Chapter 220 This Time You Won’t Walk Away
Author’s POV
Thirty years ago.
Claudine and Mila had been inseparable once, two young she-wolves finding their way through pack politics and high society side by side. When Claudine’s parents announced her engagement to Titus Simons, the rising young Alpha of the Silver Moon Pack, Mila had been genuinely happy for her friend.
On paper, the alliance made sense. Claudine’s pack held a lot of territory in the east, and a union with Silver Moon would have made them unstoppable. Claudine had been in love with Titus, or at least with the idea of him, the powerful, handsome Alpha who would raise her status even higher.
But what neither pack’s elders had counted on was the mate bond.
The first time Mila met Titus, at an engagement party, the bond snapped into place like a lightning strike. One moment she was making polite conversation. The next, her whole world had narrowed to the man across the room, his green eyes going wide as he felt it too.
Fated mates.
The Moon Goddess’s gift, and their shared curse.
Titus tried to fight it at first, tried to honor the engagement to Claudine. But a mate bond wasn’t something you could ignore or push down. It was bone-deep, a pull that made every hour apart feel like physical pain. Within weeks Titus was barely functioning, his wolf Axel howling day and night for his mate. Mila wasn’t much better, Sera clawing at her from the inside, demanding they complete the bond.
Finally Titus went to Claudine’s parents and demanded the engagement be broken. He offered them half his fortune, land, anything they wanted, just to be freed from the promise. Claudine’s father was a practical man. He saw which way the wind was blowing and agreed. You couldn’t fight fate itself.
But no one told Claudine the real reason until it was too late.
She found out five months later, on the day of Titus and Mila’s wedding, with Mila’s pregnancy already showing beneath her wedding gown. Claudine lost it. She stormed the Silver Moon pack house, screaming accusations, calling Mila every vile name she could think of. The friendship shattered like glass, sharp and beyond repair.
Claudine had done something reckless.Within a month she married Kurston Scott, the young Alpha of a struggling pack barely hanging onto its territory. The Lightning Pack was nothing next to the prestige of Claudine’s birth pack or Silver Moon, and that only made the insult sharper.
If she couldn’t have the Alpha she wanted, she’d throw herself away on someone beneath her, just to spite her parents.
The marriage was doomed from the start. Kurston truly loved Claudine, but she was still in love with Titus, still obsessed with what she’d lost. She watched from a distance as Silver Moon grew in power under Titus and Mila, watched them build the empire that should have been hers, and the bitterness ate at her like acid.
When Claudine said she wanted to leave and start her own business abroad, Kurston begged her to stay. But she was past caring, past pretending. The divorce was ugly and public, and she left their eight-year-old son Scott behind without a backward glance.
Eighteen years in France, building her own empire, nursing her hatred.
And now she was back.
The air in the room had turned heavy, suffocating. Thinking back on her miserable past, Claudine could no longer hold back the fury.
Mila picked up the wine glass in front of her, took a slow sip, and set it down. "I don’t know what you’re after with Emilia, but let me warn you. Don’t even think about dragging her into whatever revenge you’ve been nursing. Sebastian and Emilia are fated mates. No one pulls a bond like that apart."
"A bond?" Claudine’s laugh was bitter, mocking. "That’s rich, coming from you. You and Titus had a bond too, didn’t you? A fated mate bond. And look what it did to me. Bonds mean nothing when people are willing to betray their friends."
"Do you really still believe Titus ever loved you?" Mila’s voice was quiet but firm. "Let me say something that might finally put this to rest. He never loved you, Claudine. Not for a second. You were an arrangement, a match his parents pushed on him before he even came of age. When I accepted the bond between Titus and me, I struggled too. You were my closest friend. But you can’t fight the Moon Goddess’s will. Fated mates aren’t a choice."
"Don’t hide behind the Moon Goddess." Claudine’s hands trembled as she gripped the edge of the table. "If the bond really left you no choice, how could you have gone behind my back with my own fiancé? You were five months pregnant at your mating ceremony. Who were you trying to hurt, putting that on display?"
Mila let out a long, tired sigh. "It seems we’ve got nothing left to say to each other. There’s no point in this. I won’t reach out again, and I’m sure you don’t want to see me either. Let’s leave it here. We’ll live our own lives and never cross paths again."
"I’m afraid it won’t be that simple." Claudine’s lips curled into a cold smile as she stood and picked up her bag. "I have a feeling your life is about to get very interesting, Mila. And this time, you won’t just walk away with everything you want."
The fury in her voice sent a chill down Mila’s spine. This wasn’t just old hurt talking anymore. This was hatred, alive and burning.
"What are you planning, Claudine?"
"You’ll find out soon enough. Give my regards to your son and his lovely new bride. Such a sweet girl, Emilia. So... trusting."
"Stay away from her, Claudine. I’m warning you."
"Or what? You’ll send your precious Alpha son after me? We both know the Lightning Pack isn’t the struggling little territory it was when I married into it. Kurston might have been weak, but our son certainly isn’t." Claudine paused at the door. "Times have changed, Mila. Silver Moon isn’t the only power in this city anymore."
She lifted her chin and walked out.
Back at the pack house, a crushing weight settled over Mila’s shoulders. She went straight to her room When dinner came, she didn’t go down.