Three years of marriage. Three years of silence. Three years of pretending I didn't see my husband fall in love with another woman.
I slammed the divorce papers onto Alpha Dominic Steele's desk hard enough to make his coffee cup rattle.
"Sign them."
His steel-gray eyes lifted from his laptop, irritation flickering across that devastatingly handsome face before settling into cold indifference. That look the one that said I was an interruption, a nuisance, barely worth acknowledging used to shatter me. Used to send me scrambling to apologize, to be smaller, quieter, less.
Not anymore.
"Elara." My name fell from his lips like a business obligation. "What is this?"
"Your freedom," I said, keeping my voice steady even as my wolf clawed at my chest, whimpering in confusion. She'd always been pathetically weak for him, for the mate bond that chained us together. "I'm done playing the invisible Luna while you pretend I don't exist."
Dominic leaned back in his leather chair, six feet three inches of lethal Alpha dominance wrapped in a tailored Tom Ford suit.
Afternoon sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows of his office, catching the silver threading through his dark hair, making him look like the cover model for "Billionaire Alphas Monthly."
Once upon a time, that face had stolen my breath. Now it just made me tired.
"You don't get to be done," he said, one dark eyebrow arching in that condescending way I'd learned to hate. "You're my Luna. My mate."
"Your mate in name only." Three years of swallowed bitterness finally rose to the surface, sharp and acidic. "When's the last time you even looked at me, Dominic? Really looked at me?"
His jaw tightened the only crack in his perfect mask. "I've been busy running the pack. Not all of us have the luxury of sitting around feeling neglected."
There it was. The casual dismissal. The cutting remark designed to make me feel small and selfish for daring to want my own husband's attention.
It used to work.
"I gave you everything." I stepped closer to his desk, my heels clicking against hardwood with each measured step. For the first time in our marriage, I didn't lower my eyes when his Alpha aura pressed against me like a physical weight. "I left my family, my pack, my entire life to be your perfect Luna. And what did I get in return?"
"A title most she-wolves would kill for." His voice dropped to that dangerous Alpha timbre that used to make my wolf roll over in automatic submission. "Wealth. Status. Protection of the strongest pack in the region."
"Empty beds and colder shoulders." I pulled out my phone with trembling hands not from fear, but from barely contained rage. The cold, determined kind that came from finally seeing clearly. "And let's not forget a husband who has lunch dates with his ex-girlfriend every week at our favorite restaurant."
I tossed my phone onto his desk. It skidded across the polished mahogany to stop in front of him, the screen displaying yesterday's photo: Dominic and Vivian in an intimate corner booth at Giovanni's, her perfectly manicured hand covering his, both smiling in a way I hadn't seen him smile in years.
They looked like a couple. Like they belonged together. Like everything I'd desperately tried to be but never could.
Something flickered across his face surprise, maybe, that the docile, eager-to-please Elara who'd walked down the aisle three years ago had finally found her spine.
"It's not what you think," he said, but his voice lacked conviction. He didn't even glance at the photo.
"I don't care what it is anymore." And that was the truth that set me free. The love I'd carried for him like a torch had finally burned out, leaving only ashes and the bitter taste of wasted years. "Sign the papers, Dominic. Let's end this farce."
He stood abruptly, his Alpha presence filling the room like a storm. The scent of him hit me cedar and smoke and something uniquely his that made my wolf howl with longing.
I felt nothing but numb.
"I'm not signing anything." His eyes flashed amber as his wolf rose to the surface. "You're my mate, Elara. That's not something you can just walk away from."
"Watch me."
I turned toward the door, and his hand shot out, gripping my wrist. The touch sent sparks through the mate bond, that traitorous connection that had kept me hoping for so long. My wolf surged forward, desperate for contact we'd been starved of for months.
I yanked my wrist free.
"Let go of me."
"We need to talk about this"
"We needed to talk three years ago, when you couldn't even fake enthusiasm during our wedding vows!" My voice cracked like a whip. "Two years ago, when you started sleeping in your office instead of our bed.
Last month when I told you I was unhappy and you said you'd 'try to be home more' and then disappeared for ten days straight!"
I pulled a manila envelope from my bag and dropped it beside the divorce papers.
"That's a breakdown of everything I'm entitled to under pack law. Territory rights, monthly stipend, the house you deeded to me. I'm not taking any of it. No alimony. No settlement. I don't want a single thing from you except my freedom and my name back."
His face went pale. "You can't just leave."
"I can. And I am." I walked to the door, my hand closing around the cool metal handle. I allowed myself one last look at the man I'd loved with everything I had. He looked lost standing there in his perfect office with his perfect life that had no room for me.
I felt nothing.
"You'll have the signed papers by tomorrow. Don't try to contact me."
"Where will you go?" The question came out rough, almost desperate.
Three years too late.
"Somewhere I'm wanted." I opened the door, cool air rushing in. "Goodbye, Dominic. I hope Vivian makes you happier than I ever could."
I walked out with my head high and my heart finally, blissfully quiet.
Behind me, I heard something heavy hit the wall probably the crystal decanter followed by his enraged roar that shook the windows.
My wolf whimpered, wanting to go back, to comfort our mate in distress.
But he wasn't our mate anymore. Not in any way that mattered.