Leaving the Alpha BehindChapter 1: Fractured Bonds

I stood in the moonlit den, the silvery glow casting long shadows against the walls. My voice trembled, barely above a whisper. “I think we should spend the next blue moon together as a family. It might... help Kael. Help us.”

Silence swallowed the room whole, thick and suffocating. My gaze flickered to the man across from me—my mate, my Alpha. Lucian sat rigid in his chair, his chiseled features bathed in cold light, his piercing eyes fixed somewhere I couldn’t see.

I chewed my inner lip, searching for the right words. Words that would bridge the ever-growing distance between us. It had always been like this—me pleading for something so small, something that should have been his responsibility as a father and husband.

“Lucian...” I tried again, softer this time, my voice threading with desperation. “Kael deserves this. Don’t you think he’s been through enough?”

My words barely stirred him. He didn’t even flinch.