Emery.
She didn't get far down the hall before she heard the office door slam open behind her. Heavy, angry footsteps followed. Gavin’s footsteps.
“What did you say?” he snarled, grabbing her arm and spinning her around. His grip was hard, bruising.
She looked down at his fingers on her skin, then back up to his furious face. She felt nothing. No fear. No pain. Just a profound sense of distance.
“Let go of me, Gavin.” Her voice was quiet, but it held a new kind of steel.
He faltered for a second, surprised by her tone. Fiona caught up, clinging to his other arm, a concerned frown plastered on her face that didn't reach her triumphant eyes.
“Gavin, darling, don’t let her upset you,” Fiona cooed. “She’s just lashing out. It’s understandable when one is being replaced.”
“Replaced?” Emery repeated, a small, humorless smile touching her lips. “You can’t replace what you never understood in the first place.”
“I understood that you were a leech,” Gavin shot back, his anger returning. “You claimed my pack was rotting. It was thriving long before you, and it will thrive long after. Because of her.”
He gestured to Fiona, whose chin lifted with pride.
“Her aura,” Emery said, the words flat. “You truly believe that lie?”
“It’s not a lie!” Fiona insisted, her voice rising. “My power is a gift from the Goddess. The moment I crossed into Silver Creek territory, I felt the land sigh in relief. It was starved for true, noble energy.”
“Noble energy,” Emery murmured, looking from one to the other. “Is that what you call it? This cheap, tawdry affair?”
“It is not an affair!” Gavin’s voice boomed in the narrow hallway. “It is a correction. The Goddess put you in my path to test my resolve, to see if I would settle for mediocrity or strive for greatness. I chose greatness.”
“You chose a parasite of your own,” Emery said calmly. “She will drain you, and this pack, of everything you have. She will take and take, and when there is nothing left, she will leave you in the ruins.”
“Jealousy is such an ugly color on you, Emery,” Fiona said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “My only desire is to support my Alpha and help his people prosper.”
“You don’t have the first clue how to do that,” Emery told her. “Do you know the right phase of the moon to plant moonpetal? Do you know the ancient words to soothe a sick wolf pup? Do you know how to draw the toxins from the river water after a black rain?”
Fiona’s smile tightened. “Those are peasant tricks. My abilities are far more potent. They work on a spiritual level. I heal the land's soul.”
Emery finally laughed again. It was a raw, broken sound, but it was genuine. The absurdity was just too much.
“The land doesn’t have a soul for you to heal. It has roots. It has water. It has lifeblood. A lifeblood I have personally been feeding for three years.”
“Enough of your delusions!” Gavin commanded. “I don’t know what little game you’ve been playing, but it’s over. You have been a placeholder. A warm body in my bed until my true mate arrived.”
“Your true mate,” Emery said, her eyes boring into his. “Then you will have no problem renouncing our bond before the Goddess tonight.”
A flicker of something, maybe uncertainty, crossed his face before it was gone. “I will. I will tell the Goddess I reject her mistake.”
“Good,” Emery said. “I want you to. I want the entire world to see what happens when you choose a lie over the truth.”
“The only thing they will see is me with my beautiful, powerful Luna,” he sneered, pulling Fiona closer. She melted against him, her victory complete.
“Don’t take too long packing,” Fiona said, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper. “I have some wonderful ideas for redecorating your, well, my rooms. I’m thinking something in gold and crimson. Much more fitting for a Luna’s suite, don’t you think?”
Emery stared at them for one long, final moment. She saw them not as the man she loved and his mistress, but as two fools standing on the edge of a cliff, arguing about the view.
“You are making a fatal mistake,” she said, her voice soft but carrying more weight than any of his shouts. “And you will not realize it until you are starving. Until the ground turns to dust beneath your feet and the water turns to poison in your wells. By then, it will be too late.”
“Is that a threat?” Gavin asked, his eyes narrowing.
“No,” Emery replied, turning away from them. “It’s a prophecy.”
She walked away, and this time, they didn’t follow. Their insults and their laughter echoed behind her, but they sounded distant, like voices from another world.
She reached the small suite of rooms she had called home. It was simple, furnished with practical, sturdy furniture. A stark contrast to the opulence of the Alpha’s main wing.
She opened the worn wooden wardrobe and pulled out a simple leather satchel. Her movements were methodical, precise. There was no grief in her actions. The shock had burned away the pain, leaving behind a cold, hard purpose.
Her wolf, the wild and joyful creature that had sung for Gavin since the day they met, was silent. It was as if a fire had gone out, leaving behind nothing but cold ash.
She packed her few belongings. A spare set of clothes, a well-worn book of fairy tales her mother used to read to her, a small, hand-carved wolf that her father had given her as a child. Simple things. Things that were hers alone.
She left everything he had given her. The silk nightgown draped over a chair. The silver locket on the nightstand. The expensive leather boots he’d insisted on buying her for the winter festival. They meant nothing now. They were props from a life that was no longer hers.
Her fingers brushed against a small, pressed moonpetal tucked inside her book. The first one he had ever given her. A symbol of his promise. A promise of a shared future, of pups, of a lifetime together.
Without a second thought, she let the dried, fragile petals crumble to dust between her fingers. She blew the dust from her palm and watched it scatter on the floor.
She felt no sadness. No regret. Just a vast, chilling emptiness where her love used to be.
She was done.
She zipped the satchel, the sound echoing in the quiet room. It was all she had come with, and it was all she would leave with.
The door opened without a knock. Gavin stood there, leaning against the frame, his arms crossed over his chest. His arrogance was a physical presence in the room.
“Are you finished with your tantrum?” he asked.
She slung the satchel over her shoulder and walked towards him. She didn’t look at the room, didn’t give it a final glance. It was already part of her past.
She stopped in front of him, close enough to see the flecks of gold in his brown eyes. They were the eyes of a stranger.
“I am,” she said, her voice even and clear. “Are you?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded.
“It means, are you finished destroying yourself?” she asked. “Because you have a long way to fall, Gavin. And I will not be there to catch you.”
She pushed past him, her shoulder deliberately brushing against his chest. He didn't try to stop her.
She walked out of the pack house without looking back, her head held high, each step taking her further from the ashes of her old life and closer to the fire of her new one.
