The Wolf God's Unwanted Luna

Vivian’s POV

I didn’t know which part to believe anymore. So I clung to the voice on the phone like it was the only real thing left.

My mom was still waiting on the other end. And for now, that was enough.

"I’m so confused, Vivian. What’s going on, honey? You can come home, baby. Whatever is happening, we’ll face it together."

My mother’s voice cracked through the phone and broke me in ways I wasn’t ready for. The second her words wrapped around me, the fragile dam I’d been holding up inside me collapsed. Tears streamed down my face, hot and blinding, and my chest clenched painfully with each breath. I balled my fists tightly against my thighs, trying to stay grounded as my vision blurred.

"M-Mom, I missed you and Dad so much. I-I just don’t know, it’s, um, I’m not..." My voice trembled, collapsing under the weight of everything I couldn’t say.

Where would I even begin?

Should I tell her I’d been kidnapped? That I was safe now, but not really? That I was mated to someone whose name alone stirred fear in thousands? I wanted to explain it all. I wanted to scream that I hadn’t chosen this, that Zaliver was more than a captor, more than a name etched in dark history. But how could I explain a mate bond to someone who lived mostly outside the supernatural chaos, who went to church on Sundays and made lemon cake on weekends and believed, above all, that her daughter was capable of taking care of herself? How could I tell her that Zaliver Azrala, the Lupus Deus, was now a permanent part of my life, written into my blood, whether I liked it or not?

How could I tell her that some mornings I woke up and wasn’t entirely sure anymore which parts of me were still mine, and which parts were becoming something none of us had a name for yet?

My thoughts came to a halt when the bed dipped beside me.

I flinched, startled, but then looked up and met Zaliver’s eyes. My gaze was pleading, full of confusion and desperation. I hadn’t planned to call out to him. I hadn’t even consciously decided to, but somewhere between the tears and the sound of my mother’s voice breaking on the other end of the line, I’d reached for him through our bond without realizing it. Like a reflex. Like he was already the thing I went toward when everything else was falling apart, which was a thought I had no idea what to do with.

That thought sat uncomfortably in my chest, partly because it was true, and partly because I was starting to think he might already know it too.

Without a word, he pulled me gently into his side, his arm wrapping around me with surprising tenderness. His other hand moved slowly, carefully prying the phone from my trembling grip before he switched it to speaker.

"Mrs. Gray," he said, calm and composed, his voice like steel wrapped in velvet. His face matched the tone, unshaken, unreadable, in control.

"W-Who are you? Where’s my daughter? Vivian! Vivian!" my mother’s voice spiked in panic.

"I’m right here, Mom. You’re on speaker now," I said hoarsely, my voice cracking.

"Vivian, tell me what’s going on!" she cried.

Zaliver stepped in smoothly, his voice steady. "Mrs. Gray, please stay calm. Your daughter is safe. She’s being taken care of, and everything she wants is provided. She is in no danger."

Sure, if we ignored the emotional torment of being claimed by a living legend who moved through centuries like most people moved through a bad week.

"Who the hell are you?" she snapped, her tone edged with maternal fury.

I felt Zaliver’s body go rigid beside me. That tone probably didn’t sit well with him, but he didn’t lash out. He just stayed calm, annoyingly calm.

"My name is Zaliver Azrala. I’m your daughter’s mate."

There was a heavy, weighted pause on the line. Then silence. The kind that stretches just long enough to make your chest tighten.

Suddenly, a loud, very broken wail pierced the silence.

I leaned closer to the phone, heart pounding. "Mom? Mom?! Are you okay?!"

Sniffles came through next. "Oh, Vivian! Why didn’t you just say you’re with your mate? You’re safe! Oh, thank the Moon. Thank you, Mr. Azrala. Just knowing my baby’s with her mate brings me peace."

I stared at the phone like it had grown horns.

What?

"Uh, Mom, it’s not that simple—" I started, panic creeping into my voice. I didn’t want her to think everything was sunshine and roses. It wasn’t.

"And why didn’t you just call and let us know, Vivian? We were all so worried! Poor Lily, after her Alpha died, she was in such shock she fainted. She doesn’t even remember picking you up from the airport. The poor girl’s been blaming herself and searching for you non-stop."

Guilt crashed down on me like a wave. While I’d been adjusting, crying, and even laughing with strangers, my family had been tearing themselves apart with worry.

But Lily didn’t remember picking me up?

Then it clicked.

Albericus. When he took us, I’d heard him command someone to erase memories, like we’d never even been there.

"Mom, you have to know—" I tried, wanting to finally spill it, to give her the truth.

But then, "That I’ve arranged for you and your husband to be brought to our location as soon as tomorrow," Zaliver said, cutting in smoothly.

My head snapped to him so fast I nearly got whiplash.

My mother gasped on the other end. "Oh! We’re coming to you? Oh, sweetheart, your father will be beside himself. He’s been a complete wreck, you know. Won’t stop pacing. He hasn’t slept properly in weeks, I don’t think."

I was still staring at Zaliver. He was looking back at me, steady and utterly calm, like he hadn’t just rearranged the next forty-eight hours of multiple people’s lives without asking a single one of them first.

What the hell was he doing?

And why, underneath the shock and the whiplash and the very reasonable outrage building steadily in my chest, did some small, quiet part of me feel nothing but relief?

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