Prologue
Prologue
Michael Stone had been staring at the same paragraph for ten minutes.
The book lay open across the broad surface of his desk, one hand resting against the page as though holding it there might somehow force the words into his head.
It wasn’t working.
His office was quiet, the kind of quiet he usually preferred. Late afternoon light came through the windows behind him, spilling across the dark wood shelves and the stack of reports Marcus had left on the corner of his desk earlier that morning.
Michael should have been reading.
Instead, his thoughts kept drifting.
To her.
A knock sounded against the partially open door.
Michael looked up.
And everything in him softened.
Sophia stood there.
She wore a pale blue dress today, simple but elegant, the fabric falling cleanly around her body. Her dark hair was loose over one shoulder, and there was something about the sight of her that made the tension Michael hadn’t even realized he was carrying ease from between his shoulders.
His mate.
The word settled through him with the certainty of gravity.
“Come in.”
Sophia smiled.
That smile did something to him too.
It always did.
She stepped inside, closing the door only halfway behind her.
Michael’s gaze followed her as she crossed the room.
“You’re busy,” she said.
“Not anymore.”
Her smile deepened.
Sophia approached the chair opposite his desk and lowered herself gracefully into it.
Michael frowned.
She noticed.
“What?”
“That’s too far away.”
Sophia glanced at the distance between them.
There was barely the width of his desk.
Still too far.
Far too far.
Michael closed the book.
He leaned back in his chair and patted one thigh.
“Come here.”
Her eyebrows lifted.
“Michael.”
“Come here.”
There was amusement in her expression now.
“You have an entire pack to run.”
“And?”
“And I’m distracting you.”
“You say that like it’s a problem.”
Sophia laughed softly.
Michael felt something warm settle through his chest.
She rose.
He watched every step she took around the desk.
When she reached him, Michael spread his knees slightly and offered his hand.
Sophia took it.
He guided her down onto his lap.
Better.
Immediately better.
One of his arms settled around her waist.
Sophia rested a hand against his shoulder.
“Comfortable?” she asked.
Michael looked at her.
“Now I am.”
She smiled again.
And outside his office, just beyond the partially closed door, Mari Case stopped walking.
The tray in her hands suddenly felt impossibly heavy.
She had been asked to bring Michael his late meal after he had skipped lunch.
Eleanor had loaded it herself.
Roasted chicken.
Potatoes.
Vegetables.
Fresh bread.
Mari had volunteered to bring it before Eleanor could stop her.
She knew she should have listened when Eleanor told her not to.
Now she stood frozen in the hallway.
Michael couldn’t see her.
Sophia couldn’t see her.
The angle of the door hid Mari completely.
She could see only a narrow slice of the office.
Michael’s desk.
The edge of his chair.
Sophia’s blue dress where it draped over his knee.
Mari’s wolf surged painfully beneath her skin.
Mate.
Mari closed her eyes.
Please.
Not now.
Inside the office, Sophia ran her fingers lightly over Michael’s collar.
“You’ve been distant today.”
Michael’s brow furrowed.
“Have I?”
“A little.”
He tightened his arm around her.
“I didn’t mean to be.”
“I know.”
Sophia’s voice was soft.
Understanding.
Perfectly understanding.
Michael looked at her and wondered, not for the first time, how he had functioned before she came into his life.
There had always been responsibility.
Expectations.
Decisions.
Everyone wanted something from him.
His father had raised him to lead before Michael had been old enough to understand what leadership meant.
Marcus knew how much pressure came with it. Marcus understood better than anyone.
But even Marcus couldn’t give him this.
This quiet.
This peace.
Michael brushed a strand of Sophia’s hair away from her cheek.
“Do you know what I thought being mated would feel like?”
Sophia went very still.
Outside the door, Mari did too.
Sophia’s expression warmed.
“What?”
Michael considered the question.
“I thought it would be violent.”
She laughed softly.
“Violent?”
“You know what I mean.”
“I’m not sure I do.”
“I thought there would be this… overwhelming moment. Like getting hit with something.”
His thumb brushed along her waist.
“Like suddenly nothing else existed.”
Sophia studied him.
“And it wasn’t?”
Michael shook his head slowly.
“No.”
Mari’s fingers tightened around the tray.
Her wolf whimpered.
Michael continued.
“It was better.”
Sophia smiled.
“Better?”
“It felt certain.”
That word sliced through Mari more cleanly than anything else could have.
Certain.
Michael looked at Sophia like there was nothing else in the world worth seeing.
“It was like recognizing something I’d been missing without knowing I was missing it.”
Mari stopped breathing.
