Chapter 1

On my birthday, I found out I was pregnant.

Ten minutes later, my mate bond caught fire.

I felt his lips on another woman's throat.

I felt him bite down. I felt him mark her.

And the tiny heartbeat inside me was the only reason I didn't scream.

I collapsed against the bathroom sink with the pregnancy test still in my hand. Two lines. Four years of praying to the Moon Goddess, and she had finally answered. My wolf, Nova, had gone quiet years ago, but even she had stirred when we heard that faint flutter of life.

Now the bond between me and my husband was a hot wire wrapped around my heart, pulling tighter with every second.

Kade. Stop. Please, stop.

He didn't stop.

That morning, Alpha Kade Blackwood had woken me with a bouquet of moonflowers and a kiss on my shoulder. "Happy birthday, my Luna," he'd whispered. He was already dressed. Urgent border business, he said. He'd be back by moonrise. He'd booked me a full day at the Silver Springs spa.

I'd smiled like an idiot. Because that was us. Kade and Aria. The Alpha who married the broken Silver girl after her family lost everything. The couple every she-wolf in the territory envied.

My phone buzzed on the counter.

Unknown number. A video.

My hand shook so hard I almost dropped it.

A bedroom I didn't recognize. Kade, shirtless, hair wet. And beneath him, laughing, her neck bared to him like an offering—

Sienna.

His personal assistant. The girl I had braided hair for at the Midsummer Festival. The girl who called me "Luna" so sweetly I'd once told Kade she was the only one in the pack I trusted.

On the screen, Kade sank his teeth into her neck.

At the exact same moment, the bond in my chest tore.

I fell to my knees on the cold tile and pressed both hands over my stomach. It's okay. It's okay, little one. Mommy's here.

I don't know how long I stayed on that floor. Long enough for the moon to rise. Long enough for my tears to dry into salt.

At midnight, the front door opened.

"Babe? I'm so sorry I'm late." Kade walked into the living room with his easy smile, holding a velvet box. "Border dispute. It took forever. But look—"

A diamond collar necklace. Thousands of dollars of glittering apology.

He leaned down to kiss me.

And I smelled her. Jasmine. Sweat. Blood. Her blood, still on his tongue.

I turned my face away.

He froze. "Aria? What's wrong?"

His voice was so full of concern that, for one sick second, I almost believed him. That was his gift. He could lie with his whole face.

Then his eyes glazed over. The mind-link. Someone was talking to him inside his head, and I didn't need to guess who.

"I have to go," he said, already standing. "Rogues near the eastern border. Don't wait up, baby."

He didn't even notice I hadn't said a single word.

The door shut behind him. I stared at the diamond collar on the coffee table until my vision blurred.

Then I picked up my phone and called Elder Phoebe, the pack's keeper of law.

"Aria? It's past midnight."

"I want to reject my mate."

Silence. Then, carefully: "Child, a marked Luna who rejects her Alpha can die from the backlash. You'd need proof he broke the bond first. Undeniable proof."

"I'll get it."

"There's something else." Her voice dropped. "You're not… carrying, are you?"

My hand drifted to my stomach.

"Because if you are," Phoebe whispered, "the rejection won't just kill you, Aria.

It will kill the pup too."