Alpha Asher’s summons came just before dusk, the sky outside bleeding into bruised shades of violet and gray. Diana stood outside the Alpha’s office for a long moment, fingers curling slowly at her sides, grounding herself in the familiar ache of old scars beneath her skin. This room had once been a place of strategy and unity—a place she had fought to protect with blood, sweat, and sacrifice. Now, it felt like a courtroom.
She knocked once.
“Come in,” Asher’s voice commanded.
Diana pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The air was thick—heavy with authority, judgment, and something far more poisonous. Alpha Asher sat behind his desk, posture rigid, eyes sharp. To his right stood Beta Rafe, arms crossed, expression unreadable. Gamma Tyler lingered near the wall, unease etched into his face. And beside the Alpha’s chair, poised like a queen in judgment, stood Luna Hazel.
Diana didn’t bow.
“Alpha,” she said evenly, her voice steady despite the storm roaring beneath her ribs. “You asked for me?”
Asher nodded once. “Yes. Sit. We need to discuss your position as a warrior.”
Diana didn’t move.
“With all due respect, Alpha,” she replied coolly, “there is no position. At least, not anymore. I already resigned if you remember.”
“I remember,” Asher said, his jaw tightening. “And I did not accept.”
“You don’t get to refuse reality,” A bitter smile curved Diana’s lips. “I’m done.”
“You are one of the strongest warriors this pack has ever produced,” Asher shot back. “The younger warriors look up to you. You’re a symbol of resilience.”
“And look what that brought me,” Diana said quietly, her voice slicing through the room. “Betrayed by my own pack.”
“No one betrayed you, Diana,” Asher said firmly.
She laughed—once, sharp and hollow. “That’s big of you to say, Alpha.”
The words hung there, weighted with meaning neither of them needed explained. Asher had been the first to betray her. The rejection. The dismissal. The moment he turned away from her because her wolf hadn’t emerged on her eighteenth birthday, as if her worth had evaporated in an instant.
“I became one of your strongest warriors because I had no choice,” Diana stepped forward, eyes burning. “You told me I didn’t have a wolf. That I was lesser. So I made myself stronger as a human. I trained twice as hard. Bled twice as much. I pushed my body past breaking because I had to.”
She clenched her fists. “I did it to protect this pack. And especially to protect my parents.”
Her voice wavered—for half a second.
“If I had been alone,” she continued, regaining control, “I would have left this pack five years ago.”
Silence swallowed the room.
“And now,” Diana said softly, “I am truly alone. The only people I ever cared for here are gone.” Her gaze swept across them, cold and final. “So do you really think I need—or want—you to accept my decision to resign my position, given that I’m just a simple warrior?”
Luna Hazel scoffed. “Your disrespect knows no bounds.”
Diana turned slowly. “Am I speaking to you, Luna?”
Hazel’s eyes flashed.
“Alpha,” Beta Rafe interjected, voice measured, “a disrespectful and insubordinate warrior, no matter how strong, is still a liability. I advise you to accept her resignation.”
“Actually,” Diana nodded once, approving. “My resigning isn’t a suggestion. It’s an ultimatum. Either you accept my resignation… or you banish me from this pack.”
A murmur rippled through the room.
“Because I will never protect a pack,” Diana finished, voice ironclad, “that betrays its own.”
“How many times do I have to tell you?” Asher snapped. “No one betrayed you!”
“If that’s true,” Diana’s eyes darkened, she said slowly, “then answer me this, Alpha.”
She stepped closer to his desk, palms braced against the wood. “How is it that my parents were outside the bunker?”
No one spoke.
“Why only my parents?” she demanded. “The moment I reached the battleground, I was told everyone had evacuated and was safely locked inside with the Luna.”
Her breath hitched, just barely. “I stayed focused. I fought. I killed rogues with my bare hands. And then I heard my parents calling me through the link.”
“No one knows how long they tried to reach me,” she whispered. “Because I severed every unnecessary mind link—except the voices of the pack’s leaders. Because I trust this pack. I trust that my parents are safe. But my trust was misplaced.” Her eyes burned with unshed tears. “Do you have any idea what that feels like?”
