Chapter 1

Violet

I thought our marriage was perfect until I heard him say her name.

“Nora!”

Lucas darted away from me and across the room to a woman in a velvet blue dress. He swept her up into his arms. His face lit up with a joy that I’d never seen on his face before. He looked at her as if she were a gift from the moon, and I realized that there was this whole other side to Lucas I had never seen.

He loved her… more than he ever loved me.

The thought cut like a knife. I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. He whirled her around with their cheeks pressed together, squeezing each other tight and whispering. It was written all over their body language that Nora held a place in his mind and heart that I never had, yet I was his fated mate.

I gripped the glass in my hand tightly, shattering it. A low, furious growl started to build in my chest. Who was she? How could he act like that with some other woman in front of me? Here? Now?

Like this?

The Alpha Gathering was just next door, and everyone I had invited was here. Tonight was supposed to be a celebration of our packs uniting under the Darkmoon banner, and the official merge of our packs, a symbol of how powerful our relationship was and the start of all the great heights we'd reach together.

And yet, my husband of seven years was in another woman's arms as if this night was the first night of the rest of their lives—not ours.

Lucas set Nora down, barely brushing his lips against her cheek and whispering something soft and intimate into her ear. She flushed and giggled. The sound of broken and fallen glass came from far away. My feet were moving, cutting through the crowd before I could stop myself.

I reached them quickly. They didn't even have the decency to pull away from each other. If anything, Nora drew closer. I looked at Lucas.

He lifted his chin arrogantly. "What is it?"

“Aren’t you going to introduce me?” I asked, meeting his gaze. He set his jaw. “Don’t you have something else to—”

I thrust my hand toward Nora.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you. Nora, was it? I’m Violet. His wife.”

Lucas shoved my hand down and stepped in between us. My chest grew tight at the obviously protective gesture. He was protecting her from me.

“How dare you?” he hissed. “Go manage the caterers or something. Leave me and Nora alone.”

“You expect me to just let you disrespect me?”

"You're the one who's disrespecting me," he hissed. "I'm your alpha. You don't question me. If you don't understand your place, leave."

I cocked an eyebrow at him. My anger turned cold and vicious. I clenched my fists at my side.

“Leave?” I asked. “You want to kick me out?”

"If you don't have the sense to behave the way you should."

"And how exactly should I behave?"

"You shouldn't even be showing your face for all the shame--"

"Shame? I have nothing to be--"

“What should a wife feel other than shame if she can't bear her husband's children?" He hissed. "A barren daughter of a breeder? Your father must have known you were defective. No wonder he was so happy to get you married off."

I let the words cut through me like a knife, but I didn't look away. I didn't flinch, but I didn't have to for him to know how deeply his words cut me. I had always wanted children desperately. He knew that. We both wanted children, but the Goddess had not blessed me with even a hope for a child.

Breeders were highly coveted in the werewolf world, known to be very fertile and bear the strongest werewolf children. I was proof of that in every way. My mother had been my father's fated mate, and he treated her like the stars were her eyes and she could do no wrong.

He had never taken another mate, wife, or even a lover after she died.

It was because of them I believed that was what it meant to be fated. But hearing the way he was speaking now, I felt just as naive, just as stupid, as my father had always wanted me to believe I was.

Then, I caught myself and halted that train of thought. Lucas owed me everything he was right now from his new shows to his status within his birth pack, and this was how he treated me?

Before we married, Lucas was the youngest, forgotten son of the alpha of Twining River, a territory barely the size of a town. He was never in line to inherit in his own pack, while Darkmooncontrolled nearly a third of the state and several business enterprises.

"Perhaps you're the defective one." I cocked an eyebrow at him, letting my gaze drag over him with contempt. “Your father certainly had reasons for his reservations, didn't he?”

He turned bright red. "You--"

"Oh, please don’t fight,” Nora cut in. “I'm sure he didn't mean it the way it seems. It’s just that Lucas and I haven’t seen each other in so long… We were together up until he met you and all…”

Someone called my name. I glanced over, forcing a smile as I acknowledged whichever alpha it was. I looked back at Lucas, letting my smile drop.

"We'll speak more about this later."

He sneered but said nothing more before I turned to greet the man alpha formally. When I looked back a few moments later, I didn't see him or Nora. I didn't think much of it as I was busy sending off the guests that were leaving.

I looked around at the members of the Twining River pack. They were all grinning at the sight and all wearing Darkmoon's colors, dressed in suits paid for by Darkmoon’s money— my money. The sight of them and Lucas, smug and complacent—their complete disregard of me— only made me think of my father.

I should have told him to go fuck himself when I had the chance.

My father had believed that only a man could lead a pack, so I had always been a disappointment to him. It had never mattered how strong of a werewolf how smart or cunning I was compared to men of my generation. I was never enough. My intelligence made me difficult, not strong or capable.

When I'd met Lucas and we confirmed we were fated mates, my father had handed over authority of the pack to Lucas as acting alpha as if his being male was enough to teach him anything about running a pack of any size.

I had just wanted my father to die in peace, so I had stepped back and played the part of luna, allowing Lucas to act as the alpha, but I was still the registered alpha, and I always would be.

Lucas had been upset about it, but he had seemed content when his influence within his own pack started to grow. His father had stepped aside and ceded control to him earlier this year rather than his elder brother because we were married.

A sharp, throbbing pain started in my chest. I tried to fight through it, but my vision started to blur from how much it hurt. I excused myself to the staging area and sank into a chair just as my vision started to go black.

Was it just stress catching up to me? Had I not eaten enough? Then, I heard a woman's voice.

"Lucas, please…"

I could see Nora's face in my mind's eye. I saw Lucas's hand, still wearing our wedding band and the signet ring of Twining River on the wall beside her head. The dull ache turned to a stabbing bolt of pain. I couldn't breathe. I heard his breathless voice.

"Nora," he groaned. "Goddess, I've missed you. You feel like heaven." I sucked in a breath and clenched my jaw. My eyes burned. My throat felt tight, but I wouldn't cry a single tear.

He didn't deserve that from me.

"There hasn't been a day I haven't thought of you," he panted. "I should have never left you."

Our bond stretched and frayed. I relaxed my hold on it.

"It's okay. We can be together now, can't we?"

I shut my eyes, bracing for the pain I knew was coming. Regret hit me hard and fast. If I had just taken over the pack, my father’s feelings about my gender bedamned, I wouldn't be sitting here bracing for my mate bond to break while my husband slept with another woman.

"Of course, Nora. Yes. Always. I'll give you all the children we talked about… A son, first. A daughter…"

The bond broke. The pain rippled through my whole body. I swallowed the cry of pain and looked down, watching the mark of the unwanted surface around my wrist in deep black.