The Return of the Fallen Luna: Rise of the Heiress Chapter 35 Nathan’s POV 2

I couldn’t keep going like that, so I retreated to my private room, the one connected to my office, and shut the world out.

Tomorrow... I’d do it.

Tomorrow, I’d be the one to carve into my own chest and rip sothing out of it. I’d stand there and hurt the woman I’d loved for years, tear her down in front of everyone, and still call it necessary.

For the better. For all of us.

That’s what I told myself as I lay there, staring into the dark, forcing my eyes shut like I could bury the doubt along with it.

—

After a sleepless night...

I’m standing at the altar.

Waiting.

The entire hall is packed, eyes everywhere, whispers barely contained, caras ready. I arranged this. Every single detail. Made sure there’d be no escape, no way to soften what was about to happen.

And still... I can’t keep still.

My fingers twitch at my sides. My jaw’s locked so tight it aches. There’s this restless energy crawling under my skin, making it hard to even breathe properly. I don’t know if it’s nerves or sothing worse.

Am I nervous because I’m about to ruin her?

Because I’m about to drag her na through the dirt, break her in front of the dia, my parents... her forr parents... everyone who ever looked at her like she mattered?

...Maybe.

Or maybe it’s sothing else.

Because beneath all that tension, there’s sothing uglier.

Anticipation.

Hope.

It scratches at my chest like claws, relentless and irritating, like sothing inside is waiting for her to walk through those doors. Waiting to see her. To confirm she’s really there.

And I hate that I can’t tell if I’m waiting to destroy her, or if so part of is still hoping she’ll look at ... and make stop.

So might call a coward or soone who wanted to have his cake and eat it too, but I don’t know.

All I can think about right now is Ashley.

What she’ll look like when she walks in... in that wedding dress she used to talk about like it was sacred. She always said she wanted it simple and elegant, sothing she’d wear when we stood side by side, mated, married, in front of everyone who mattered.

That used to be my dream too.

Ours.

And now I’m standing here, about to turn that dream into sothing twisted, sothing she never asked for. I don’t even know where it all went wrong. One day we were us, and the next... everything just cracked, shifted into sothing I can’t fix no matter how hard I try.

And it fucking hurts.

It sits in my chest like sothing rotting, heavy and sharp, and no matter how much I try to justify it, it doesn’t ease up. Because I know, deep down, I’m the one about to break her.

But what the hell am I supposed to do?

Things changed. Fate stepped in and rewrote everything without asking either of us. I can’t just turn my back on my fated mate, can’t ignore that pull, it’s carved into whether I like it or not. And trying to fight it feels like I’m tearing myself apart from the inside.

Still... it doesn’t make this any easier.

Because there’s this sick, quiet thought clawing at ...

That this might be the last ti I ever see Ashley look at the way she used to. Like I was her whole world. Like I was enough.

After today... I lose that.

I lose her.

And just thinking about it makes my chest tighten so hard I can barely breathe. It makes sothing violent stir under my skin, like I want to rip this pain out of and shove it into soone else, make them feel it instead.

Because I don’t want this.

I don’t want it to end like this.

If only she were my fated mate...

If only she were Alpha Derek’s real daughter...

If only...

But none of that matters now.

So many ’what ifs’ keep running through my head that I lose track of ti again. How many tis has that happened today? I don’t even know anymore.

People are starting to notice.

I can feel it in the way their eyes linger too long, the quiet murmurs, and the tension in the air. Even my parents have already pulled aside, three tis now, asking if I’m really going through with this.

Three tis.

And every ti, I gave them the sa answer.

Yes.

But I saw it in their faces, they’re hesitating too. How could they not? Ashley grew up under their roof, under their watch. She wasn’t just soone they knew... she was family. Half their daughter, whether anyone says it out loud or not.

Still... they didn’t stop .

They can’t.

Because I’ve already made my decision. Because I’m the one leading this pack now, and when I say sothing, it stands. My word isn’t sothing they can just overturn, not without tearing everything apart.

And maybe... maybe a part of them is relieved.

Because this gives them an excuse.

An excuse to stand back and watch Ashley fall without stepping in. To tell themselves it wasn’t their place, that their hands were tied. That they had no choice.

It lightens their guilt.

But what about ?

I’m the one doing it.

I’m the one standing here, about to make it happen.

So what’s my excuse?

...Should I really go through with this?

The thought hits harder than I expect, and for a second, I almost choke on it. I’ve second-guessed myself more tis than I can count. Hell, I’ve nearly backed out of this more than once today alone.

But every single ti—

Maddison’s face flashes in my mind.

And it’s like a switch flips.

All the things she went through, all the pain and the injustice, co rushing back, sharp and relentless, digging into until I can’t ignore it. Until it feels wrong, impossible, to turn away from it.

My wolf doesn’t let either.

It pushes, snarls, and demands that I follow through. That I don’t waver. That I don’t betray the bond that’s been carved into us.

So I stand here.

Torn apart, still choosing to move forward anyway.

I drag a hand up and pinch the bridge of my nose, eyes shutting tight as everything inside grinds together until it feels like I’m coming apart. I’m exhausted, fucking exhausted, from thinking, from justifying, from forcing myself to keep moving forward when every part of keeps pulling in a different direction.

I used to think I was strong.

Unshakable even.

But this? This has buckling like a damn coward.

It’s eating alive. And out of everything... the one thing I can’t shake, the one thing that keeps creeping back no matter how hard I try to bury it...

Is the thought of Ashley looking at with hatred.

With resentnt.

Like I’ve beco soone she doesn’t recognize.

That thought alone twists sothing deep in my chest, makes it hard to even breathe.

And yet... there’s a stubborn part of that desperately keeps clinging to sothing else. To the belief that she’ll understand. That she always has, and she always will. Ashley’s smart. She sees things clearly. And more than that...

She loves .