Chapter 0002

I spun around and attempted to push past Noah. He would not move.

“Get out of my way,” I commanded.

At the sound of my tone, Noah stepped aside.

I stormed out of our en suite bathroom and into our bedroom. Noah followed closely behind me.

“What is wrong with you tonight?” he demanded.

I stopped in front of our bed and looked around the room. Noah’s gaze traced my own.

The king-sized bed had been covered in a red silk comforter and sprinkled with pink rose petals. The lights had been dimmed, with the flames of vanilla-scented teacup candles scattered throughout the room. To top it all off were a bottle of champagne—on ice—and a plate of oysters on the bedside table.

I had always gone all-out for these monthly intimacy nights. Too bad Noah never did the same for me.

I froze as Noah’s eyes landed on me. They roved over me in a way I was not accustomed to—was that a spark of desire that I saw?

No, it couldn’t be.

Whatever it was, I felt compelled to back onto the bed as he approached me. I fell backwards and scooted myself to the middle of the mattress.

Noah climbed onto the bed after me. He prowled up to me, as though channeling the vicious predator deep inside him, and straddled me with my legs trapped between his and a hand placed on either side of my head.

“You must be eagerly awaiting something,” he whispered, his hot breath rolling onto my face. “Why else would you go to all this trouble?”

He lowered his muscular body on top of me, creating a complete cage that I could not escape.

My cheeks flushed. A fire ignited in my belly, spreading to my groin and the rest of my body until my skin was hot to the touch. My pulse pounded in my ears, my chest, and my limbs.

His dark eyes met mine, daring me to deny the friction that I felt between us.

“No, Noah,” I said. “I’m tired of this.”

Noah pursed his lips in confusion.

“Tired of what?”

“I’m tired of our scheduled monthly intimacy just for the sake of conception.”

Noah raised a brow at me.

“Do you want it more frequently?” he asked with a teasing smirk. There was that spark in his eyes again.

His member hovered above my groin, and the heat between them was unbearable. A drop of sweat ran down my head, my neck, and onto my cleavage. I could imagine him licking that drop off of me, then taking that tongue further, but I quickly realized that was impossible; he would never pay such close attention to my needs.

I shook my head, trying to dislodge the fantasy from my mind.

“Well?” Noah said, lowering himself onto me.

I huffed and attempted to wiggle out from underneath Noah’s body.

“When a woman says, ‘No,’ she means ‘no,’” I spat venomously.

Noah’s eyes flashed dangerously. His grip on the bed tightened, curling the comforter beneath his vice-like grasp. He snarled at me.

“If you had said ‘no’ to our marriage, then things would have been a lot simpler,” he growled.

I paled as he rolled off the bed. It was a relief to have the pressure of his body removed from mine, and yet his words slapped me harder than he ever could. I turned onto my side and propped myself up on my elbow to watch him.

“Do you still believe that my arrival forced Zoe to reject you?” I asked.

He paused midway through looping his belt through his pants. His eyes flicked up towards me before he returned to the task at hand.

“It was my choice,” he replied coldly. “You had nothing to do with it.”

I wasn’t sure why, but that answer pierced me right through the heart. Maybe I had secretly hoped that Noah had given me at least that much consideration. Maybe I didn’t believe that he was telling the truth.

“It’s okay if you don’t want to sleep with me,” Noah continued, though his icy tone implied that things were anything but okay. “However, you still need to be prepared for the Acceptance Ceremony tomorrow. You didn’t forget, did you?”

“No, I didn’t forget,” I replied bitterly.

How could I forget the day that Zoe came back to Nightcrest Pack? It was one of the worst days in my life—and the beginning of its end.

If I could, I would find a way to cancel the Acceptance Ceremony and bar Zoe from returning to the pack altogether, but I couldn’t. Only the Alpha had such power. Besides, I couldn’t let on that her presence threatened me—not yet, anyway.

I was drawn from my thoughts by Noah approaching the door.

“Wait!” I said, reaching towards him.

Maybe I could give him one last chance to be honest with me. Our marriage—and future child—deserved at least that much.

Noah sighed almost inaudibly and turned back to me.

“What?” he asked impatiently.

His tone almost made me lose my courage. Almost. But I would not let him intimidate me so easily.

“Is there anything that you want to tell me?”

He stared directly at me, his eyes never leaving mine. I could detect no emotion there.

“No,” he said. “Nothing at all.”

Tears pricked the edges of my eyes, but I quickly wiped them away before Noah could see them.

“All right. That’s all.”

Noah searched me with his eyes for a moment. Then he shook his head and left the room without another word.

I covered my mouth and held back a sob.

I had given him a chance to be honest with me, to consider my feelings, but he didn’t care. He hadn’t even considered how Zoe’s return would affect me, and if he had, then he was more heartless than I had ever imagined.

Just because we had agreed to a loveless marriage, didn’t mean that he could bring back his ex-girlfriend and trample on my dignity. It didn’t mean that he could flaunt her in front of me and lead to my death…the death of my baby…

I looked down at my stomach and stroked it gently.

My baby.

I would do right by my baby this time. It was perhaps the only gift that I had from this marriage, and I would not let Zoe and Noah have my child. But that meant that I had to get out of this marriage and set out on my own.

I thought about the Silvermoon Pack. That should be my pack. I was born with the bloodline of a female Alpha, but I had given up the opportunity to be the Alpha of the Silvermoon Pack so that I could be the Luna of the Nightcrest Pack.

I should have never made that mistake, but I still had the chance to right it. All I needed was to gain more public support and love. Even if I had to go it alone.

I could feel my face contort in determination.

Before I made any steps towards this brighter future, I needed to change something from my past life—the first scene to make me look foolish in the eyes of my people.