Michael’s voice lowered.
“I looked at you and thought, there she is.”
Mari’s grip trembled.
The fork on the tray shifted.
A tiny metallic sound.
Michael paused.
His head turned slightly toward the door.
Mari froze.
Her wolf surged.
Go.
Mari couldn’t.
Mate.
Michael listened for another second.
Nothing.
He turned back to Sophia.
Outside, Mari forced her shaking hands still.
Sophia touched Michael’s jaw.
“You never told me that.”
“I’m telling you now.”
“Why?”
“Because you asked.”
“No.” Sophia smiled faintly. “Why haven’t you told me before?”
Michael thought about it.
Because some things felt too private even to speak aloud.
Because being Alpha meant constantly having people watching him.
Because tenderness was something he had learned to keep locked down.
But Sophia was his mate.
There shouldn’t be anything he couldn’t give her.
“There are things I’m still learning how to say.”
Sophia’s expression softened.
Michael continued before he could reconsider.
“I spent years wondering what she would be like.”
Mari’s stomach twisted.
She knew who he meant.
His mate.
Her.
He was talking about her.
To Sophia.
“I wondered if she would understand the pack,” Michael said. “If she would understand me.”
Sophia’s fingers moved slowly through the hair at the nape of his neck.
“And?”
“I think I worried she wouldn’t.”
“Why?”
Michael gave a quiet laugh.
“Because I’m not particularly easy.”
“I’ve noticed.”
He gave her a look.
Sophia smiled innocently.
Michael shook his head.
“I knew my mate would become Luna. Everyone knows that. But that isn’t the same thing as knowing whether someone will actually be capable of it.”
Mari swallowed.
Sophia leaned closer.
“And you think I am?”
Michael stared at her.
The answer came without hesitation.
“I know you are.”
Mari’s eyes burned.
She stared down at the tray.
The bread had been wrapped in a clean cloth.
Eleanor had added butter because Michael liked it warm enough to melt.
Mari had remembered that.
Of course she had.
She remembered everything about him.
Every stupid little thing.
How he took his coffee.
Which chair he favored during meetings.
The way he rubbed the side of his thumb when irritated.
How his voice changed when he was tired.
How he looked when he laughed with Marcus and temporarily forgot he was Alpha.
She knew all of it.
Michael knew almost nothing about her.
Inside the office, Sophia tilted her head.
“What makes you so sure?”
Michael’s answer came easily.
“You know when to speak.”
Mari’s heart sank.
“And when not to,” he continued. “You don’t need attention every second. You don’t force yourself into places where you don’t belong.”
The words struck harder because Mari knew he wasn’t talking about her.
Not consciously.
But they found her anyway.
Sophia’s expression remained soft.
Michael’s hand moved slowly along her side.
“You have dignity.”
Mari stared straight ahead.
“You’re calm when everyone else loses their heads.”
Her throat tightened.
“You make people comfortable.”
Another wound.
“You don’t demand things from me just because you want them.”
Mari’s wolf whined.
She tried to push it down.
Michael’s voice lowered.
“And you understand that being Luna is more than standing beside me.”
Sophia watched him closely.
“What is it, then?”
Michael answered without thinking.
“Carrying the pack with me.”
Mari’s eyes closed.
That one belonged to her.
Somehow, impossibly, she knew it.
Her wolf knew it too.
The ache behind her ribs became unbearable.
Michael should have been saying these things to her.
Maybe not today.
Maybe not tomorrow.
But someday.
When the bond was recognized.
When he finally looked at her and knew.
Those should have been their words.
Their conversation.
Their future.
Sophia was sitting in her place and receiving all of it.
“You really believe that?” Sophia whispered.
Michael’s expression softened further.
“I wouldn’t have chosen you if I didn’t.”
Chosen.
Mari flinched.
Sophia’s fingers stilled.
“You chose me?”
Michael frowned.
“You know what I mean.”
“I want to hear it.”
He smiled slightly.
Of course she did.
Michael had never been particularly good at saying things simply because someone wanted reassurance.
But Sophia wasn’t just anyone.
“You’re my mate.”
Mari’s lips parted soundlessly.
Michael continued.
“My Luna.”
The hallway blurred.
“My future.”
Mari stared at the floor.
The tray dug into her palms.
Sophia leaned closer.
“And if someone tried to come between us?”
The warmth in Michael’s expression changed.
Not much.
But enough.
His jaw tightened.
“No one will.”
Sophia’s eyes remained on him.
“What if they believed they had a reason?”
Michael immediately thought of Mari.
The persistent girl with those enormous wounded eyes who kept insisting something impossible.
