After the Seven-Year Contract Ended

"Seven years ago, I signed a mate contract as Luna.For my mother’s dying wish and for the Pack’s stability, I personally pushed a man with nothing to his name onto the Alpha throne.I held the Pack together for him, expanded our businesses, and handled the filthy negotiations and the deals no one wanted to see in the light.Everyone said—I was calm, I was formidable, I was qualified.Just… not much like a “gentle mate.”Until that day.I stood in the bedroom and watched my Alpha husband lay his hand over my paralyzed stepsister’s slightly rounded belly.They told me it was for the greater good of the Pack.That child would be registered under my name.He would call me Mother.I didn’t cry. I didn’t scream.I just waited for the seven-year term to hit its end and activated the trust clause my mother left behind.Accounts frozen.Capital withdrawn.The wolf empire I built with my own hands collapsed overnight.By the time he knelt in the ruins and finally understood what he’d lost—I had already taken back my mother’s last name, dissolved the mate bond, and stepped onto a new territory."