The Wolf God's Unwanted Luna

Vivian’s POV

I made it just in time.

Adrenaline tore through me and sharpened everything, every movement, every sound. I ducked beneath Zaliver’s incoming claws, barely, and without thinking I drove my foot straight up into his groin.

His expression went from rage to something very different. I didn’t wait to see how long that lasted. I spun around and dropped to my knees in front of my father’s wolf form. He was snarling, breath hot and wild against my face, but I locked my arms around him and shoved with everything in me. Somehow I managed to push him a few feet back from Zaliver.

I got to my feet and stood between them, chest heaving, claws out, heart pounding so hard I could hear it. My gaze moved from one to the other. The fury running through me was my own but it was also something older and deeper, something that lived in the part of me that had been waking up piece by piece since the marking. My wolf was furious. So was I.

How dare Zaliver take this to the death? Over what, some misplaced idea of protection? I was exhausted by being caught in his storm, dragged around like something fragile he had to keep locked away.

And my father. I understood his fear, I did, but he hadn’t let me speak a single word. His first instinct had been to fight, to offer his life if necessary. I didn’t want that. Not like this.

Behind me, Zaliver was still on the ground, hands cupped over himself, face twisted between pain and disbelief. His eyes found mine, furious and betrayed at once. I didn’t flinch. I didn’t feel guilty. If anything, he’d had it coming.

And then my father was up again. Growling, charging, still bound by the death order Zaliver had spoken. His wolf barreled forward, and Zaliver just watched from the ground, not even bracing, like he already knew I was going to do something.

Maybe he did.

In that moment something clarified. Whether my father still had a choice didn’t matter. I had one. I was Zaliver’s mate, his equal, and I’d spent too long acting like that was a title that came with conditions instead of a position that had its own power.

The power inside me surged. I didn’t fight it.

"Sit. Stay."

I turned to my father and let the command come from somewhere low and certain, not a shout, not a plea. My eyes carried the authority behind it, and to my own stunned surprise, it landed.

Mid-sprint, my father skidded to a halt and froze. He shifted back to human form in the dirt, blinking like he wasn’t sure what had just happened. My command had overridden Zaliver’s.

My mother rushed to his side, checking him over quickly. Bruised ribs, mostly, nothing a few hours wouldn’t fix.

I let out a shaky breath and turned back to the man who had caused all of this.

Zaliver was on his feet now, hands at his sides, jaw tight. He took one step toward me.

I raised a finger. "Stop."

He stopped.

"I’m done," I said, voice still unsteady with rage. "I’m done with the violence and the overbearing displays. This is not how this works. I won’t keep tolerating it."

His expression shifted, wounded and frustrated. "Vivian—"

"Don’t." I cut him off. "You don’t get to say my name like that and then treat me like something you own. Every time you’ve done something like this, I’ve made excuses. I’ve tried to understand you. But this?" I gestured at the mess behind me. "This isn’t love. This is madness."

My voice cracked, but I held his gaze.

"Why do you keep doing this?" I asked, quieter now. "What is it?"

"You don’t understand—"

"Of course I don’t!" My voice broke back into something raw. "How could I? You never let me in. You keep everything locked away and expect me to just guess, just follow, just trust blindly. This bond won’t survive if you won’t talk to me, Zaliver. It won’t."

My breath came unevenly. He was staring at me with that cold, controlled face that hid everything, and his wolf was right at the surface, and mine was answering, bristling, refusing to back down.

His gaze moved briefly to my parents. I stepped sideways, putting myself between them.

His mouth tightened. "So you’re choosing them over your own mate."

"No one is choosing anyone," I said flatly. "They’re my parents, and you’re my mate. Why does everything have to be one or the other with you? Why can’t all of you just exist in my life at the same time?"

The wounded pride was visible now, underneath the cold.

"You issued a death sentence against my father because you assumed he was going to take me from you." My voice cracked on the word. "Do you hear how that sounds? What did you think would happen? That you’d kill him and I’d just stay? That’s your idea of love?"

Each word cost something, but I didn’t stop.

"You call yourself the Lupus Deus. You talk about your power, your strength. But have you ever once stood in the aftermath of something you destroyed and actually looked at what you left behind?"

I stepped closer, voice dropping. "After every conquest. Every battle. Have you ever stayed long enough to see the ashes?"

He didn’t speak. He just looked at me.

I moved right in front of him and reached up, taking his jaw in my hand, tilting his face until his eyes had nowhere to go but mine.

"Look at what you’ve done. Not just today. All of it. Every time. Because you believe destruction is the only way to hold onto something."

His jaw tightened under my grip. He didn’t pull away.

I wasn’t talking about one afternoon. I was talking about his whole life, every path paved in scorched earth, every war fought when what he wanted was never actually in danger. Why did he always need to conquer things that weren’t fighting him?

Something was moving through his expression that I couldn’t quite read. We were both standing still in the middle of the wreckage, and the air between us was sharp and waiting.

Then, quietly, he said, "Yes."

One word. And I felt it through the bond, honest and stark and the most he’d given me in a long time.

I softened my grip and moved my hand to cup his cheek. My thumb brushed across his skin.

"Then why?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. "If you knew you’d win. If you knew I’d still be here. Why did you let the darkness lead?"

His eyes closed. He leaned into my touch, just slightly.

The silence that settled between us was heavy with everything he hadn’t said yet.

But I could feel it, through the bond, through the press of his cheek against my palm.

Something was shifting.

I just hoped it would be enough.

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