The summer air was suffocating.
By the time I slid into the driver's seat, I was drenched in sweat. The air was thick and stifling, and my mouth was bone dry.
I swallowed hard several times before my breathing finally steadied.
How dare Julian treat me like this!
We have a sacred mate bond. Our bonding ceremony is tomorrow.
And he was behind my back, entangled with his so-called friend to the point of injuring her.
I slammed my fist on the steering wheel.
A moment later, a message from Julian came through the mind-link.
"You were completely out of line back there."
"Kendra was just being a loyal friend."
"Did you have to say such vicious things?"
"Luckily, Kendra is forgiving and won't hold it against you, so we're letting this go."
"You should head back for now."
"Tell your elders and pack members the bonding ceremony is postponed by one day. The site needs to be purified again."
I listened to his last message in disbelief, then let out a cold laugh.
I'm a Lorekeeper. Since when did a ceremony site need to be purified again?
On a dark impulse, I opened the pack's social feed, the one Julian had added me to just tonight.
I found Kendra's profile and tapped on it.
Her page was public. She had posted an update five minutes ago.
In the video, Julian was in his half-wolf form, kneeling before Kendra.
His red wolf eyes held a fawning gleam as he nuzzled her ankle, a submissive whimper rumbling in his throat.
She, in contrast, sat enthroned in the seat of honor like a queen, surrounded by other pack members.
I turned up the volume, hearing his helpless chuckle, followed by an even lower whimper directed at her.
Kendra's voice purred, "Some people just can't understand our friendship, and they ruined everyone's good time."
"What a buzzkill."
"Good thing my loyal dog knows how to make it up to me. He postponed the ceremony, so we'll continue the party tomorrow night."
She tutted. "I suppose I'll forgive him then."
"After all, as his queen, I'm just too soft-hearted."
The comments section was a conversation between them.
Julian: "You little devil. Is this enough for you? I must have owed you in a past life."
Kendra: "What nonsense. You owe me in this life, too."
"Did you forget when you got in a fight as a kid and tore your clothes, you ripped my brother's right off his back and wore them yourself?"
Julian: "You have the nerve to bring that up?"
"If you hadn't been scaring the other pups with poison ivy, they wouldn't have ganged up on you."
"I was saving you!"
Kendra: "A loyal dog saving his queen is only natural. Are you trying to rebel?"
I watched them reminisce, my fists clenching so tight my knuckles ached.
I slammed my phone screen off, afraid I’d be sick in the car if I watched any longer.
I floored the accelerator.
The moment I was back in my suite, I pulled up Julian's encrypted schedule.
He was famous for his self-discipline, a model heir with a flawless reputation.
Meticulous, serious, and steady, he treated his pack's protection as a sacred duty.
What he and Kendra did tonight was a world away from his "serious and steady" persona.
But one thing didn't add up.
Throughout the confirmation process for our mate bond, he had been completely absorbed in pack affairs, refusing even a day off when I awakened my Lorekeeper abilities.
Once, I had a high fever from the instability of my new powers.
He abandoned me mid-sentence after receiving a mind-link, rushing off to handle a border dispute.
So where did Julian find the time to get entangled with Kendra for "two days and two nights"?
I scrolled through his schedule.
There was only one entry for the entire month of January: Red Rock Valley territory patrol.
Red Rock Valley was Kendra's hometown.
I suddenly remembered Julian being away from me that entire month, using "territory patrol" as his excuse.
A thread in my mind snapped.
I did a quick search.
Over the past year, I found at least two hundred entries marked "Red Rock Valley"—patrols, dispute mediations, emergency vigils.
In other words, every time Julian claimed he was going to Red Rock Valley on pack business, he was actually with Kendra.
When he went on those "emergency vigils," was that personal wolf-fang token—the one that should have been for me, his mate—tucked away in his bag?
