Chapter 1
Alpha Roger and I once shared a mate bond. We were in love. We shared a home, a bed, a rhythm.
But this time, his mistress came knocking.
A low-ranking Omega.
She was pretty—eighteen or nineteen—right at the peak of her heat cycle. At Pack festivals, girls her age always draw attention. She wore a cheap pink dress and thick lip gloss, trying to look more mature than she was.
Meanwhile, I had just finished dealing with two traitors in the Pack who tampered with land bidding documents.
One, I personally broke his leg with a silver-bladed axe. The other—I sliced off four of his fingers clean with the Silver Moon Blade.
My office still smelled of blood and printer ink.
When she sat down across from me, I was taking the towel from Beta Glenn, calmly wiping the blood from my hands. I was composed. Steady. I hadn’t even finished my tea yet.
She looked up, voice soft, but laced with malicious pride.
“Alpha Roger doesn’t love you anymore. If you step down, it’ll be better for everyone.”
I raised an eyebrow. My tone was calm and cold.
“Alpha Roger has had countless women. What makes you think you’re special?”
She straightened her back like she’d practiced this monologue in her dorm mirror.
“We’ve been together for two years. Almost every day in heat. And fifteen times—it was on your wedding bed.”
“He says you’re always in the same position. He’s tired of it.”
“You know he doesn’t love you anymore. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be here, right?”
“That’s it?” I asked, unmoved. I leaned back in my chair, ignoring the cold air coming from the ceiling vent. “Keep going.”
She pushed a folder across the desk.
Inside was a printed medical report. Eleven weeks pregnant. Strong fetal heartbeat. There was even an ultrasound image.
“Silverfang Pack is in desperate need of the next Alpha,” she said. “Once he knows about the baby, he’ll want me to keep it.”
“Luna Wendy, how long do you think a mate bond built on guilt can last?”
I sighed quietly. The room was too quiet.
But deep inside me, another voice was already roaring:
“Rip her apart. Just once. That’s all it takes.”
It was my wolf spirit—the other me.
She had long since awakened. She curled in my bloodline like a sleeping flame, now roaring through my nerves like wildfire. Restless. Enraged. On the verge of breaking free.
Her name is Lily.
“She insulted you. Challenged the Luna. Flaunted her womb like a bargaining chip. And you’re just sitting there?”
“Calm down.”
I answered her in my mind. My tone was like ice smothering flame. “She’s not worth it.”
“She’s a filthy parasite. Daring to reach for your throne. Let me deal with her. Just once—I’ll tear out her throat. You want it. I know you do.”
“She’s not qualified.”
I forced down the raw anger threatening to surface.
“Then why are you shaking, Wendy? You want it.”
I took a deep breath. Closed my eyes for one second. When I opened them again, the cold expression had returned to my face.
“She’s not worth it.” This time, I said it out loud—soft as breath, sharp as steel.
“Sue,” I said. “Freshman at Silverfang University.”
“You think climbing into an Alpha’s bed will change your family’s fate?”
“Didn’t your parents teach you about Pack law? Or Luna authority?”
“You throw yourself at an Alpha, use your heat like it’s love—and you think you have the right to lecture me about ‘love’?”
“If I upload every word you’ve said today, along with this report, to Instagram and the Pack’s disciplinary committee... do you really think you’ll last another week in Silverfang?”
She shot up from her seat, eyes wide with panic, finger shaking as she pointed at me.
“You—you can’t do that!”
I smiled coldly, glancing at the red security light blinking above the door.
“You think carrying an embryo gives you the right to challenge the marking system?
How naïve.”
Alpha Roger never lacked women.
But only she had the nerve to come challenge the Luna to her face.
What she didn’t realize was—I was never the one who couldn’t live without Alpha Roger.
The one who depended was Roger himself.
He needed me—his Luna—to hold the Pack together, to stabilize bloodline authority, to control the wolves who only answered to me.
“Get out.” I stood slowly. My voice was calm. “I’ll give you one chance. If I see you again, even if Roger gets on his knees for you, I won’t be able to save you.”
She turned and fled, nearly tripping in her heels. And I knew—
This time, Alpha Roger might actually be serious.
Because she was too much like me.
Not the me now,
But the me at nineteen. The one Alpha Roger half-persuaded, half-deceived into taking his mark.
The girl who still believed love and loyalty were the same thing.
