ties with my blood, abandoned the Stormfang Pack by choice. He underestimated what still lived inside me.
Under the bruise of grief, something colder rose, a resolve forged in the marrow of the wolf. Alpha Travis had taken my signature and turned it into a death sentence for my child. He had traded blood for luxury, loyalty for a mistress, truth for a lie.
My hand shook as I dialed a number I had sworn never to touch again. Each ring tolled like a war drum, summoning something far darker than revenge.
“Hello?” My father’s voice came through, clipped and incredulous.
“Hello, Father,” I said, steadying my voice into something that was more blade than tremor. “I’m ready to marry whoever you want me to. Come and pick me up in five days, after I finalize the divorce.”
There was a pause in the line, like he was measuring the consequences of hope.
“Divorce? I thought you were hopelessly in love with Alpha Travis Wolfe. Why the sudden change of heart?”
“He killed my daughter,” I said. The words left the tip of my mouth and fell like a sentence. “And I want him to pay.”
My father’s voice hardened, sharp as iron. “I warned you. He was never worthy of a Stormfang. Come home. Your brothers have been waiting.”
A bright, bitter laugh escaped me. The memory of slamming the door in their faces, of shouting that I was mine to choose, of the pride that had kept me from returning prowled behind my ribs. My brothers, loud and violent and fiercely loyal, the kind of loyalty that did not tolerate treachery, had been waiting for me.
I had turned my back on them for a lie, wearing a tuxedo.
“Tell them I’m coming home,” I whispered, and the words tasted like a vow. I hung up and looked around the house at the life I’d built, which now felt like a stage set for some grotesque play. In five days, I would be gone, but I would not leave empty-handed.
Grief is a forge. Betrayal sharpens the tools within it.
I thought of what my father had warned me about, pack ties, about bloodlines older than contracts. The Stormfang Pack name was not only a wealthy brand, it was also a legacy of wolves, of leaders whose bite had shaped territories and treaties.
For years, I’d tried to be human, polished, grateful, small, the Luna Alpha Travis wanted. Now the wolf in me rose without apology.
He’d assumed my distance from the pack meant I was severed. He was wrong. Bonds run deeper than paper. Stormfang blood remembers.
The mate bond snapped like a brittle thread under the weight of his betrayal. Pain flared, anger braided with a grief that cut like steel. A low, animal howl rolled up my throat and set the frames trembling. This wasn’t the end; it was the prelude.
I would return to the fold changed. The Stella who left would not be the Stella who came back. I would bring fear, consequence, and revenge. First, divorce, quiet, precise legal warfare, then leverage. Evidence, witnesses, whispers in the right ears. I’d unmake the reputations of the bought doctors and show the city the Wolfe name was not untouchable.
But the wolf wanted more than paper ruin. She wanted personal change, to scent the traitor’s marrow and make it howl. Lorie, who cradled my child’s heart like a trophy, would learn there are wounds no caption can soothe.
I closed my eyes, felt the moonless night settle beyond my windows. The pack is patient. The Stormfang Pack is patient. We wait, and then we move like winter storms, inevitable and devastating.
I stood, steadied by the dull, steady ache of grief that had become armor. I would let Alpha Travis think I was small, that I had no one. Let him sleep more easily for a few nights under that delusion. Then I would return, and the ground would shift beneath his feet.
I whispered the vow I had said in the hospital when I had held my daughter’s tiny hand, I would not let Joan’s name be swallowed. I would unmake everything he had built.
Wolves don’t forget. Wolves don’t forgive easily. But wolves do remember how to hunt.
And the Stormfang Pack? We never forget the taste of our own.
Chapter 3
Stella’s POV
I didn’t wait. As soon as I hung up with my father, I grabbed the first suitcase I could find and dragged it across the floor to the bedroom. My hands shook so violently I could barely grip the zipper, but I forced myself to move. There was no time to think. If I stopped, even for a second, I knew I would fall apart under the weight of everything I had just learned.
I yanked open drawers, pulling out clothes without care, shoving them into the bag in messy handfuls. My wolf stirred beneath my skin, restless and prowling, as though sensing the storm closing in around me. She hated this weakness, hated the salt of my tears as they slipped down my cheeks.
