The 30-Day Severance, Revenge Before I Leave Chapter 07

The 30-Day Severance, Revenge Before I Leave Chapter 07

Fifteen days after Mia was born, Carl summoned me back to the packhouse.

Not once did he mention an apology.

He came to dress his betrayal up as a ceremony.

By then, Leo had stopped fading. At least that was what the pack believed.

Selina appeared in every hallway whisper with her son in her arms. The sick child had “miraculously recovered.” The elders wanted answers. Carl wanted silence.

So he dressed it up as tradition.

The Grand Hall was full when I arrived.

Selina sat in the front row in pale silk, holding Leo like a crown. She smiled when she saw me.

I came in black, Mia asleep against my shoulder in a plain wool wrap.

No jewels. No robes. Nothing that made me look like I had come to bless this.

Carl stood beside the Registry Stone at the front of the hall. It was old obsidian, veined with the bloodlines of Silvermoon.

I used to think my name carved there meant I belonged.

Now I knew better.

Carl lifted his hand.

“Today, Silvermoon welcomes its next generation.”

The room quieted.

He looked at Selina.

“Bring Leo forward.”

A murmur passed through the hall.

Some elders looked at me. Some looked away.

Selina stood proudly and carried her son to the stone.

Dr. Vance stood near Carl, pale and sweating. His eyes kept moving to the clock above the doors.

The seventh day since the extraction had ended.

Carl cut Leo’s tiny finger and pressed his hand to the stone.

“Accept him,” Carl said.

For one heartbeat, amber light moved under the surface.

Then it went out.

The stone hissed.

Leo’s blood slid down the obsidian without sinking in.

Selina made a small sound.

Carl went still.

“What is this?” he asked.

No one answered.

Dr. Vance stepped forward with a scanner. His fingers fumbled over the buttons.

“The source isn’t holding,” he said.

Carl turned on him.

“Explain.”

Vance swallowed.

“The stone is rejecting it. It reads the core as foreign.”

The hall broke into whispers.

I stepped out of the shadows.

My boots sounded loud against the marble.

“Don’t waste your breath, Carl.”

Every head turned.

Carl’s eyes flashed.

“Elena. Sit down.”

I kept walking.

“Stolen blood will never make him yours.”

Selina clutched Leo tighter.

“You bitter—”

“Enough,” I said.

She fell silent.

I stopped before Elder Thomas.

“Silvermoon refused to name my daughter. It used her blood without her consent. It has broken faith with my line.”

The old elder’s face changed.

He understood before Carl did.

“Luna Elena,” he said carefully, “think about what you are saying.”

“I have.”

Carl stepped off the platform.

“You don’t get to threaten my pack in my own hall.”

I looked at him.

“Your pack?”

He reached for my arm.

I placed my palm on the Registry Stone first.

The mark on my wrist lit beneath my skin.

This time, the stone did not hiss.

It answered.

A pale line spread from my hand into the obsidian. Then another.

Then another.

Across the hall, the red veins in the floor dimmed.

Someone gasped.

Elder Thomas grabbed his wrist.

“My pack mark,” he whispered.

Carl stared at the walls as the old protections lost their glow.

Then he looked back at me.

For the first time, I saw fear behind his anger.

“Elena,” he said. “Stop.”

I pulled my hand away.

Where my name had been carved into the stone, there was only a blank mark.

Carl’s voice dropped.

“I command you to kneel and restore the bond.”

His Alpha voice rolled through the hall.

Several wolves staggered.

One guard fell to one knee, coughing.

I stood where I was. Nothing in me bent.

Carl’s face drained.

I looked at his hand, still reaching for me.

“Your command is just noise now.”

The hall erupted.

Outside, bells began to ring from the northern towers.

Warning bells.

An elder ran in, breathless.

“Alpha! The northern border is open. Rogues are crossing.”

Everyone looked at Carl.

Then at me.

Selina’s son began to cry. His skin had taken on a gray cast, and the scent coming from him was sour and wrong.

Carl looked from the child to the stone.

Then back to me.

He had thought I was making a scene.

Now he understood.

I was leaving.

And Silvermoon was coming apart behind me.