Gamma Tyler swallowed. “We… we don’t know why they were outside the bunker, Diana. Luna Hazel said they didn’t come when everyone was called.”
“And you believe that?” Diana’s gaze snapped to him. “My parents were nothing if not obedient. Loyal. Rule-followers. My father was a low ranked warrior and my mother was a helper in the pack kitchen. All their life, they followed rules.”
She straightened, towering despite her stillness.
“I will fight not for this pack again,” Diana said, “if the one who betrayed me is not charged and convicted.”
“And how,” Asher demanded, “do we charge anyone when we don’t even know if a betrayal occurred?”
Diana’s eyes slid—slowly, deliberately—to Luna Hazel.
“Isn’t that an Alpha’s job?” she asked coolly. “Or perhaps you can ask your Luna. She was in charge of the evacuation. She had the duty to make sure all pack members were accounted for.”
Hazel stiffened.
“Are you blaming me?” the Luna hissed.
“As a matter of fact,” Diana replied without hesitation, “yes.”
The room went deadly still.
“It was your incompetence,” Diana said, voice cutting like steel, “that got my parents killed.”
Hazel’s fury exploded. Her claws burst from her fingertips, her aura surging violently as she lunged forward.
“Luna,” Diana said calmly, not backing away, “are you really going to attack me?”
She lifted her chin. “Might I remind you, you cannot control me. And because of that…”
Her eyes gleamed with challenge. “I can fight back.”
The room trembled with tension, power crackling like a storm about to break.
And for the first time since her parents’ deaths, Diana Nightshade didn’t feel like she was begging to be heard.
She was daring them to face the truth.
The room froze.
For half a heartbeat, no one moved.
Luna Hazel stood poised mid-step, claws fully extended, eyes glowing with unrestrained fury. Her power radiated outward—sharp, domineering, meant to force submission. It rolled through the office like a suffocating wave, heavy with command. Any other warrior would have dropped to a knee.
Diana didn’t even flinch. Instead, something ancient stirred deep within her chest.
'So… this is what she thinks power is?' A voice murmured inside her mind.
Diana inhaled slowly.
'Artemis,' she answered silently.
The presence that responded wasn’t loud. It didn’t roar or snarl.
It awakened.
'I am here,' her wolf said, calm and vast as moonlight on still water. 'You have to endure this alone.'
Hazel snarled. “You dare accuse me and threaten defiance in my own pack?”
“This was never your pack,” Diana replied evenly. “And you’ve never been my Luna.”
Hazel lunged.
The room erupted.
Hazel moved fast—too fast for most to track, but Diana was already shifting her weight, already anticipating the strike. Years of fighting without a wolf had honed her instincts into something lethal. Hazel’s claws sliced through empty air where Diana’s throat had been a breath earlier.
Diana pivoted, slammed her elbow into Hazel’s ribs, and followed with a sweeping kick that sent the Luna crashing into the desk.
Wood splintered.
“Enough!” Asher roared.
Neither woman listened. Hazel shrieked in fury, surging to her feet, her aura flaring violently as she unleashed her Luna power—an invisible force meant to crush Diana’s will, to bend her to submission.
The pressure hit Diana like a tidal wave. But it did not affect her at all.
'Does he really think she can take or control us?' Artemis question gently.
'She thinks I do not have you, Artemis. She is nothing but our replacement as Luna of this pack. Not that she knows about it.' Diana said to Artemis
“What—what are you? How can you resist my Luna power?” Hazel whispered.
Diana straightened slowly.
“That is nothing for you to worry about, Luna,” She said, sarcastically. Her eyes glowed with fury—not the feral gold of a normal wolf, but a human eyes full of hatred. “I am done being nice.”
She moved again, this time faster. Hazel barely managed to block the first strike. Diana drove her backward with brutal precision. Every blow calculated, controlled, devastating. Hazel fought with raw power and desperation, but Diana fought with clarity.
'She is unbalanced,' Artemis observed calmly. 'End this.'
