I stumbled into the pack station and rushed to the front desk, desperation making my voice tremble. “Please... my husband, Rowan Ashcroft, has disappeared. No one has seen him for five days. You have to help me find him.” Every word came out unsteady. For the first time, I hated my blind eyes with all my heart. They couldn't show me what everyone else seemed to know.
The officer stared at me as though I'd said something absurd. “Wait a minute. You said your husband is Rowan Ashcroft?” His brows drew together. “What's your name?”
“I’m Lillian Ashcroft.” My fingers nervously twisted the edge of my hoodie. “Have you... found any information about him?”
Instead of answering, his face hardened. His hand struck the desk with a loud bang. “Lillian? Ma’am, stop joking around and tell me who you really are.”
I stood there, stunned. “I am Luna Lillian Ashcroft.”
He scoffed without a trace of sympathy. “Just because you're blind and happen to resemble someone doesn't mean you can pretend to be her.”
My heart lurched painfully. Before I could respond, he turned toward the large LED screen mounted on the wall. The news anchor's voice echoed through the station, and every word made my blood run cold.
“To celebrate Luna Lillian Ashcroft's pregnancy, Alpha Rowan Ashcroft has gifted his mate a luxurious mountain retreat and hosted a grand pack celebration worth millions. Photos and updates of the couple have flooded social media, with nine posts a day keeping the entire wolf community talking.”
Then I heard the voice I'd recognize anywhere.
Rowan.
He appeared on the screen, smiling with the same warmth I once believed belonged only to me.
“My only wish this New Year,” he said, “is for my mate to stay healthy, safe, and happy.”
A soft laugh sounded beside him.
Celeste.
The sweetness in her voice pierced straight through me. My face drained of color, and my knees nearly gave out. It wasn't me standing beside him.
It was her.
Five years ago, I lost my eyesight during a pack accident. Rowan had been devastated, but everyone around us insisted that no Alpha should be tied to a blind mate. They whispered behind my back, made decisions without me, and eventually found someone who could take my place.
That someone was Celeste.
She looked so much like me that they believed no one would question it.
I still remembered the day Rowan discovered what they had done. His eyes had been bloodshot with rage, and his entire body shook with fury.
“Leave!” he'd shouted at her. “There's only one woman I love, and that's Lillian! No one else could ever replace her!”
That same night, he rushed to the infirmary. The moment he reached me, he wrapped me tightly in his arms. I felt his tears soak into my shoulder as he whispered, “Tomorrow we'll complete the mating ceremony. You'll officially become my mate... the only mate I'll ever have.”
Everyone in the pack knew how deeply he loved me.
Everyone knew how much he despised Celeste.
Yet now she stood where I should have been, smiling beside him, wearing my face while living my life.
What had changed?
Had he forgotten me?
Or had I simply been erased from his heart?
I wanted answers. I wanted to find him, shake him until he looked me in the eyes, and force him to explain everything.
I barely took a step before disaster struck.
A billboard crashed down without warning.
A violent pain burst through my head, and darkness swallowed me whole. Just before I lost consciousness, I heard my driver scream in terror.
“Luna!”
Then everything disappeared.
…
When I finally woke, blinding white light flooded my eyes. The pain was so intense that I immediately shut them again, terrified I'd lost my vision forever. But after several slow breaths, I opened them once more. The room was blurry at first, then gradually became clearer with every blink.
I stared in disbelief.
I could see.
Colors, shapes, sunlight... everything was there.
My eyesight had returned.
Before I could make sense of the miracle, voices drifted through the closed door outside my room.
“Alpha, how long do you plan to let Celeste continue pretending she's Luna Lillian? It's already been five years.”
My body stiffened.
Beta Kieran.
Rowan's closest confidant.
“I ask myself the same thing,” Rowan answered, his voice rough with exhaustion. “Back then, the elder council refused to accept a blind Luna. I couldn't lose Lillian, so I lied to everyone. I claimed her vision had recovered... and I allowed Celeste to stand in her place.”
Kieran didn't hide his disbelief.
“The elders who opposed you are gone now. Why are you still keeping this secret alive?”
Rowan fell silent before replying.
“Celeste is pregnant.”
His voice grew quieter.
“And... somewhere along the way, after pretending for so long... I realized I can't imagine life without her anymore. I don't want her to leave me.”
“What?” Kieran blurted out. “Alpha, are you saying you've fallen for Celeste? Have you forgotten what happened? Her brother was responsible for the accident! He's the reason Lillian lost her sight! Your true mate has lived in darkness because of that family.”
A threatening growl cut him off.
“Enough, Kieran. Celeste wasn't responsible for her brother's crimes. I already punished him. He's been imprisoned and will never return to the pack.”
Kieran refused to back down.
“You're hiding everything from Luna. She lives isolated in the mountains with no signal, trapped inside that glass house you built for her. She believes every lie you've told her. She has no idea what you've done... but if she ever learns the truth...”
His voice trailed away.
I covered my mouth to keep myself from crying aloud. Tears streamed freely down my face while my entire body felt colder than the snow covering the mountains outside.
Everything Rowan had done for me suddenly looked different.
The glass house.
His promises.
His endless affection.
None of it had been freedom.
It had all been a carefully decorated cage.
My eyes landed on the stack of portraits resting on the bedside table. Rowan had drawn every one himself, preserving moments he once claimed he'd treasure forever.
One portrait showed the desert expedition where he broke his leg, and I stayed beside him day and night until he recovered.
Another captured the time he climbed a dangerous cliff during a blizzard to pick a rare medicinal herb for me. His hands were bleeding, yet he smiled proudly after placing it in mine.
There was one of wolves from the northern clans dancing beneath the full moon because he remembered how much I loved watching our traditions.
Near the bottom of the stack was the drawing of the glass house itself, specially designed so his blind mate could live comfortably, every detail created with me in mind.
Every portrait carried the same expression in his eyes.
The love I had once treasured.
The love I had trusted without question.
The love I could no longer bear to look at.
In one painting, he knelt before me, smiling gently.
“From today on,” he'd promised, “I'll become your eyes. My heart will always belong to you alone, Lillian.”
I looked at every portrait one last time.
Every memory now felt fake.
Every promise had become another lie.
My hands trembled as I forced myself to smile, though bitterness filled my chest.
I lit a match.
The first portrait curled as flames spread across its surface.
Then another.
And another.
One by one, I fed every drawing to the fire before throwing them onto the bed. The flames quickly swallowed them, smoke rising through the beautiful glass house until the fresh spring air turned gray with ash.
Rowan...
Your love was never as pure as I believed.
The protection you offered me as my Alpha was built on deception.
I don't want your love anymore.
I don't want you.
And I refuse to spend another day trapped inside the prison your lies created.
The fire alarm shrieked through the house, its piercing sound echoing endlessly down the halls.
As I watched the flames consume every memory we'd shared, only one question remained.
How could I have trusted an Alpha who had lied to me for five years... and still claimed it was love?