Then my hand froze.
It had landed on a dress. The one Joan loved most. She had spun around me in the mirror once, clapping her tiny hands, saying, “Mommy, you look like a princess in this.”
The fabric crumpled in my grip as my chest tightened, breath catching painfully. I swallowed hard, blinking against the tears burning in my eyes. Not now. Not when the enemy was so close.
I shoved the dress into the suitcase and slammed the drawer shut.
The door creaked open behind me.
“Stella?” Alpha Travis’s voice slid into the room, smooth as poison. “What are you doing?”
I snapped the suitcase shut and forced a smile onto my lips, the mask of a dutiful wife. My wolf snarled at the lie, but I silenced her with sheer will.
“Just rearranging my closet,” I said lightly, turning to face him.
His eyes narrowed, scanning the room. He didn’t believe me. He was too practiced at deceit not to recognize it in others. But before he could say another word, another voice pierced the air.
“Hey, Stella.”
I froze.
Lorie.
My stomach twisted violently, bile rising in my throat. I hadn’t realized Alpha Travis had dragged her here, into my territory, into my den.
My eyes locked on her chest before I could stop myself, on the place where my daughter’s heart beat like a stolen jewel. My wolf slammed against my ribs, snarling, demanding I rip her open and take it back.
I dug my claws into my palms until the skin split, grounding myself in the sting. She carried my child’s heart and dared to smile.
I said nothing. If I spoke, it would be a howl that never ended.
Then I saw the bags, two sleek designer suitcases glinting behind Alpha Travis. My brow furrowed.
He followed my gaze, lips curling into what he thought was a reassuring smile.
“Lorie is going to be staying with us for a while.”
Ice touched through my veins. “What?”
Before he could spin his web of lies, Lorie stepped forward with a little laugh, her hand dropping to her stomach. “Didn’t you hear? I’m pregnant.”
She rubbed her belly, lips curling into a smile so wide my wolf wanted to shred it from her face. She waited for me to scream, to embrace her, to weep in joy.
Instead, I arched a brow. “And?”
Her smile faltered. For a flicker of a second, the mask cracked, and I saw her true face. The manipulator beneath the innocence, the thief who had gutted my life and still dared to play saint. Her lower lip trembled as she quickly rearranged her features into something fragile.
“I thought you would be happy for me, Stella. After everything we’ve been through.”
Happy?
The word burned through me like acid. What exactly was I supposed to be happy about?
That she carried my husband’s child, with my daughter’s heart inside her chest?
Before I could answer, Alpha Travis cut in, his tone laced with irritation. “Stella, what is wrong with you? She’s your best friend. You should be happy for her. Instead, you’re acting jealous and bitter.”
I turned to him slowly, a sneer curling across my lips. Jealous? Bitter?
“Jealous?” My voice was cold, dripping with venom. “Why on earth would I be jealous?”
His eyes flashed with something ugly, and then he said it. “Because she’s having a baby, and you-” He stopped himself, but it was too late. The words had already pierced me like daggers.
Because I lost mine.
Because he killed mine.
My breath came sharp, but I forced calm into my voice. “Then tell me, Alpha Travis,” I said softly, pointing at Lorie. “Why is she moving in here? Why does she suddenly need to live in my house?”
His jaw tightened, and he stepped closer. “Because she shouldn’t be alone right now. She needs us. She needs help. That baby needs support.”
Us.
“Yes,” Lorie chimed in, her voice soft and pitiful. “It’s just until things settle down. I thought you, of all people, would understand.”
“Exactly,” Alpha Travis said firmly. “She’s family, Stella.”
I laughed, sharp and bitter. “She’s not my family,” I spat.
Lorie flinched, her fake innocence cracking, while Alpha Travis’s face hardened with disapproval.
“Why are you jealous of her happiness, Stella? Instead of celebrating with her, you’re acting pathetic.” He pointed at me with disgust, his voice rising. “Pathetic.”
The word sliced deep, but I didn’t flinch. I tilted my head, letting a bitter smile curve my lips as my wolf’s golden eyes flashed behind my gaze.
“With the way you’re acting, I have to ask, Alpha Travis,” I murmured, my tone razor-sharp, “is it your child?”