Something insulting.
Something that should have stopped weeks ago.
His irritation stirred.
“She can believe whatever she wants.”
Outside the door, Mari stopped breathing again.
Sophia said nothing.
Michael’s arm tightened around her.
“It doesn’t make it true.”
Sophia’s voice remained gentle.
“You know she’s hurting.”
Something uncomfortable moved through Michael.
He disliked discussing Mari with Sophia.
Not because he cared what Mari felt.
Because Sophia shouldn’t have to deal with any of this.
“She’s hurting herself.”
Mari lowered her head.
Michael continued.
“I’ve tried being patient.”
“I know.”
“I’ve listened to her.”
“You have.”
“I’ve explained it.”
Sophia nodded.
Michael’s irritation grew simply remembering those conversations.
Mari standing in front of him.
Quiet.
Earnest.
Insisting that something was wrong.
That Sophia wasn’t his mate.
That Michael needed to listen to his wolf.
As though Michael Stone didn’t understand his own wolf.
As though a twenty-year-old girl understood his instincts better than he did.
“She won’t accept it.”
Sophia touched his chest.
“Maybe she needs time.”
Michael exhaled through his nose.
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“She watches us.”
Sophia looked almost sympathetic.
“I’ve noticed.”
“She finds reasons to come near me.”
Mari looked at the food she was carrying.
Her stomach turned.
“She keeps trying to tell me what I feel.”
Michael’s mouth hardened.
“That’s the part I’m done tolerating.”
Sophia was quiet.
Michael looked at her.
“I know what you are to me.”
Mari pressed her lips together.
“I know what this is.”
His hand tightened possessively around Sophia’s waist.
“And I’m not going to let someone else poison it because she’s convinced herself she has some claim on me.”
Mari’s vision blurred.
Poison.
He thought she was the poison.
Sophia leaned into him.
“I don’t want you angry.”
“I’m not angry.”
“You are.”
Michael looked down at her.
Sophia smiled faintly.
He sighed.
“Fine.”
She brushed her thumb over his jaw.
“I don’t want you fighting with her because of me.”
“I’m not fighting with her because of you.”
“No?”
“No.”
His voice hardened.
“I’m dealing with something I should have dealt with sooner.”
Outside the door, Mari felt something inside her fold inward.
Sophia studied him.
“What are you going to do?”
Michael was silent for a moment.
“I’m going to make her understand.”
Sophia’s gaze sharpened almost imperceptibly.
“And if she still doesn’t?”
Michael looked toward the partially open door.
Mari’s heart slammed against her ribs.
He couldn’t see her.
She knew he couldn’t.
Still, she felt caught.
Exposed.
His expression was cold now.
Nothing like the softness Sophia received.
“Then I stop being gentle.”
Mari’s fingers went numb.
Sophia rested her forehead against his.
“You have a good heart, Michael.”
Mari almost made a sound.
Not because she disagreed.
That was the terrible part.
She loved his heart.
She loved him.
She loved him so much that even standing there while he unknowingly tore pieces from her, some part of her still wanted to walk inside and warn him.
Something was wrong.
Something was terribly wrong.
Her wolf knew.
Mari knew.
Michael simply couldn’t see it.
Sophia kissed him.
Softly.
Michael returned it.
Mari looked away.
She could not watch that.
Not this.
Her wolf pushed violently against her.
Mate.
Mari’s eyes filled.
Please stop.
Mate.
“He doesn’t want us.”
The thought was silent.
Her wolf recoiled from it.
Mari swallowed.
Inside the office, Michael murmured something she couldn’t hear.
Sophia laughed.
That laugh finished what the kiss had started.
Mari slowly backed away.
One step.
Then another.
She kept the tray balanced through sheer concentration.
She made it halfway down the corridor before one tear slipped free.
Mari wiped it away immediately.
Nobody could see.
Nobody except Eleanor knew.
Nobody except Eleanor believed her.
And Mari could already imagine what Michael would say if he caught her crying outside his office.
That she was being dramatic.
That she was embarrassing herself.
That Sophia would never behave this way.
Mari closed her eyes.
The imagined words hurt almost as much as the ones he had actually spoken.
She turned toward the stairs.
The food could go back to the kitchen.
Someone else could bring it.
She couldn’t.
Not now.
Behind her, Michael’s office door remained partially open.
Inside, he held Sophia closer.
He did not know Mari had been there.
He did not know she had heard him.
He did not know that the promises he was placing in Sophia’s hands belonged to the woman disappearing silently down the hallway.
And Michael Stone had never been more certain of anything in his life.
Sophia Galaxy was his mate.
