The Lycan King’s Mark (Nevara) by Tiffanie L. Campbell novel Chapter 24

Tobias

It had been nearly three weeks since Nevara disappeared, and for the first time, I could admit it didn’t bother me like it probably should have.

Not in the way people expected from a husband.

Vanessa and Noah filled every inch of the space she left behind. The pack house was warmer now- louder, messier, more alive. Noah’s laughter echoed through the halls like sunlight spilling in through windows I didn’t know had been closed. And Vanessa… she made everything feel like it had purpose again.

For years, I’d buried how I felt. Pushed it down under duty and guilt and the weight of being Alpha. But from the moment Nickolai brought her home–his new mate, glowing and proud–I knew I was in trouble.

I envied him. Not just for having her, but for the way she looked at him. The way she moved with him. It took everything in me to be happy for them. To be his best friend. To smile through the jealousy when ! caught her scent lingering in a room after she left.

And then she saved my life.

One moment, I was running a training exercise. The next, I woke to the sound of her voice and the heat of her hands pressed against the wound the bear trap left behind, calling me back. From that day on, it was over for me. There was no hiding it anymore. I was hers.

And now, Nickolai was gone.

I didn’t ask for it. Would never have wanted it that way. But he was gone, and Vanessa was here. And she wasn’t mine–yet.

Not officially.

The envelope on my desk was thick, sealed in that dry, clinical way that always meant legal business. I didn’t recognize the sender.

I broke it open without a second thought.

And froze.

Finalized divorce papers.

Nevara. My wife–was no longer my wife.

I flipped through them in disbelief. I never signed these. Never saw them. What the hell was this?

At the back, tucked behind the county seal and signature page, was a handwritten note. Just one line:

“Don’t come looking. You’re free now.”

<CHAPTER 24–Unbound

For a long moment, I didn’t move.

Then, strangely, I laughed. A low, breathless sound that felt like relief wrapped in shock.

She’d done it.

She’d really done it.

Vanessa had been asking–no, pushing–for this. Said she wouldn’t share my bed until she could call herself Luna, not just my late best friend’s widow. She wanted a clean slate. And now, somehow, I had

one.

I should’ve felt angry. Confused. Hell, maybe even betrayed. But all I felt was a quiet, dangerous sense of satisfaction.

I was free.

Finally, fully, undeniably free.

I looked out the window toward the pack grounds, where Vanessa and Noah were playing in the early frost. Her smile caught the light. Her cheeks were flushed. She looked like everything I’d ever wanted.

Nevara had always been a convenience. A solution to a problem the elders didn’t know how else to fix. I never marked her. Never mated her. And she knew it. She had to know.

But still–divorcing me without a word? Without even seeing me?

That took guts.

Or maybe she’d just stopped caring altogether.

Either way, the end result was the same. I could finally build the life I wanted–with the woman I wanted

I reached for my phone and dialed Vanessa.

She picked up on the second ring, breathless and laughing. “Hey, everything okay?”

I looked at the divorce papers one last time before folding them shut. “Yeah. Everything’s perfect.”

Her voice on the line was still bright and warm, like sunshine on snow. “I was just about to leave Noah with the nanny. Thought I’d swing by town and do a little shopping.”

Perfect.

“How about we do lunch first?” I asked, already reaching for my jacket. “There’s something I want to tell

you.”

“Ooh, mysterious,” she teased. “Is it good news or bad?”

“That depends on how you look at it.”

She hummed thoughtfully. “Fine. Meet you at the café in twenty?”

“Make it fifteen.”

214

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