The room froze.
Alpha Travis’s jaw ticked. Lorie’s eyes widened in mock shock, her hand tightening protectively over her stomach.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Alpha Travis snapped, too quickly. “Of course it’s not mine.”
“Really?” I lifted an eyebrow. “Then why is she moving in with us? Why are you so defensive?”
“She’s alone, Stella!” Alpha Travis barked, his voice rising with frustration. “She has no one else, and she’s carrying a child. What kind of monster would turn her away?”
What kind of monster would kill his own daughter? The thought screamed in my head, but I swallowed it down before it could slip past my lips.
Instead, I deliberately turned back to the suitcase, gripping the zipper with steady hands. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” I said evenly, “I’d like to finish rearranging my closet.”
For a moment, silence hung heavily in the room, tension thick enough to overwhelm. Then Alpha Travis murmured something to Lorie, and together they walked out.
The moment the door clicked shut, my smile dropped.
My hands shook as I gripped the suitcase, and my wolf growled low in my chest, her fury rumbling through my veins. She wanted to go out. She wanted to hunt. She wanted revenge.
And as I stood there, shaking with grief and rage, I realized something.
The countdown had begun.
Alpha Travis thought he had caged me. Lorie thought she had stolen everything that mattered. But they had no idea who I truly was or the pack I belonged to.
They had awakened something ancient inside me. Something stronger than grief, stronger than betrayal.
They awakened the wolf.
Chapter 4
Stella’s POV
That night, sleep abandoned me like a fickle ghost, leaving me adrift in a darkness that pulsed with secrets. I lay on the edge of our bed, staring at the shadows on the ceiling, though my wolf painted the truth clearer than sight. The air reeked of betrayal, a sour tang beneath the sandalwood musk of my mate. Alpha Travis’s breathing was steady but shallow, and my wolf caught every tremor of his heartbeat. At midnight, like a predator, he slipped from the bed, the weight of his body lifting, cold emptiness spreading across the sheets.
I kept my eyes closed, breath even, as the door clicked shut. My claws threatened to pierce my palms where I gripped the blanket. Silence pressed in, broken only by the faint thrum of the Stormfang Pack’s heartbeats beyond the walls and, sharper still, his voice tangled with Lorie’s laugh down the corridor. It cut through me like silver.
My hand drifted to my stomach, pressing against the faint swell beneath my nightgown. Life pulsed there, our child. He would never know. He had forfeited that right the moment his loyalty turned elsewhere. A true Alpha protects, claims, and shields his mate. Travis had abandoned me in my own den, crawling to another like a thief.
The night dragged like an open wound, my wolf pacing beneath my skin. The moon hung fat and silver above the horizon, casting pale light through the window. It should have soothed me, but tonight it sharpened my isolation.
When dawn bled gray across the room, Alpha Travis returned wearing a smile unworthy of an Alpha. It was the smile of a traitor who thought his sins invisible. He smelled of her; Lorie’s perfume clung to him like a brand, and my wolf recoiled, snarling inside my chest.
“Stella,” he said carefully, the way a man might approach a sleeping beast, “we need to talk.”
The way his voice curled around those words twisted my gut. “What now?” I asked, my tone sharp as a clawed strike.
He hesitated before clearing his throat. “Lorie… she shouldn’t be cramped in the guest room. She’s pregnant. She needs space and comfort.”
For a moment, the room tilted around me, my wolf’s snarl rising in my chest like thunder. “Comfort?” I repeated the word tasting bitter.
He nodded, oblivious to the storm gathering behind my eyes. “Yes. The master bedroom is bigger and more comfortable. It makes sense for her to have it.”
I released a laugh that was half disbelief, half snarl. “You want me to give up my bedroom… to Lorie?”
His jaw tightened. “It’s not forever. Just until the baby is born.”
I stared at him, fighting the wild urge to rip into his throat. My wolf clawed at my insides, screaming to reveal the truth, that I, too, was pregnant. That my pup deserved protection, not Lorie’s pup. But my human side kept the secret locked behind my teeth. Alpha Travis didn’t deserve to know. Not yet. Perhaps not ever.
