SEBASTIAN
The night air presses against my skin like a second layer, cold and unrelenting. I stand beneath the shadows of the trees outside the Luna's mansion, arms folded tightly, as if that could contain the chaos roiling inside me. The celebration is over. The laughter, the toasts, the charade. All that's left now is silence. And her.
Ava.
She's in there, behind those walls. Alone.
I see the dim flicker of candlelight in her chambers. I see her shadow move occasionally behind the silk curtains. And I do nothing. I don't knock. I don't enter. I just stand here like some ghost of a man who doesn't know how to be what he's supposed to be.
Luna and Alpha.
King and Queen.
Duty and bond.
When her father approached me earlier today, just before the ceremony, he said four words.
"Take care of her."
Simple. Quiet. But they slammed into me like a blade to the ribs. He didn't threaten. He didn't roar or puff his chest like most Alphas would. He just looked me dead in the eye and placed the weight of his daughter into my hands.
And I failed.
Miserably.
What I've done to Ava…..what I *keep* doing….it's inexcusable. I don't need anyone to tell me that. I see it in the stiffness of her shoulders.
I feel it in the absence of warmth in her eyes when she looks at me. She doesn't want this bond. She doesn't want *me.*
She looked like a goddess today. That gown, that hair, those eyes… Ava was a vision made of storm and stars.
Every single warrior in the room held their breath when she walked in. So did I. But not because of desire.
Because I couldn't recognize the girl I hurt in the woman who stood by my side.
She wore her crown like a shield, and her silence like a weapon.
Then she disappeared.
At first, I thought she needed air, maybe to cry, or scream at the moon….
But I saw him. Dante. That filthy traitor. Disguised as a servant, slinking through the back like a coward. And Ava followed.
I watched it all from the ballroom, hidden by the crowd and rage.
She ran to him.
I clenched my fists so tightly my knuckles cracked. I could've snapped his neck. I should've. I wanted to tear through the marble and shred him apart for touching her. For being the one she seeks, even now.
But I didn't move.
I just stood there.
What's wrong with me?
I'm supposed to be Alpha. I'm supposed to protect what's mine. But I couldn't even bring myself to claim her tonight. She waited.
I know she did. In that room filled with roses and silk and emptiness. I told the maids to prepare everything. I told them I'd be there after the ceremony.
And then I stood out here instead, paralyzed.
Not by fear.
By guilt.
I don't deserve her. Not after everything.
She was meant to be a replacement.
That was the plan.
A vessel. A political pawn. A way to stabilize the unrest in the pack and to bury Dove's memory deep enough that no one would speak her name again.
But Ava…she's not that simple.
She never has been.
She doesn't bow. She doesn't bend. She walks into every room like she owns it, not because she's arrogant, but because she *knows* she belongs. She's fire, and I thought I could control her.
I was wrong.
Dove never burned me like this. She never challenged me. Never looked me in the eye and made me question everything. Ava doesn't need me. She never needed saving. But she *deserves* better than what I've given her.
The Luna's window glows like a lighthouse on a distant shore. I imagine her inside, curled in on herself, maybe drinking, maybe crying. Maybe doing both. And it cuts deeper than any blade ever could.
What am I doing?
Why am I still standing here?
Because going inside means facing her.
It means admitting that I watched her sneak away to be with another man and did nothing. It means confronting the sickening truth that she's only here because I forced her hand. That this bond was forged in chains, not love.
And still…
She didn't run tonight.
She came back.
That should count for something, shouldn't it?
But even now, a sick part of me wonders… did she come back for me, or for the pack? For duty? For survival?
She's Luna now. But I haven't earned the right to be her Alpha.
Not yet.
I pace in slow, tight lines beneath the trees. The mansion is quiet. The guards know better than to interrupt me when I'm like this. My wolf itches beneath my skin, growling low, restless.
He wants her.
But not like this.
Not with the pain in her eyes and the weight of betrayal pressing down on her shoulders.
I lean against the cold bark of an old oak and tilt my head to the sky. The moon's high, full, and uncaring. A thousand years of Alphas have stood beneath this same sky, probably wondering the same things.
Do they all feel this hollow?
This lost?
I let out a breath and finally look back at the mansion.
At her window.
What would she do if I walked in now?
Would she scream?
Would she cry?
Would she finally break and tell me all the ways I've ruined her?
I wouldn't stop her.
I'd let her throw every word at me like daggers.
Because I deserve it.
Every last syllable.
"You're meant to be a replacement," I whisper to myself, the words bitter on my tongue, "Why are you acting different?"
She wasn't supposed to get under my skin.
But she did.
This is just day one.
One single day, and already, I'm unraveling.
I grip the railing of the stairs, taking a step forward, but I freeze halfway up.
If I go in now, I'll only hurt her more.
Not physically.
No.
But my presence alone—my silence, my indecision—it wounds her. She deserves honesty. She deserves someone who *chooses* her. Not someone who watches from the shadows, unsure if he's even capable of love anymore.
I take a deep breath and step back.
Tonight, I'll let her sleep.
I'll give her that.
But tomorrow?
I don't know.
I just know I can't keep pretending.
I can't keep punishing her for choices I made long before she entered my world.
Maybe…maybe it's time to stop seeing her as a replacement.
And start seeing her as what she is.
A reckoning.
A storm.
A second chance I never earned.
But one I can no longer ignore.