ALPHA'S ENDLESS REGRET: After The Barren Luna's Leave novel Chapter 12

While the ancient werewolf tradition held that true mates bonded for life—one soul, one partner, until death—the practical reality for Alphas was more complex. The Northern Council typically pressured pack leaders to take multiple breeding partners to strengthen bloodlines and expand territorial influence. Most Alphas reluctantly complied with this expectation for genetic diversity.

This irony was entirely lost on Tiberius as he remained prostrate before the Council, his forehead repeatedly connecting with the ancient stone floor in a display of submission that shocked the assembled Elders who had never seen the proud Alpha so broken.

"Elder Thornfield, Giselle was my bonded mate for over twelve years," he rasped, his voice raw from hours of fruitless argument. "A connection that deep doesn't simply vanish overnight. She couldn't have severed our bond so completely—not after everything we've weathered together."

"Wait—" Desperation sharpened his tone. "She visited Alpha Katrina of Moon Shadow Pack just before disappearing. She was distraught about my plan to elevate Lilith as equal Luna. That proves she still holds our bond sacred!"

"You're fabricating comfortable delusions, Alpha Dorian."

Alpha Katrina's voice sliced through the chamber as she materialized from the Council's private entrance, her silver-streaked hair and battle scars marking her as one of the territory's most formidable females.

"You completely misunderstood the purpose of Giselle's presence in my territory that day. She didn't come seeking intervention to block your second mating ceremony."

"She came requesting my formal witness signature on your mate-bond severance decree—the final requirement to make it legally binding throughout all Northern Territories."

Tiberius's body went rigid with shock, the blood visibly draining from his face as his partial shift receded instantly.

His mouth worked silently, vocal cords temporarily paralyzed.

When he finally managed to speak, his voice emerged as a broken whisper, "...What? I completely misinterpreted everything that day."

Tiberius clutched at his chest as physical pain radiated through his core—the biological response to a mate bond severing at its deepest level. His breathing became shallow and labored as the full implications crashed over him in merciless waves.

Self-loathing threatened to drown him as decades of memories recontextualized in an instant.

"Why didn't she tell me the truth when I accused her?" he gasped, claws extended as he gouged his own arms in anguish. "If she had just explained her real purpose there, I would have..."

Alpha Katrina's laughter echoed coldly through the chamber.

"You would have what, exactly?"

"Don't recast yourself as the wronged party in this tragedy, Tiberius Dorian. Have you conveniently forgotten your behavior? You struck your Luna in public view, then ordered your pack to physically restrain her while you threatened her life. You didn't permit her a single word in her own defense."

"Were I in her position, I would have executed traditional pack justice—torn out both your throats while you slept. You and your pregnant replacement."

He relived the moment of holding her convulsing body, the silver poisoning her system as her blood soaked through his clothes and into the earth beneath them, his entire existence narrowing to desperate terror.

He had knelt in the blood-soaked dirt, howling primal prayers to the Moon Goddess, offering his Alpha status, his territory, his very life in exchange for hers.

After each of her miscarriages—miscarriages he had secretly engineered for political advancement—he had performed the ancient river ritual with convincing grief, crafting boats from birch bark and filling them with tiny garments, sending them downstream with ceremonial flames to guide their unborn cubs' spirits to the ancestral hunting grounds.

He had even completed the brutal Pilgrimage of Atonement to the sacred temple deep in contested territory, crawling the entire twenty-mile route on bleeding knees to beg the ancient wolf spirits to heal Giselle's emotional wounds—wounds he himself had inflicted.

During the Great Northern Conflict, when he had pledged Silver Crescent's allegiance to the current Grand Alpha and was subsequently captured by rival forces, Giselle had risked everything while pregnant with their second cub.

She had infiltrated enemy territory, smuggling healing herbs and raw meat into his silver-lined prison cell, whispering fierce promises that they would survive this challenge as they had all others—together.

But all those memories belonged to another lifetime now.

Tiberius parked his motorcycle at the edge of the territorial boundary cliff where they had first sealed their mate bond twelve years earlier. He produced a bottle of rare whiskey infused with just enough wolfsbane to numb an Alpha's enhanced metabolism without proving lethal.

As the moon rose, he sought temporary oblivion at the very spot where he had once promised Giselle forever.