He continued, as though speaking to a subordinate. “Stella, you’ve been enjoying the comfortable room for years. Lorie is pregnant. Shouldn’t she be the one most comfortable now? Don’t you think it’s time you made a little sacrifice for your best friend?”
I pressed my lips together until they bled, my claws digging crescents into my palms. What was the point of arguing? In a day, I would be gone from this cursed house, my scent erased from these halls.
“Okay,” I whispered, my voice shaking like leaves in a storm.
His shoulders relaxed with a sigh of relief. He leaned forward and brushed his lips across my forehead, but the touch felt like ash. The wolf inside me snarled so loudly it echoed in my skull, and I had to resist the urge to flinch.
“Alpha Travis?” Lorie’s voice floated down the hallway, dripping with false sweetness.
He turned to leave immediately.
“Hold on, Alpha Travis,” I said calmly, my voice a silk veil over steel. “I need your signature on something.”
I forced my hands to stay steady as I picked up the folder I had prepared the night before.
“It’s just some minor paperwork,” I said softly, cutting off his impatient protest.
He narrowed his eyes, but Lorie called again, and his resolve cracked. “Fine. Give it here,” he snapped.
He didn’t even glance at the words before scrawling his signature across the page. My heart pounded like a war drum as I accepted the folder back. He had no idea what he had just signed, our severance, our undoing.
“Is that all?” he grunted.
“Yes,” I whispered.
He was gone before I could even inhale again, his scent trailing behind him like a wound.
I dialed my lawyer immediately. “My divorce from Alpha Travis is finalized. Pull out all my support and investment from Stormfang Enterprise.”
For years, I had been his silent benefactor, the unseen she-wolf holding up his fragile empire. Now, all of it would collapse without me. A humorless laugh escaped me as I returned to packing.
Minutes later, Lorie appeared in the doorway, her aura slick with smugness, though her voice was coated in honey. “Stella, let me help,” she cooed.
Her smile didn’t reach her eyes; it never had. I had seen that same smile when she comforted me after Joan’s death, when she whispered lies into my grieving ear.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” I said, forcing a smile.
She glided in anyway, a predator disguised as prey. Her gaze flicked to the dresser where Joan’s things still rested untouched.
“Careful, don’t go there,” I snapped, my wolf’s growl bleeding into my voice.
Her smile widened. She picked up the snow globe, a delicate thing with a tiny ballerina dancing inside, Joan’s favorite. It had soothed me through countless nights of grief, the only thing keeping my wolf’s rage at bay.
“This is pretty,” Lorie said softly, tilting it back and forth. “It belonged to Joan, right?”
My chest ached. “Yes. Put it down.”
Her eyes gleamed with malice. “Oops,” she said, and released it.
The globe shattered on the floor, water spilling like blood, the ballerina broken in two.
“Oh no,” Lorie exclaimed, pressing a hand to her chest in mock horror. “I’m so sorry, Stella. My fingers are so clumsy these days. Pregnancy brain, you know?”
Her eyes danced with glee as she watched me, waiting for the wolf to surface.
I dropped to my knees, gathering the pieces with shaking hands, shards slicing my skin as tears blurred my vision. “It was her favorite,” I whispered, the words a broken howl.
Lorie crouched beside me, her smile sharp as a fang. “Don’t worry, Stella. You’ll have more children. You’ll move on.”
My chest burned as I lifted my gaze to her. In that moment, the fragile restraint I had clung to all night splintered like the snow globe in my hands. My wolf rose, no longer willing to be caged.
And then, I snapped.
Chapter 5
Stella’s POV
My hands trembled as I cradled the broken ballerina in my palms, blood from my cuts dripping over the shards. The scent of iron and grief mingled with Lorie’s perfume, and my wolf’s hackles bristled. Something split inside me, a fracture tearing through the fragile barrier between my human heart and the wolf’s fury.
“You shameless,” I snarled, my voice guttural, laced with a growl that no longer belonged to a woman but to the beast beneath my skin.
Lorie tilted her head, that sweet smile still painted on her lips, the same one that had once tricked me into calling her friend. “Stella, calm down. It was an accident-”
The word seared like silver in my veins. My body moved before thought could catch it, claws half-sprung, my hand slashing across her face. The strike cracked through the room like thunder. Lorie staggered back, clutching her cheek, her mask slipping, disbelief widening her eyes. She had never expected me to bare my fangs.
