The Lunar Queen Chapter 25

Mason POV

Everything is so messed up right now.

I can’t even see Lyric.

And it’s not just that I can’t see her—it’s the way she looked at me the last time I did. Like I was something she needed to run from instead of the person she used to reach for without thinking.

The look on her face when she saw me on Friday was heartbreaking.

That fear—real, raw, not for show—keeps replaying in my head no matter how hard I try to shut it out.

How do I get her to talk to me?

“I know I can’t come see you, but please, can we talk?” I link her before I leave my room this morning.

It’s Sunday, and all the packs are leaving, including the fucking king.

Including the one person she doesn’t flinch away from.

She didn’t block me out, so I know she heard it.

“I’m not ready to talk to you yet, Mason. I know this isn’t really your fault, but you are the cause of all of this. I loved you when I was a pup because you saw me and not her, but when you used her against me all those years ago, I was heartbroken because she was the reason I told you I didn’t want to be your friend anymore. Now, to find out you are my mate, and then all of this. I need time and space. Being around you isn’t safe for me right now. I am not angry with you, but I need to protect myself,” she links, now shutting me out.

The second that link cuts off, it’s like something physically snaps inside my chest—sharp, sudden, leaving nothing but empty space where her voice just was.

Kane howls his sorrow in my mind.

I lost her.

No—worse. She’s still here… and I still lost her.

She made me lose her.

Summer will suffer in the most unimaginable way possible.

I will make sure she never experiences another happy moment in her life.

“We will make her pay for us losing our mate,” Kane growls in my head.

“Yes, but not yet. We have to try to fix things with Lyric, even if we just link her. I can’t lose her,” I say low.

Even if all I get is silence back. Even if she never lets me close again. I’ll take anything over this distance.

“We won’t,” he snarls.

I try to calm myself down, but nothing works.

My chest won’t loosen. My hands won’t stop clenching. Even breathing feels off—too shallow, too tight, like something is sitting heavy right under my ribs.

So I head down to the Beta floor and walk into her room.

I stand in the middle of the room and just inhale her scent.

The delicious warm apple pie smell wraps around me like a warm blanket.

Mate.

It hits harder in here. Stronger. Undisturbed. Like the space still belongs to her in a way nothing else does.

I can’t lose her.

I close my eyes and just breathe her in.

For a second, it almost tricks my mind into thinking she’s here—like if I open my eyes, she’ll be sitting on her bed, rolling her eyes at me like she used to.

I see a hair tie on her dresser; I snag it and wrap it around my wrist.

Something small. Something stupid. But it’s hers, and right now that feels like the only thing I’m allowed to have.

Then, as I’m walking out, I see it dangling on her nightstand by her bed.

I walk to the nightstand slowly, scared to mess anything up.

Like touching the wrong thing might somehow erase the last pieces of her that still feel close.

I gently run my finger over the sunflower pendant.

She kept it, even though it has a bad memory attached to it now; she still kept it.

All these years, and she still kept it.

Even after everything. Even after me.

Even if I never get to have her as my mate, Summer will pay for everything she did to you, my little sunflower.

I vow before walking out her room and downstairs for training.

Because if I can’t fix this—if I can’t get her back—then the only thing left is making sure the person who broke her never gets the chance to breathe easy again.

Summer POV

It seems like everyone is being tight-lipped about Lyric.

Every time I ask, they say they don’t know or haven’t seen her.

Lies. All of them. I can feel it in the way they won’t meet my eyes, in the way conversations stop when I walk into a room.

I made Savannah go into the hospital to see if she could find her, but she claimed she wasn’t there and checked every room.

Where the fuck could she have gone?

Hospitals don’t just lose people. Especially not her.

I know she isn’t dead; I would have felt that.

There would’ve been something—some kind of shift, some kind of silence where she used to exist.

Everyone thinks I’m just a cold bitch, but nobody understands what it’s like for me.

Everyone always talked about how pretty she was when we were pups, how smart she was at such a young age.

I used to hear the Alpha and Luna talk about her training and how great she was when we were six.

How could she have been so perfect at such a young age?

It didn’t make sense then. It still doesn’t.

Then Mason became obsessed with her.

He followed her everywhere she went.

Like she was the only thing in the world worth paying attention to. Like I didn’t even exist standing right next to her.

So I started making her invisible and insignificant.

I made sure our parents and brothers only saw me.

She’s always been so quiet and small, and that worked in my favor.

She never fought back the way she should have. Never made noise. Never made it hard.

Mason was harder to break, but I knew that had to come from her.

So when I burned her with the poker, I told her if she wanted to stop getting hurt, she’d have to tell Mason she didn’t want to be friends anymore.

And she did it. She actually did it.

I can’t believe he was actually hurt about that.

That gave me the chance to wiggle in and take control.

I had him from then until his fucking birthday.

I found out she’s his mate, and that can’t stand.

It won’t stand. I won’t let it.

So I have one last plan that will definitely make him disgusted with her, and when our birthday comes, he’ll reject her for sure.

Not hesitate. Not question it. Reject her. Completely.

Now all I need to do is wait until all the packs leave—Mason, Hunter, Lucas, and Micah head off for Alpha training.

As soon as she comes out of hiding, Phase 3 can kick in.

And this time… there won’t be any coming back from it. Not for her. Not for him.

I just have to make sure all these idiots keep their mouths shut.

This is the biggest one yet, and it will give me exactly what I want.

Because this time, I’m not just trying to hurt her—I’m making sure when it’s done… there’s nothing left for him to choose.

And when Phase 3 is done…

even if she’s still breathing—

she won’t be someone he can love anymore.