I stood in the grand parlor and warned Zander that if he walked out to his mistress again, I would find another mate. He laughed in my face and called me a broken Omega whose ruined body no man would ever touch.
Three days later a glowing parchment arrived. It showed two pups growing inside me, and a note from Alpha Silas promised he would come claim me as his Luna.
Zander returned from patrol and mocked me for still sitting by the fire. I handed him the elders’ dissolution papers and told him I was leaving with nothing but my old moon-dog. He sneered that I was throwing a tantrum and rode off to Daphne.
In the tavern Sasha hurled wine at them. Daphne spat that I was filthy and barren from the rogues who had destroyed me. Zander threw me aside when I lunged at her. Later he let Daphne butcher my loyal dog in the courtyard and called it practice for dark magic.
I gathered the pieces of my only companion and felt the last thread of our bond snap. I could not understand how the man who once claimed to have saved me had spent ten years guarding a lie he knew was stolen.
I turned my back on the territory, walked through the snow to Wintermoon, and let Silas mark me under the full moon while Zander howled alone outside the gates.
Chapter 1
Seraphina POV:
I stood in the center of the grand parlor, the flickering light of the hearth casting long shadows over the heavy oak furniture.
I looked at Zander, my voice trembling but laced with a desperate edge.
"If you walk out that door to her again, I will find another male to mate with."
It was the hundredth time I had made this empty threat.
Zander leaned against the stone mantle, a dark leather cloak draped over his broad shoulders. He took a slow drag from his herbal cigar, the pungent smoke filling the gothic room. He paused, and for a fleeting second, the sinews in his jaw stood out like taut wire against his skin. It was a brief signal of irritation, one he promptly buried beneath a cruel, hollow laugh that struck the high, vaulted ceiling and fell back in pieces.
"You?" he sneered, his gaze a blunt instrument, scraping across the delicate line of my collarbone as if appraising damaged goods. "Look at yourself, Seraphina. You are a broken Omega."
The word Omega hung in the air, a harsh reminder of my place at the absolute bottom of our pack hierarchy.
"Your body is ruined," he continued, the sound of his voice a low, contemptuous drawl, though a defensive flicker in his eyes betrayed him—the look of a man guarding a stolen thing he knew was not his. He had never marked me—always keeping that final claim as a bargaining chip, never expecting me to actually leave. "You flinch if a man even breathes too close to you. No other male could ever stomach touching a defective female like you."
I swallowed hard, feeling a heavy weight press down on my chest like a collapsed stone wall.
Before I could answer, Zander's eyes suddenly glazed over, taking on a distant, milky hue. He was receiving a message through the Mind-Link, the telepathic connection that bound our pack together.
Zander, hurry up. I am waiting for you in the carriage, Daphne's voice, thin and sharp as a needle, seemed to prick the quiet air of the room as it bled through his lax mental barriers.
Instantly, the cold cruelty in Zander's eyes melted into a sickeningly soft warmth. He tossed the half-smoked cigar into the roaring fire. Without another glance in my direction, he adjusted his cloak and walked out the heavy wooden doors, heading straight for his mistress.
I stood alone in the silence of the manor. Deep inside my soul, the dormant wolf that had been crying for a decade suddenly let out a long, quiet sigh. It was the sound of absolute surrender. The invisible chain of false gratitude that had bound me to him finally turned to dust.
I did not know then that the Moon Goddess had already heard my silent prayer—and that a true Alpha was already riding toward me, faster than I could ever imagine.