“You don’t touch her things!” I roared, voice torn raw, no longer human. My eyes burned molten gold as the wolf bled through, gaze fixed and unrelenting. “You don’t destroy the one piece of her I had left-”
“Stella!”
Alpha Travis’s voice boomed from the doorway like a command meant for a subordinate wolf. He stormed into the room, his face a mask of rage as he rushed to Lorie, pulling her into his arms like she was the victim.
“She hit me,” Lorie whimpered, tears shimmering in her eyes as she pressed herself against his chest. Her voice trembled, but her scent betrayed her; there was no fear, only the sweet, sharp tang of victory.
I stood there, chest heaving, clutching the broken ballerina as shards bit into my skin. The wolf inside me wanted blood.
Alpha Travis’s face hardened, his eyes burning with fury. “What is wrong with you, Stella?”
“She broke Joan’s snow globe!” I cried, pointing at the shattered glass on the floor. “She did it on purpose, Travis. She-”
“Stop it!” he barked, his Alpha voice cracking like a whip, full of venom and dominance. “Do you even hear yourself? You’re pathetic! Bitter! Jealous of a pregnant woman, jealous of your best friend who has what you don’t have!”
His words sliced into me like claws. But he wasn’t finished.
“It’s not her fault you don’t have a child, Stella. Joan is dead, and maybe if you had been a better mother, maybe if you had done more-”
A scream tore out of my throat before he could finish. It was a sound so wild and unhinged it made even him flinch. “Don’t you dare blame me, you shameless!”
He growled back at me, his own wolf surfacing, but before I could blink, his hand lashed out.
The slap landed with such force that my head snapped to the side, a shockwave ringing in my ears. My knees buckled and I crumpled to the floor, my cheek burning, my wolf howling inside me. Tears stung my eyes, not from the pain, but from the humiliation, the betrayal, the primal insult of being struck by my own mate.
Lorie exclaimed theatrically, pressing her hands against her mouth as if horrified, but only I could see the flicker of satisfaction in her eyes. She loved this.
My hands trembled as I touched my burning cheek. The golden glow of my wolf shimmered at the edges of my vision.
Alpha Travis stood frozen, breathing hard, his palm still half-raised. His eyes widened, regret flickering for a heartbeat before Lorie’s voice cut through.
She broke into sobs, clutching her belly like an actress on stage. “Oh, Alpha Travis,” she cried, collapsing against his chest. “This is all my fault. I never should’ve come here. I’ve caused nothing but trouble. Stella was right… I don’t deserve to live.”
Her sobs were dramatic, fake, but Alpha Travis was blind when it came to her. She buried her face into his chest, sobbing harder. “I should just die and take this baby with me. Then you’ll both be free.”
Alpha Travis’s shock twisted into panic. He held her tightly, stroking her hair. “Don’t say that, Lorie. Don’t ever say that. You and the baby are everything. You hear me? Everything.”
I stared from the floor, my heart breaking, my wolf’s growl building into a rumble in my chest. Lorie’s tears weren’t real. The triumph in her eyes glowed like coals, but Alpha Travis, my mate, my husband, the wolf who once swore to shield me from everything, who vowed never to leave my side, believed her.
He glared down at me, his arms holding Lorie tighter. “Look what you’ve done, Stella. Look at her. She’s terrified, blaming herself, because of you.”
“Because of me?” My voice cracked, my claws threatening to pierce my palms. “But-”
“Enough!” Alpha Travis barked, his face hardening into stone, his eyes blazing with Alpha fury. “I can’t even recognize you anymore. You’re out of control.”
I opened my mouth, but Lorie released another weak sob, clutching her stomach like she was in pain.
“Travis,” she whispered, pale and trembling, “the baby… it hurts.”
His panic deepened. He looked at Lorie, pale and shaking, then at me with venom.
“You’re staying in here until you think about your actions,” he snapped. His voice was final, cold, Alpha-command strong.
I froze. “What?”
