Their voices hit me before 26

Lucien POV

I stared at the letter in silence.

Don’t stop me this time.

Five simple words, written in her clean, sharp handwriting. No goodbye. No explanation. Just a sentence that hit harder than a sword to the chest.

Beside it, her Luna crest lay on the bed.

I picked it up slowly, letting my fingers run over the polished silver edge. It was still warm. She had held it. Probably just moments before she left. My wolf howled inside me, pacing with rage and panic.

She’s gone.

I gritted my teeth, gripping the crest tighter until the metal pressed into my skin.

How could she leave like this? After everything that happened between us? After the night we finally stopped pretending we didn’t want each other?

And then it hit me.

She saw me.

With her.

Outside the training hall. The girl in my arms. Blonde. Laughing.

To anyone passing by, it would’ve looked exactly like what Seraphina always feared—Lucien, with yet another she-wolf, flirting like nothing else mattered.

But that wasn’t what happened. Not even close.

That girl—Gianna—was crying moments before.

She was one of our newest warriors, still grieving the loss of her brother who died during a border raid. She asked for a moment to speak to me, and when I tried to console her, she broke down. I held her because she was shaking, not because I was flirting. There was nothing between us. Nothing but duty and compassion.

But Seraphina didn’t see that part. She saw the worst part. And now she was gone.

No. No, no, no.

I stormed out of the room, the letter clenched in my fist. My boots slammed against the marble floor as I made my way to the stables.

The guard on duty stiffened as soon as he saw me.

“Where did she go?” I snapped.

“Lady Seraphina?” he asked, nervous.

“Yes, my wife. Where did she go?”

“She left through the North Gate, Alpha. Just before sundown. Alone.”

“Alone?!” I barked, already grabbing a saddle. “You let her go alone?!”

“She said she didn’t need an escort. She had her own horse and—”

I didn’t wait to hear the rest. I swung up onto my stallion, fury and regret pounding through my veins. Of course she left. Of course she thought I didn’t care.

Because I never said the things she needed to hear. I never told her the truth—that I wanted her, that she shook my world from the day she walked into it. That the kiss did mean something. That she meant something.

Everything. She must’ve gone back to her kingdom. Back to the Northern Border, where her crown waited.

Where her father’s death left a throne behind that she never wanted—but would take anyway, because she’s braver than anyone I know.

And I?

I was about to lose her. For good. My jaw clenched as I kicked my heels into the horse’s sides.

“Go,” I hissed. And we rode. Into the wind. Into the night.

Toward the only woman I’ve ever truly wanted.