Page 23

He came at dusk.

No army.

No messengers.

Just Jace. Alone.

But I knew better.

Jace wasn't the kind to come empty-handed. And desperation? That was the sharpest weapon of all.

Kael stood beside me as we watched him approach the Crescent Fang border. The sun was sinking behind him, casting gold across his face, like the moon was already preparing to take him away.

"I want to speak to her," Jace called out.

Kael's jaw flexed, but he looked at me. "Your choice."

It always was.

?

Jace waited by the river that separated our lands-symbolic, as if even now, some part of him wanted to pretend he wasn't the villain in this story.

When I arrived, he smiled.

I didn't.

"I saw what you did," he said. "Healing that warrior. Word's spreading through every pack from here to the Iron Ridge."

I said nothing.

"You're powerful now," he added, voice almost in awe. "I didn't know that about you."

"You never tried to know me."

He looked down, then back up. "Come back, Luna."

The words tasted like ash in the air.

"You don't get to ask that," I said. "Not after what you did. Not after who you left me to become."

"I was young-"

"We were the same age, Jace. You were just cowardly."

That struck. I saw it in the way his shoulders stiffened.

"I made a mistake," he said again, like it was a prayer this time. "I've paid for it every day since."

"Good," I said coldly. "But that doesn't buy forgiveness."

His eyes sharpened, a flicker of the Alpha in him rising. "You still belong to me."

"No," I said, stepping forward, voice low and strong. "I belonged to myself even when I didn't know it. But now? I've chosen someone who sees all of me-and never once asked me to hide."

His nostrils flared. "He'll never understand you the way I did."

"He doesn't need to," I whispered. "Because he respects me more than you ever could."

Jace stepped closer, but I didn't flinch. My wolf stirred inside me, ready.

"I'll come back with you," I said, tilting my head just slightly, "if you can do one thing."

His eyes lit up. "Anything."

"Shift," I said. "And bow to an omega."

He froze.

I waited.

But he didn't move.

And in that moment, everything between us died.

?

When I returned to Kael, he didn't ask what was said.

He just took my hand.

And I whispered, "It's done."

Because Jace didn't just lose the fight.

He lost the right to know me.