“You heard me.” He wrapped his arms around Lorie, guiding her toward the door. “I won’t let you hurt Lorie or this baby. Not again.”
The door slammed shut, and I heard the lock click from outside.
“No!” I screamed, throwing myself at the door. My fists pounded against it until my hands throbbed. “Travis! Don’t you dare leave me in here! Open this door!”
Silence.
I yanked at the handle, but it didn’t budge. “Travis!” I shouted again, my voice cracking. “Please! You can’t do this!”
But he didn’t come back.
I was on the top floor. No way out but the locked door and the barred window.
Minutes bled into hours. I screamed until my voice was strained, called Alpha Travis’s phone again and again until he blocked my number, cutting me off entirely.
My body ached, my stomach growled, my throat burned. No food, no water. This wasn’t a bedroom anymore. It was a cage.
I clawed at the door until my nails broke, leaving bloody streaks on the wood. I begged, cursed, prayed, my voice collapsing into whispers.
And somewhere in that endless silence, my wolf rose. I could feel her clawing against my ribcage, pressing against my skin, howling to the moon beyond the barred window. The bond between my human pain and my wolf’s fury began to snap like threads in a storm.
They thought they could lock me away.
They forgot what I was.
A wolf cannot be caged.
Chapter 6
Stella’s POV
Time is a funny thing when the world narrows to a single, hot point of pain. I lost track of how long I lay on that cold floor before the latch clicked and the door sighed open. Alpha Travis filled the frame like a shadow, tall, perfectly put together, expression carved from contempt.
“You should thank Lorie,” he said, as if granting a mercy. “If it wasn’t for her, you’d still be rotting in here. She begged me to let you out. For the sake of your friendship with her.”
His words were knives. My throat tightened, but the wolf beneath my ribs, the old thing with moonlight in her eyes, curled her lips. Blankness was survival.
“Oh, how noble of her,” I croaked, voice rough from disuse. He flicked a frown at my sarcasm, stepped aside, and I stumbled out. Legs are jelly, threatening to fold. He offered no hand. He never did.
“Make sure you’ve cleared out everything from this room before tomorrow,” he said, cold as winter, and left me in the hallway, his cologne and cigarette smoke hanging like a threat. Humiliation burned hotter than any fever. My chest ached beyond bruises.
Hate rose where fear once lived. The wolf’s heartbeat mirrored mine, low, patient. Soon.
--
Later, Lorie swept in like a queen claiming a ruined throne. She carried a bowl of soup like charity, set it down with a practiced sigh. “You should eat. You look terrible.”
I kept packing. Each item folded into a box felt like a small victory: a shirt, a photograph, a plate. She tutted. “You can deceive Alpha Travis, but not me,” she said, soft and venomous. “I see it in your eyes. You know the truth.”
I paused, thumb on the tape. Her words slithered on. “How does it feel? Knowing he sacrificed your daughter for me?”
Surgical. Deliberate. I turned my back and kept working. She wanted a scene, a crack, proof of her lie.
When she couldn’t get it, she manufactured one, a loud thud, a theatrical burst. “Alpha Travis!” she screamed. I bit down on something to stop laughter from bubbling, the absurdity of it all.
As expected, heavy footsteps hammered the corridor. The door burst open. Alpha Travis filled it like thunder.
“What happened?!”
Lorie had already crafted tears. “She slammed my head against the wall!” she sobbed, each syllable oiled for effect. “I came to give her food! I was just trying to help, and she hit me!”
I turned, stunned. “That’s not true, I didn’t-”
Before my protest left my mouth, his fist found my face.
The world contracted to a single flare. Pain exploded behind my eyes. Copper coated my lips. My body slid down the wall in a shuddering heap. He was on me in a heartbeat, anger alive in every muscle.
“Are you insane?!” he roared. “You touch her again, and I swear-”
“I didn’t touch her,” I breathed through blood and salt. A kick doubled me over, air stolen from my lungs. I clutched in my abdomen, and something inside me clenched in sympathy, a small, fragile thing that had been growing with quiet hope.
His next blow landed before I could finish the sentence on my lips. “Don’t! I’m… carrying-” The word was a prayer, a plea, a confession. I never finished it. His fist answered.
