I never meant to eavesdrop.
My fingers traced the familiar path to Marshall's office, intending to surprise him with lunch. The door was slightly ajar—unusual for my security-conscious Alpha mate—and voices drifted through the gap.
"The wolfsbane dosage is working perfectly," Beta Roberto's voice carried clearly. "Her wolf is too weak to conceive now."
I froze, my hand hovering over the doorknob. Wolfsbane? The supplements Marshall had been insisting I take every morning?
"And Kiara?" Marshall's deep voice responded, the one that once made my heart flutter but now sent ice through my veins.
"Healthy as can be. The healer confirmed it this morning—she's carrying strong."
My knees buckled. I caught myself against the wall, my breath coming in short gasps. The supplements. The ones he'd kissed into my palm each morning, whispering about our future pups, about strengthening our mate bond.
"She doesn't suspect anything?" Roberto asked.
"Elyse trusts me completely." Marshall's tone held a note of satisfaction that twisted like a knife in my chest. "She believes they're fertility enhancers."
The floor seemed to tilt beneath my feet. My wolf, Silver, whimpered inside me, a sound so weak I almost missed it. She'd been growing quieter for months, I realized. I'd thought it was normal—that our bond was settling into comfortable maturity.
Instead, he'd been poisoning us both.
I don't know what possessed me to push the door open. Perhaps some remnant of the Luna I'd once been—before the weakness, before the doubts that Marshall had so carefully cultivated.
They both looked up, startled. Roberto recovered first, his expression smoothing into practiced neutrality.
"Luna Elyse," he said, inclining his head. "We were just discussing pack business."
"Get out," I whispered, my eyes fixed on Marshall.
Roberto hesitated, looking to his Alpha.
"Leave us," Marshall commanded, his voice carrying that edge of authority that had once made me feel protected. Now it just made me sick.
When the door closed behind Roberto, silence stretched between us. Marshall leaned back in his chair, studying me with those amber eyes I'd once found so captivating.
"You heard," he stated simply.
"The wolfsbane," I said, my voice stronger than I expected. "You've been poisoning me."
Marshall stood, moving around his desk with that fluid grace that still made my treacherous heart skip. "It was necessary."
"Necessary?" The word tasted bitter.
"Kiara is carrying my heir," he said, as if discussing the weather. "My chosen mate from before the Moon Goddess interfered with her little 'fated pair' nonsense."
The room spun around me. "Chosen mate?"
"We were promised to each other since childhood," Marshall continued, his expression almost bored. "Then you came along, and suddenly I had this... obligation." He gestured dismissively toward me. "But Kiara deserves to be the mother of the pack's future Alpha. Not my inconvenient fated mate."
Silver howled inside me, a sound of such anguish that I physically staggered. Then silence—a void where her presence had always been.
"Your Luna ceremonies," I whispered, remembering the elaborate rituals we'd performed before the pack. "Were they—"
"Fakes," Marshall confirmed with a cruel smile. "For show. Kiara and I have been performing the real ones in private."
Every memory flashed before my eyes—the marking ceremonies, the bond rituals, the promises whispered under moonlight. All lies.
"You marked me," I said, my fingers going to my neck where his teeth had claimed me. "The mate bond—"
"Is inconvenient," Marshall finished. "But useful for appearances. The pack needs to believe they have a proper Alpha pair."
Silver didn't respond when I called to her. The space inside me where her spirit had always burned bright felt hollow, empty.
"She's gone," I whispered.
Marshall frowned slightly. "Who?"
"My wolf," I said, tears streaming down my face. "Silver's gone."
He shrugged, turning back to his desk. "Collateral damage."
Collateral damage. Three words that shattered everything I thought I knew about love, about fate, about the sacred bond that was supposed to last a lifetime.
The Moon Goddess had blessed me with a mate who saw me as nothing but an obstacle to his true happiness. Who had systematically destroyed the very essence of what made me a wolf.
I stood there, empty and hollow, as Marshall dismissed me with a wave of his hand.
"Elyse," he said, not bothering to look up from his papers, "don't make this difficult. You're still useful as my public Luna."
But Silver was gone. And without her, I wasn't sure who I was anymore.