Diana disarmed Hazel with a sharp twist, sending the Luna’s claws raking uselessly through the air before Diana slammed her into the wall. The impact shook the entire office.
Diana pinned Hazel there, forearm pressed to her throat. Hazel clawed weakly at Diana’s arm, her power faltering.
“You should have checked the bunker,” Diana said quietly, voice deadly calm. “You should have counted every name. You should have protected my parents.”
Tears streaked Hazel’s face—not of remorse, but of terror. “I—I didn’t mean—”
Diana released her and stepped back. “Intent doesn’t resurrect the dead.”
Hazel collapsed to the floor, gasping.
The silence that followed was absolute.
Beta Rafe stared at Diana like he was seeing her for the first time.
Gamma Tyler couldn’t meet her eyes.
Alpha Asher stood frozen behind his desk, his face pale, his authority shaken to its core. Diana turned to him. “I will not serve under a Luna who failed her duty and hid behind power. And I will not remain in a pack where justice is optional.”
Asher swallowed. It was a small sound, barely audible, but in the silence of the shattered office, it rang louder than any roar. The Alpha of Crimson Fang had faced wars, rogue invasions, and challengers who sought his throne. Yet none of them had ever looked at him the way Diana Nightshade did now.
Not with fear.
Not with hatred.
With certainty.
“What… what are you?” he asked quietly.
The question was not meant as an insult.
Diana held his gaze, unblinking. The silver glow in her eyes dimmed just slightly—not retreating, but settling, like moonlight slipping behind thin clouds. When she spoke, her voice carried no rage. That frightened him more than fury ever could.
“I am what you rejected,” she said evenly, each word deliberate, weighted with years of unspoken pain. “Because I did not have a wolf.”
“I am the one who learned to fight without claws,” she continued. “The one who trained until my muscles tore and my bones screamed, because I had no second skin to rely on. I became strong not because I wanted glory, but because I had to.”
Her jaw tightened. “I became the strongest so I could protect the people I loved.”
Her eyes flickered—just once—with grief so raw it nearly cracked the air itself.
“And I am the one who was betrayed,” Diana went on, her voice sharpening, “not just by the Alpha of this pack… but by its pretentious Luna as well.”
Hazel flinched where she lay against the wall, bruised and trembling.
Diana didn’t look at her.
“Be thankful, Alpha,” she said softly now, almost kindly, “that my parents’ deaths were born of incompetence.”
The word landed like a blade.
“Because if I find out—if I discover even a whisper of truth—that what happened to them was deliberate…” Her power stirred again, subtle but unmistakable. The temperature in the room dropped. “I will burn this pack to the ground.”
The words were not shouted.
They were promised.
Asher straightened instinctively, his Alpha pride flaring defensively.
“Are you threatening my pack?” he demanded, voice edged with authority. Diana tilted her head slightly, studying him as one might examine a structure already cracking at its foundation.
“No, Alpha,” she replied calmly. “I’m stating facts.”
“You wanted a choice,” She took a steady breath. “Here it is.”
She met his eyes, unyielding. “Accept my resignation. Or exile me. Either way—I walk out of this room free.”
The room waited.
Asher’s jaw tightened. His pride warred visibly with reality, with fear, with the undeniable truth standing before him.
Finally, he exhaled.
“…Your resignation,” he said stiffly, every word tasting like ash, “is accepted.”
A ripple of shock passed through the room.
Effective immediately,” Asher added, his voice low. “You are relieved of all duties to this pack.”
Diana nodded once. “Good.”
She turned toward the door.
Behind her, Asher spoke again—quiet, almost broken. “For what it’s worth… I was wrong.”
Diana paused, but she didn’t turn back. “I stopped needing your validation a long time ago.”
Then she walked out.
The door closed behind her with a final, echoing click.
Outside, the night welcomed her—cool, vast, and open.
'Where will we stay now?' Artemis asked.
When they were still a warrior, they stayed at the pack house. There are rooms reserved for warriors in the first floor.
Diana lifted her face to the moon. 'We will stay at our parents' cabin. That is all we have from them. I will not have anyone stay there.'
For the first time in her life—
She was free.
Aksara