Reclaiming My Broken Luna by Selene Souchon

Chapter 284: Heartbreak Drystan's POV A storm broke loose insidethe moment I turned away from Astrid.

My feet moved without thought, each step heavier than the last, and I didn't care where I was going-I just needed to leave. To get away from the weight of her words, her rejection.

The sound of my boots pounding against the earth drowned out the distant voices behind me, but it wasn't enough to quiet the roar in my chest.

I passed through the pack's courtyard in a blur, the cold night air biting against my skin, but I barely noticed. I only had one thing in mind - distance. I needed to get away from everything.

"Drystan!" Damien's voice cut through the air, sharp with confusion. I had no choice but to walk past through them to leave the Pack.

"What the hell is going on?" He asked out loud, sensing the tension gripping my entire body.

I ignored him. My jaw clenched so tightly I could feel the muscles strain. I heard their footsteps quicken, coming up behind me.

Damien, Killian, and a few others stood in curiosity, watching me. Their surprise was evident, but I couldn't bring myself to stop. Not even for them.

Killian caught up first, his brow furrowed in concern. "Drystan, wait - what happened? Where are you going?" His voice was firm, a mixture of authority and confusion.

I glanced at him, just enough to see the question burning in his eyes. I stilled, my hands clenching tightly as I stared at him.

For a moment, I considered it saying what had been building insidefor so long, letting him bear the weight of everything I had been holding in. The rejection. The frustration. The pain that Astrid's words had left behind.

It was his fault. All of this. Astrid's coldness, her distance-it all traced back to him.

To the way he treated her, the way he never truly valued what he had. If it weren't for him, maybe Astrid wouldn't be so guarded, so broken.

Maybe she could have lovedthe way I loved her. Maybe... maybe I wouldn't be standing here now, with this bitterness clawing its way out of my chest.

I opened my mouth to speak, to hurl those words at him, to make him understand what he had done.

My chest tightened, the anger rising, threatening to spill out in ways I wasn't sure I could control. But as I stared at him his confusion, his concern-something stopped me.

So I shut my mouth. I let the words wither and die on my tongue. I turned my back on him, the weight of silence heavier than anything I could have said.

"Where is Astrid?" Killian shouted after me.

I didn't answer him. I didn't owe him anything - least of all an explanation. The rage that twisted insidelike a violent storm was too much, too dangerous.

Words would only make it worse. So I kept walking, my boots crunching against the gravel, their voices fading into the background as I reached my car.

My hand shook as I pulled the keys from my pocket, but I didn't care. The engine roared to life, loud and angry, echoing the fury that burned inside me.

I threw the car into gear and peeled out of the forest, the wheels kicking up dirt and leaves as I sped away from the pack, from Killian, from everything.

The night stretched ahead of me, the road winding through the thick trees like a dark vein cutting through the earth.

My hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white, but I didn't slow down. If anything, I pressed harder on the gas.

The speedometer climbed higher, I'm driving recklessly too fast, putting myself in danger but I didn't care. The wind whipped through the open windows, cold and biting against my face, but it wasn't enough to cool the fire raging inside me.

I wanted to scream, to tear the world apart the way it felt like I was being torn apart from the inside. Astrid's rejection was like a knife, still twisting, still bleeding.

The headlights cut through the dark, illuminating the empty road ahead, but my mind was somewhere else. Astrid. Always Astrid.

She was all I could see, all I could think about. Her words, her distance, her indifference. I wanted to hate her. I wanted to blher for all of it.

But no matter how much I tried to convince myself that she was the problem, that she was the reason I was driving down this road like a madman, the truth gnawed at the back of my mind.

It wasn't just her. It wasn't just the rejection.

It was me.

The realization hitlike a punch to the gut, the anger draining away, leaving only a cold, empty ache in its place.

My foot eased off the gas, the car slowing as the weight of the truth settled on my chest. I had been selfish. Just like Astrid.

I had waited for her, not because it was best for her, but because it was what *I* wanted Because I had convinced myself that I was the one who deserved her love, her attention. And in doing so, I had ignored everything else. Everyone else. Nova.

Her ncut through my thoughts like a whisper, soft but relentless m Nova, who had been there, waiting watching. Nova, who had cared for me, who had giveneverything without asking for anything in return. And what had I done? I had pushed her aside. Used her. Ignored her, all for a fantasy that was never going to happen.

I clenched the steering wheel harder, my chest tightening with guilt. I had hurt Nova. I had been selfish, thinking only of what I wanted, never once considering her feelings, her needs.

I had treated her the sway Astrid had treated me. The sway Killian had treated Astrid.

The irony of it was suffocating.