The 30-Day Severance, Revenge Before I Leave Chapter 10

The 30-Day Severance, Revenge Before I Leave Chapter 10

I woke to sunlight.

Not the thin gray light of North Ridge.

Real morning.

Warm across my face. Bright against white stone.

Mia slept beside me in a bed covered with soft furs. Her breathing was even. Her cheeks were pink.

I touched her chest.

Her core answered beneath my palm, steady and whole.

For the first time since she was born, I cried.

The doors opened.

An old man entered in a white robe trimmed with silver. His hair was the color of frost, and his eyes were the same silver as Mia’s.

I knew him before he spoke.

My grandfather.

High Alpha of Rosehaven.

He stopped at the foot of the bed.

For a moment, he only looked at me.

Then his face softened.

“Welcome home, Elena.”

The words broke something in me.

I had not known how badly I wanted to hear them.

He came forward and kissed my forehead. Then he looked at Mia.

“And welcome home, little heir.”

I lifted her carefully.

“She’s safe?”

“She is whole,” he said. “You protected what mattered.”

I closed my eyes.

“And Silvermoon?”

His expression cooled.

“It fell before dawn.”

I was not surprised.

Still, the words settled heavily.

“The borders opened first. Then the elders withdrew their oaths. The council broke his Alpha seal before dawn. The packhouse is empty now.”

“And Carl?”

“He lives.”

I looked at him.

My grandfather understood the question I did not ask.

“Death would have been easier.”

Later, the Moon Goddess showed me.

As an ending.

North Ridge was half-buried in ash. The forest around it had gone black. A wolf in torn clothes moved through the ruins on his hands and knees, digging through stone, dirt, and old snow.

Carl.

His mind had broken where the bond was torn out.

He no longer remembered my face.

He no longer knew Mia’s name.

But every midnight, he woke choking on blood and clutching his chest, searching for a scent he could not name.

He would look for it until his body failed.

The vision faded.

I stood by the window with Mia in my arms.

Below us, Rosehaven stretched across the valley. White wolves moved through the snowfields. Children ran between the pines. Guards stood at the gates, not as jailers, but as protectors.

Mia opened her eyes.

They were silver.

Clear.

Unburdened.

Behind us, Silvermoon was finished.

Before us, the valley waited.

I touched my daughter’s cheek.

“No one will erase you again,” I whispered.

Outside, the morning widened over Rosehaven.

And for the first time in years, I was not Carl’s Luna.

I was home.