When Valerius showed up alongside the enforcers, it felt like I could finally breathe again.
He paid no attention to anyone else around.
He walked straight to me, slipped off his coat and wrapped it around my shaking shoulders.
His warm palm rested against my back, comforting me just like he had when we were children.
“You’re safe,” he said. “I’m getting you out of here.”
I nodded and let him guide me into the passenger seat of his vehicle.
The engine rumbled, and the city outside the windows blurred past.
I closed my eyes.
For the very first time, I let myself cry.
Valerius and I had grown up together.
Shortly after Chloe came to our home, royal blood was discovered running through Valerius’s veins, and he was taken away to the royal court.
He had completed rigorous training, and he was now one of the leading contenders to inherit the Alpha King’s throne.
Back then, he had told me: “I don’t like Chloe. I think everyone is going to start choosing her over you.”
Then he said, “If you want to leave with me, I’ll talk to my mother.”
I hadn’t taken it seriously.
I had Tristan, who used to dote on me.
I had Cassian, the boy I’d loved for years.
And I had Jax. We fought constantly, but he was part of my daily life.
I didn’t want to leave any of them behind.
Valerius looked disappointed, but he respected my choice.
He only told me to call him if I ever needed anything.
Now I regretted staying.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
My voice was rough as sandpaper.
“I’m sorry for dragging you into all of this.”
“Astrid Ashwood, are you really apologizing to me?”
Valerius’s tone turned sharp and cold.
“You wouldn’t answer my calls. If I didn’t happen to have connections inside the Lycan Royal Enforcement, I
never would’ve even found out…”
He cut himself off.
Veins bulged on the back of his hands gripping the steering wheel.
I turned my face toward the window.
Valerius took a slow deep breath and softened his tone.
“I’ve got the penthouse ready for you. Medical care is all arranged. You get to decide if you reach out to anyone at all.”
I nodded, then shook my head.
“No. I’m done with all of them. Once you’re completely over someone, you never want anything to do with them again.”
Valerius didn’t reply.
He just turned the heat inside the car up a little higher.
I moved into Valerius’s penthouse, far enough away from every person and memory I knew.
Over the next few days, I took my medication, slept, and attended trauma counseling sessions.
Bit by bit, I took apart twenty years of my past and tried to piece myself back together.
My old phone stayed powered off.
Valerius got me a brand–new number and put the old SIM card inside a desk drawer.
“Deal with it whenever you’re ready.”
I never asked if there were messages waiting for me on that old device.
None of it mattered anymore.
Late one evening on the third day, I sat out on the balcony watching the sunset when the doorbell rang.
Valerius went to answer it.
Four people stood out in the hallway.
Chloe was at the front, wearing a bright smile and holding a fruit basket.
Cassian stood behind her, with dark circles under his eyes and several days‘ worth of stubble on his jaw.
Tristan and Jax huddled toward the back, both stiff and uneasy.
Valerius blocked most of the doorway and stared coldly at them.
“What do you people want?”
“We came to bring Astrid home,” Chloe said sweetly. “We’ve all been so worried about her these past few
days.”
“Worried about her?”
Valerius let out a humorless laugh.
“You call pushing her until she miscarried worrying about her?”
Dead silence filled the hallway.
Tristan’s face drained of color.
Jax clenched his fists tight.
Cassian stepped forward, his voice so hoarse I could barely hear it.
“I… I need to see her.”
Valerius glanced back over his shoulder toward me.
I sat out on the balcony and tilted my chin upward slightly.
He stepped aside.
The four of them hurried inside, freezing the second they laid eyes on me.
I wore one of Valerius’s old hoodies, my hair loosely tied back.
A mug of steaming water sat on the table in front of me.
I was calmer than I had ever been calmer than all our drunken fights, tear–filled outbursts, and hysterical meltdowns combined.
“Astrid…”
Cassian stumbled toward me, nearly dropping to his knees.
“I was wrong. I was so horribly wrong. Please forgive me.”
I refused to meet his gaze.
“I know about the sexual assault now. I know about our baby. I’m a complete bastard. Do whatever you want to me. Hit me, yell at me, anything. Just don’t leave me. You’re my Luna, and the pack needs you.”
He reached out to grab my wrist.
I pulled my arm away.
“Cassian Thorne,” I said, my tone so flat it startled him. “We’re over. I rejected you.”
“No!”
His voice rose, and his eyes filled with bloodshot tears.
“We grew up together. How can you just walk away like this?”
“Because for twenty years, you treated me like I was invisible.”