Warmth pooled between my legs. My knees buckled. When I dared to look, my fingers came away red.
“No…” The word cracked. I pressed my palms to my belly as if pressure could stitch what had been torn. Blood soaked my dress and the floor. My tears were not for pain. They were hot and sour with rage.
Hate, pure, bright, animal, lit every dull corner of me. I screamed his name until the house trembled.
He left with Lorie, smug and triumphant as if the night had gone exactly according to plan. The wolf inside me curled and listened to his footsteps fade. When they were gone, I crawled to the phone, booked a taxi, and fled.
--
Hospitals smelled of disinfectant and faint mercy. Hours later, I lay in a bed, hollow and empty. The doctor’s words cut clean: “The pregnancy couldn’t be saved.” They kept me overnight, then sent me home with pills and a sheet stamped with instructions to “rest.”
Alpha Travis did not call. He did not visit. He did not notice I had gone, or perhaps he had, and simply did not care.
Two days later, his birthday was a spectacle of glitter and expensive smiles. He stood in the living room, all measured charm, telling me to be punctual that evening. Lorie leaned at his side like a living advertisement for infidelity. I nodded, motion automatic, voice soft like velvet.
Since losing the child, I had become small, not by choice, but because survival taught me invisibility. I smiled, obedient, agreeable, mute. It pleased him. He kissed my cheek like a man patting a tame animal. I let it land.
When they left, Lorie’s purse knocked a framed photo from the coffee table. Glass cracked like finality. Alpha Travis looked at me, expecting the old response. I stood by the window. I gave none. Calmness was a lie, a mask the wolf had taught me to wear.
--
When the black SUV arrived, my father’s driver, I packed with machine patience. Divorce papers. Investment withdrawal. Receipts. Photos of Alpha Travis and Lorie. Pregnancy report. And the one document folded so close it had softened at the creases: proof, a smear of paper that read like a confession.
On the front, I wrote: Happy Birthday, Alpha Travis Wolfe. From Stella Stormfang.
I handed it to the deliveryman and watched him go. My fingers shook, but nothing compared to the river of heat coiling in my chest: hatred, clarity, moonlight. The wolf lifted her head, scenting the air, taste of revenge sharp on her mouth.
As we pulled away, I did not look back. The SUV cut through the night, away from the house that had been a gilded cage. My father sat silent, hands tight on the wheel. No questions, no need. The pack had known Alpha Travis Wolfe’s reputation for years; they had watched while my life unraveled.
In the rearview, my face stared back, pale, swollen, not broken. A moonbeam slid across the dashboard; the wolf in me lifted her head to it. Old stories my grandmother whispered returned: The blood remembers, Stella. The moon remembers. The wolf does not forgive the one who spills what she carries.
Hate bloomed into a plan. Pain hardened on purpose. I would not let his betrayal end my story. I would not be a footnote in his life of conquests.
One day, they would regret all they had done, not with his violence, but with something older, sharper, precise. The wolf’s teeth are patient. The pack is patient. I had counted the cost; I had marked the names.
I pressed my wrist to feel my pulse. Beneath the bandage on my cheek, the forming scar throbbed. Something else stirred: a hunger not for food, but for the moon, for the hunt, for reclamation. It tasted like iron and promise.
When we reached my father’s house, the driver opened the door. The night smelled of wet earth and possibility. I stepped into the dark, the world sharp and alive. The wolf walked with me, tail low, muscles coiled, intent.
They thought they had taken everything. Instead, they reminded me of what I had been taught to bury. Tonight, the moon will watch. Tonight, the wolf would rise.
And when she did, Alpha Travis would learn exactly what happens when a woman who knows the dark turns her pain into a hunt.
Chapter 7
Alpha Travis’s POV
The hall reeked of perfume, sweat, and wine, too many bodies in one place, too many wolves pretending to be civilized. Still, I moved through the crowd like the Alpha I was, shoulders squared, power thrumming under my skin. Every head bowed when I passed, every hand extended with false smiles and words dipped in honey.
Lorie clung to my arm like a jeweled bracelet, her laugh too sweet, too rehearsed. She looked stunning, yes, anyone watching might have mistaken her for my Luna. But she wasn’t. And my wolf knew it. The bond was absent, the connection was hollow. Still, I let her stay close. For appearances. For control.
