Happy Rejection, My Alpha

I was the ghost in the packhouse.

I never wanted jewels or roses. Just one promise, one damn promise.

A cruise.

Alpha Shawn Ravenshade had sworn it once. “One day, when we’re free,” he whispered, “I’ll take you across the borders. Just us.”

That was before power. Before the throne. Before I became Luna in name, servant in truth.

On my forty-eighth birthday, there were no greetings. No howl.

After dinner, I asked, “Do you remember what you told me… on my eighteenth birthday?”

He didn’t look up. “Which part?”