Guilt crept through Lester’s veins the moment Janine’s message lit up his phone, the faint vibration sending a shiver along the bond that tied their wolves together. The date burned behind his eyes.
The Moonbond Anniversary.
The day a Luna was meant to be honored, cherished, surrounded by her pack.
And he had forgotten.
A faint unease rippled through his wolf, but he forced it down. There was still time. He could fix it. He always fixed things.
A soft, perfumed weight pressed against him. Avery’s lips brushed his, warm and possessive, chasing away the creeping dread.
“You’ve been lost in your head,” she murmured, her fingers sliding across his chest, tracing the faint silver scars left behind by past shifts. “What’s troubling you, Alpha?”
“Nothing,” he said too quickly, tossing his phone onto the bedside table as though it had bitten him. He pulled her closer, burying his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling her scent — honeysuckle laced with wolf heat — letting it drown out the dull ache stirring in his chest.
They were still at the coastal pack hotel, hidden from the prying eyes of their clans. Their flight home wouldn’t leave for another few hours. Plenty of time.
He would swing by the artisan district, buy something extravagant — moon-forged jewels, perhaps — and Janine would forgive him. She always did. Her wolf was gentle. Loyal. Devoted to the point of blindness.
Everything was under control.
Lester exhaled, wrapping his arm around Avery’s waist, closing his eyes in contentment.
Then his phone began to vibrate.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
The table rattled as the device erupted into a storm of notifications. His wolf snapped awake inside him, hackles rising as unease flooded his chest.
He sat upright, frowning at the screen glowing with dozens of missed calls and pack-network alerts.
Then John’s name flashed across the screen.
“John?” Lester answered cautiously.
“Turn on the news. Now.” Panic shredded the other man’s voice.
“What’s wrong?” Lester asked, already swinging his legs over the bed.
“Just do it, Rich. You need to see this.”
A chill slithered down his spine. He grabbed the remote and flicked on the holo-screen mounted to the wall.
The image that filled the room froze his blood.
There he was.
His arm wrapped around Avery’s waist, her body pressed against his, their lips locked in a kiss that screamed intimacy. Not staged. Not manipulated.
Real.
Beneath the image blazed crimson letters:
ALPHA HEIR Lester Campbell CAUGHT IN FORBIDDEN AFFAIR WITH HIS LUNA’S SISTER — PACK OUTRAGE ERUPTS
The bond in his chest jolted violently, as though something inside Janine had recoiled in horror.
“No… no, no…” Lester whispered, the remote slipping from his numb fingers.
Behind him, Avery’s sleepy voice floated through the suite. “Why did you stop? Come back to bed—”
Then she saw the screen.
The color drained from her face.
“Oh Moon Goddess…” Her hand flew to her mouth. “Killian will see this. My mate will know everything!”
Lester dragged a hand through his hair, his wolf pacing frantically inside him, claws scraping at his ribs.
“John,” he barked into the phone. “Erase it. Shut down the feed. Pull the story — I don’t care what it costs!”
“I’ve tried,” John replied hoarsely. “Every pack channel has it. It’s already gone feral across the territories. We can’t contain it.”
“No!” Lester roared, smashing the call closed.
He immediately dialed Janine.
Voicemail.
Again.
Blocked.
His throat tightened painfully. “She severed the line… she blocked me.”
Avery grabbed his arm, nails digging into his skin. “What do we do? Killian blocked me too — he knows, Lester!”
But Lester wasn’t hearing her anymore.
His wolf was howling now.
He tore free from her grip and stormed from the suite, ignoring her frantic shouts behind him. He burst through the hotel corridors like a wounded beast, shoving through startled guests, his instincts screaming one command:
Home. Now.
He drove like a madman, tires screaming against the asphalt as the forest blurred past his windows. His pulse thundered louder than his engine.
Strange, how the idea of losing Janine suddenly felt like suffocation.
He had always believed she was immovable — bound to him by devotion, isolated from the world beyond him and Avery.
But the bond felt… strained. Thin.
Her smile flickered through his mind. The way she used to look at him as if he were the moon itself.
“No,” he muttered fiercely, pressing harder on the accelerator. “She’ll listen. I’ll fix this. I always fix this.”
He skidded into the manor grounds and abandoned the car mid-driveway.
“Janine!” he shouted as he burst through the front doors.
Silence answered.
Too quiet.
His gaze snapped to the living room table.
An envelope waited there.
His name written in Janine’s handwriting.
Hands shaking, he ripped it open.
Divorce documents.
Signed.
At the bottom of the first page, written in her elegant script:
Happy Moonbond Anniversary, Lester.
Beside the envelope lay photographs.
Not just the scandal images.
Private ones.
Him and Avery laughing in hotel rooms. Tangled in sheets. Kissing beneath foreign moons.
Lester’s knees buckled as the weight of his destruction crashed down on him.
“Janine…” he croaked.
But the bond was already fading.
She was gone.
