And I was starting to realize there was a difference.
Still, I was grateful for the help. Especially as my wolf grew more and more restless with each day that passed without word from Aria.
One week turned into eight days, then nine, then ten. The blood moon was approaching – just four days away now – and Aria still hadn’t come home.
I’d called her three more times. Each call went straight to voicemail. Her phone was off.
That unease in my gut grew into full-blown worry.
“She’s probably just out of range,” Sera said when she caught me staring at my phone for the hundredth time. “You know how spotty cell service can be in the deep forests.”
She was probably right. But my wolf didn’t believe it.
On the eleventh day, I made a decision.
“Sera,” I said, finding her in my office where she’d been cataloging the pack’s medical supplies. “I need to talk to you about something.”
She looked up, concern flickering across her face. “Is everything alright?”
“It’s about Aria. When she gets back…” I paused, trying to find the right words. “Things have been strained between us. I think we need some time alone to work through our issues. I’m planning to take her on a private trip, just the two of us.”
Sera’s expression went carefully blank. “A trip? What kind of trip?”
DAMON
“Just a few days in the mountains. There’s a cabin on neutral territory where we can talk without pack business interrupting. She’s been…” I ran a hand through my hair, frustrated.
“She’s been upset, and I haven’t handled it well. I need to make things right with her.”
“Make things right,” Sera repeated slowly. “Damon, she’s just an omega. A pack member. Why does it matter so much if she’s upset?”
“Because she saved my life,” I said, more sharply than I’d intended. “Because she’s been loyal to this pack – to me – for years, and I owe her better than what I’ve given her lately.”
Something flickered across Sera’s face – anger, maybe, or hurt. But it vanished so quickly I wondered if I’d imagined it.
“Of course,” she said softly.
“You’re right. Aria deserves your attention. Your… gratitude.”
The way she said “gratitude” made it sound like something distasteful.
“There’s something else,” I continued, pushing past my discomfort. “The pendant. The one I gave you – the moonstone that belonged to Aria’s mother. I need you to return it.”
Sera’s hand flew to her throat, where the pendant hung alongside her mating collar.
“What? But you gave this to me. You said I could have it.”
“I know, and I shouldn’t have. It wasn’t mine to give.” I kept my voice gentle but firm. “That pendant is the last thing Aria has from her birth pack. I should have returned it to her on her eighteenth birthday like I promised. It was wrong of me to give it to someone else, no matter how much you admired it.”
“But I love it,” Sera said, her eyes filling with tears. “It’s the most beautiful thing I own. And you gave it to me, Damon. It means something to me because it came from you.”
Guilt warred with determination in my chest. “I’ll buy you something even better. Something that’s actually meant for you, not something I took from someone else. Please, Sera. This is important.”
For a long moment, Sera just stared at me, her expression unreadable. Then slowly, reluctantly, she reached up to unclasp the chain.
“If it means this much to you,” she said quietly.
But as she fumbled with the clasp, her hands trembling – whether from emotion or her supposed weakness, I couldn’t tell – the chain slipped from her fingers.
Everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
The pendant fell, the moonstone catching the light as it tumbled through the air. It hit the edge of my desk with a sharp crack, then bounced to the floor.
Where it shattered into a dozen glittering pieces.
My heart stopped.
No. No, no, no.
I dropped to my knees, staring at the fragments of blue-tinted moonstone scattered across the floor. The silver setting had broken apart, the delicate metalwork twisted and ruined.
This was Aria’s last connection to her mother. To her birth pack. To the family that had been slaughtered when she was just a pup.
And I’d given it away to another she-wolf, and now it was destroyed.
“Damon, I’m so sorry,” Sera gasped. “I didn’t mean – it just slipped – “
But I barely heard her. I was gathering up the pieces with shaking hands, trying desperately to see if maybe, maybe it could be repaired. If a skilled silversmith could put it back together.
Behind me, I heard Sera make a choked sound.
“Damon – I don’t feel – “
Then the sound of her body hitting the floor.
“Luna!” someone shouted – David, the young pack member who’d been passing by.
“Someone get the healers! The Luna’s collapsed!”
Footsteps pounded down the hallway. Voices rose in alarm. The scent of blood hit my nostrils – Sera was coughing up blood again, the silver poisoning flaring.
I should have gone to her. Should have scooped her up and carried her to the healers myself. She was my mate, my Luna, and she was hurt.
But I couldn’t stop staring at the shattered pieces of moonstone in my hands.
Aria’s pendant. Broken beyond recognition.
How was I going to tell her? How could I possibly explain this?
“Alpha!” Jake, my second-in-command, appeared in the doorway, his face pale.
“Sera’s been taken to the healer’s lodge. Are you coming?”
I looked at him, then at the pendant pieces, then at the spot where Sera had fallen.
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