For a moment, I didn’t even notice Stella’s absence.
“Happy birthday, Alpha Travis!” a guest barked, head bowed low before daring to clasp my hand. I gave him a firm shake, a grin sharp enough to remind him who owned this room, then moved on.
“Travis!”
The voice boomed like thunder. I turned, nostrils flaring, to see Damien Thorne, CEO, wolf of influence, and my largest client. Not just another guest. No, Damien was a man who could tilt empires.
“Damien,” I greeted with a smile sharp as a blade, gripping his hand with the force of dominance. “Glad you made it.”
“I wouldn’t miss it,” he said, lips curling wide. Then his eyes gleamed. “But tell me… where’s that lovely Luna of yours?”
Stella.
The name struck me like a claw across the chest. I blinked, scanning the hall. Strange. I hadn’t seen her since the celebration began. My wolf stirred, restless, pacing inside me.
“My Luna?” I echoed, my brows furrowing.
“Yes, Stella,” Damien chuckled, his voice booming loud enough for nearby wolves to hear. “You’ve no idea how much respect I have for her. Did you know it was she who convinced me to work with you?”
My smile cracked. I stilled. What?
“She did?”
“Of course,” Damien said, clapping me hard on the shoulder. “That woman practically camped outside my office for a week. Fierce as a warrior. Said you had the vision, the drive, and you only needed a chance. She looked me in the eye and swore you wouldn’t fail. And I believed her. You’re a lucky Alpha, Travis. A Luna like that? She’s a gem.”
His words lodged in me like splinters. Stella?
She had never told me. I remembered the sleepless nights, the rage at rejection after rejection, thinking it had been my persistence, my brilliance, that won Kane. But it was her?
“She’s… running late,” I forced out, voice even, though my jaw was tight enough to snap steel.
Damien laughed. “Tell her I said hello.”
I gave him a nod, but the smile had gone cold. As soon as he stepped away, I pulled out my phone. My thumb flew across the screen.
Where are you?
The message wasn’t delivered. My wolf growled low in my chest. The signal was fine. So where in the abyss was she?
More wolves circled me, greetings, bows, empty words. Then another client’s wife came, eyes sharp, smile bright.
“Alpha Travis! Where is Stella? I hoped to speak with her again.”
“She’ll be here,” I said, clipped.
“You’re very lucky,” the woman said softly. “Stella is remarkable. When my husband doubted this partnership, she came to us directly. Spoke of your vision, your dedication. She fought for you. Without her, we would have walked away. You should be proud.”
Her words sank into me like poison and fire all at once. My wolf bristled. Proud? I should be proud, yes. But why hadn’t Stella told me?
The woman’s eyes shifted to Lorie, clinging to my arm. Her smile froze, turned to ice. She excused herself with a look that cut sharper than a blade.
Heat crawled under my skin. Slowly, I pulled my arm free of Lorie’s.
Her lips trembled. “Travis… are you ashamed of me?”
I exhaled through my nose, steady, Alpha-calm, though my wolf snarled behind my ribs. “Never ashamed, Lorie. But this doesn’t look good. Too many eyes. Too many ears.”
“But you said-”
I silenced her with a firm grip on her shoulders. “Later. I’ll buy you the diamond headpiece. But not now.”
Her pout was bitter, but she obeyed.
Still, unease slithered into me. My wolf paced harder. Around us, whispers stirred like a pack scenting weakness.
“Where’s Stella?”
“She’s always at his side.”
“Who is this female clinging to him?”
“Without his Luna, he’ll crumble.”
The words scraped at me. Wolves always sensed when an Alpha faltered. And they could smell my unease like blood in the air.
I checked my phone again. Nothing. No reply. No message delivered. My wolf clawed against my skin, demanding answers.
Then…
“I have a delivery!”
The hall was silent instantly. A man at the entrance lifted a large brown envelope high above his head. His voice rang out like a howl.
“Delivery for Alpha Travis Wolfe… from Luna Stella!”
The entire ballroom froze.
And my heart, my wolf, and my pride, all roared at once.
