Chapter 3

After I was discharged, I sat in the parking lot for a long time before dialing my father.

"I need the clan Elders to process a cross-territory transfer. As fast as possible."

Silence on the other end. Then: "You understand what tearing up a two-pack alliance means."

"It won't matter, Dad." I cut him off. "Dominic forged the bonding contract. The soul-bond was never activated—as far as the Elders' Council is concerned, this union doesn't exist."

A beat of dead silence, followed by a barely contained curse. "That son of a bitch."

"Once I'm gone, the forged contract becomes your leverage. The Blackwell Alpha deceived Ashford blood. Use it however you want."

My father was quiet for a moment, then sighed.

"I'll have Greyson handle it. Fifteen business days." A pause. "Selena, are you sure this is what you want?"

"I've never been more sure of anything."

I hung up, started the engine, and drove back to the main house.

For the next two days, I rested at the estate. Dominic didn't come home. Didn't even call. My wolf had stopped grieving over it. She lay curled deep in my consciousness like a beast that had finished licking its wounds—quiet, still, biding her time.

On the third day, I finally had enough strength to get out of bed.

I went into the storage room and pulled out everything connected to Dominic—travel photos, the moonstone jewelry he'd given me, matching mugs, the pair of couple's pajamas in the closet I'd never wear again.

I piled it all into the stone fire pit in the rear garden and struck a match.

The instant the flames leapt up, the smiling faces in the photographs began to warp, curl, and crumble to ash. Us at eighteen, kissing on a snowy ridge in the Rockies. Us at twenty, tangled together by a bonfire on Vancouver Island. Us last year, exchanging vows at the moonlit altar. All of it, reduced to cinders.

I stood before the fire and watched those young promises dissolve one by one. Strangely, a lightness I couldn't name welled up inside me. Deep in my consciousness, my wolf slowly raised her head—not in sorrow this time, but something closer to release.

That's when I heard footsteps behind me.

"What are you burning?"

Dominic's voice. I didn't turn around.

"Things I don't need anymore."

A beat of silence. He didn't press. I heard him step closer, and a gift box appeared in my line of sight.

"There was a border patrol situation these past few days." His tone was deliberately softened. "You look terrible. Are you sick?"

I turned and looked at the box in his hand.

"You've always wanted this necklace, right?" He held it out. "I had it custom-made. About before... I know my attitude was out of line."

Two months ago, when that wolf-fang moonstone pendant first came out, I had mentioned it in front of him. He'd been scrolling through his phone, gave a distracted "mm," never even looked up.

Now, two months later, he'd remembered. Too bad I'd stopped wanting it a long time ago. Along with the man standing in front of me.

"It took you this long to remember," I looked him dead in the eye, "is this guilt for vanishing on our anniversary, or compensation for hanging up on your Luna's fifty calls?"

Something flickered in Dominic's gaze. He clearly hadn't expected me to say it to his face.

"If it's something you want, I'll give it to you." His voice tightened slightly. "Hasn't it always been that way?"

The way he invoked the past pulled a cold smirk from my lips.

"I don't need it." I pushed the box back into his hands and turned toward the bedroom.

Behind me, he seemed about to call out, but in the end said nothing.

Back in the bedroom, my phone buzzed.

A friend request from an unknown account. The avatar showed two overlapping hands—the crest on the man's wrist was the Blackwell Alpha's insignia.

Lillian.

I accepted.

A message popped up immediately: "Got a minute? Let's meet. There are some things I'd like you to see for yourself. Trust me, you'll find them interesting."

I stared at the text, the corner of my mouth twitching upward. In our world, this was a declaration of war.

Still, before I left for good, I wanted to see for myself exactly what kind of woman had made Dominic Blackwell lose his mind.

I changed clothes and drove to a café on the southern edge of the territory, the address she'd sent.

Lillian was already seated by the window. Cream-colored dress, hair spilling over her shoulders, makeup immaculate—radiating an air of fragile innocence. In our world, this type was the most dangerous. Not because of her wolf's strength, but because the Alphas who believed they controlled everything were the ones most likely to lose their minds over a face like that.

I sat down across from her.

"You came." She smiled and slid a stack of photos across the table.

Most were candid shots from when Dominic stormed her bonding ceremony—him gripping her hand, the two of them charging heedlessly toward the exit. The rest were recent: walks together, shared meals, curled up by a bonfire, her leaning against his shoulder with a sweet smile.

Lillian kept her eyes locked on my face, waiting for me to crumble.

What she got was me picking up my coffee and taking a leisurely sip.

"That all?"

Her smile froze for a split second, then turned even smugger.

"Selena, Dominic never forgot about me this whole year." Her voice was saccharine enough to make me nauseous. "You think he chose you? His heart has always been mine."

She leaned forward, dropping her voice. "He crashed my ceremony and pulled me away from that man. He bought me a cottage by Silver Lake—do you know that place? That's where he gave me his full mark for the first time."

Silver Lake. My fingertips tightened slightly around the cup.

That was where Dominic took me when he was eighteen. Arms wrapped around me from behind, chin resting on top of my head: "After the bonding ceremony, I'm building you a house right here. A den that's just ours."

After the bonding, he never mentioned it again. I always assumed he'd forgotten. He hadn't forgotten—he'd given it to someone else. And "full mark" meant he'd fused his soul imprint into her bloodline. The thing he'd never truly given me, handed to her without a second thought.

"He comes to see me every week and even assigns pack members to take care of me." Lillian's eyes glittered with triumph. "Selena, do you honestly think you can still win? For a male wolf, the prey he can't have is always the most irresistible."

I set down my cup and looked at her.

"Are you done?"

She blinked, thrown off.

"If you were really his endgame, why did he give you up and bond with me in the first place?"

Lillian's expression shifted. Her mouth opened and closed before she found her voice.

"That was because... you two are fated mates, the alliance between the packs..."

"So," I cut her off, "when it came down to it, he abandoned you because I mattered more?"

Her face flushed crimson.

"You're the one who forced him to choose!" Her voice went shrill. "From that moment on, you went from the moon he held in his palm to a rusted pendant on a chain—nothing but duty and dead weight. But me? Because he had to let me go, I'll bloom forever in the softest corner of his heart. That's how male wolves work, sweetheart—they never cherish what they already have. Only what they can't possess becomes an eternal obsession."

I listened until she finished, then stood.

"Maybe you're right. But so what? You're his dirty little secret. I'm his Luna in name. In our world, a woman who tries to tear apart a mate bond earns one title: 'disgrace of the pack.' You really think you've won?"

I turned, left a tip on the table, and walked toward the door.

Behind me came the harsh screech of a chair scraping across the floor.

Lillian lunged forward and clamped her hand around my wrist, nails digging into skin.

"You think you can just walk away clean?" Her voice was twisted with fury. "Let me show you—who he'll actually save!"

The next second, she wrenched me toward the middle of the road.

The shriek of brakes tore the air apart.