The sound of murmurs and glasses clinking surrounded me as I entered the huge ballroom, but all I could think about was breathing. I nodded and smiled at a few familiar faces as I made my way through the crowd, the silky fabric of my emerald dress skimming the ground.My heart was thumping harder than the background symphonic music beneath my ribs. Hannah and Landen were here, and I knew it.It was a question of time till our paths crossed.I had not planned to attend. The idea of seeing Landen again, especially with Hannah at his side, felt like walking into a storm. But Navian had insisted.This event was too important for our business, he’d said. I couldn’t let my past keep dictating my future. And he was right, I knew that. But knowing didn’t make it any easier. Now I was just Anna, a mother and a businesswoman trying to keep her life together. But tonight, with so many familiar faces from that past life, it felt like I was being sucked back into the storm of old memories and unr
LANDEN'S POVAnna. My mate. My heart stopped for a split second, then picked up its pace, beating faster than it had in years. The air had heaviness to it as if populated by opposing forces of life itself and my wolf became restless inside me.He wanted out, wanted to charge toward her, claim her again as if nothing had changed.But everything had changed.What a sight, she was more exquisite than what I could imagine! The emerald dress she wore fit her physique so well that every contour looked familiar to me.Her tresses flowed down like a river over her shoulders crowned with gentle curls while those eyes, which used to greet me each dawn, seemed lost in another world far away from mine. Not anymore.I clenched my fists, my wolf growling inside me, frustrated and possessive. I could feel his rage bubbling up. She was our mate, the one the Moon Goddess had chosen for us, and yet, there she was, mingling in the crowd with another man.Navian.He was the one holding her now. The one wh
HANNAH'S POVI couldn’t believe it—Landen was slipping away from me. Slowly but surely, I could feel it. His mind wasn’t with me anymore, and his heart? It hadn’t been fully mine for a long time.No matter how hard I tried to hold onto him, I knew I was losing him. I didn’t need more proof to know that he was fighting the bond he still had with Anna. I could see it in his eyes, the way they followed her at the business event.The way he looked at her, even though we were right there, together.I hated the way Anna carried herself with such confidence, acting like nothing had happened between us all those years ago. She walked around like she was untouchable like she hadn’t stolen Landen’s heart, even if he was my husband now.And that little boy, Owen. There was something about him that didn’t sit right with me.The more I thought about it, the more the pieces started coming together. That boy wasn’t just some random child. He had to be Anna’s son from four years ago—the one I thought
HANNAH'S POVThe girl I had met after digging too deep to know who Owen was couldn’t find anything, but she helped me realize the truth. It was exactly as I suspected—Owen was Landen’s son.Dr. Navian had lied to us to protect Anna and her child. His fiancée, Elena, who could no longer endure how close Navian and Anna were getting, had revealed something I needed to know.As much as I tried to dig into Anna’s past, it was like she had vanished into thin air. My boys couldn’t find anything because she had hidden her tracks well. Anna had changed her name from Annabeth Luther to Annabeth Kurtna.She’d even gone so far as to reduce Owen’s age by a year and had erased all traces of how she had arrived in this pack. It was almost impressive—if it didn’t threaten everything I had worked so hard for.Anna was clever, I’d give her that. But no matter how well she hid, no matter how many lies she told, I was smarter. I wouldn’t let her sneak back into our lives and take what belonged to me and
Hannah’s POVI was back in the Moonlight Pack with Landen and Jasper, and our business trip was finally behind us. But my mind was elsewhere, spinning with the new information I had received from Elena.Anna was planning a solo trip with Owen, just the two of them, away from the city. It was the perfect time to strike.Elena had been incredibly helpful, feeding me every detail I needed to know. We had been in communication constantly since the event, when Anna had shown up, pretending to be a perfect woman.It had infuriated me. But now, with this trip coming up, everything was falling into place."She’ll be vulnerable," Elena had told me during our last call. "It’s just her and Owen. No one to protect her."As I waited for Elena to call, those phrases kept repeating in my head while I stood by the window with my phone out. Ever since my boys had lied to get rid of Anna and her son, I had been thinking about this moment for years. I couldn’t believe she had managed to survive, much
Landen's POVI occasionally wonder what Hannah is considering. She's been acting weird lately—distant even—but I'm not entirely sure why. But that's not the main thing that irritates me. Anna is the true problem. Since she appeared again, my wolf has not been able to settle down. I thought I had buried the hurt of being apart from my mate, but it's beginning to emerge, stronger than before.I believed I could manage it. I thought I could move on and focus on my life with Hannah and our son, Jasper. But seeing Anna again has torn me apart in ways I wasn’t prepared for.My wolf keeps growling inside me, angry and frustrated. It wants her and craves her presence, the bond we once shared. I know the feeling all too well. Being separated from your true mate isn’t something you can just ignore, even if you try. The bond is always there, pulling, aching.I’ve tried to focus on Hannah. She’s the mother of my heir, Jasper, and that should be enough, right? Jasper will inherit everything one
Anna's PovMikel has been calling me ever since our last meeting, and I can’t say I haven’t appreciated it. He has this calmness about him that helps me forget about the chaos that has been circling my life.With Landen and Hannah gone, presumably back to the Moonlight Pack, I thought things would settle down.But they haven’t. The fact is that Mikel has been the only thing to fill the void left by all the emotional turmoil I've gone through. The idea of what might have happened if things had gone in a different direction makes my heart hurt. Ever since that night at the business gathering, my wolf has been restless.Seeing Landen again awakened feelings I thought I had buried.I try to ignore it, to push away the longing I feel. But it’s there. Every day, it gets stronger.The mate bond is hard to break, and even though I try to convince myself that I’ve moved on, my wolf knows the truth. Landen is still my mate, and my wolf can feel his absence like a deep, never-ending void.It’s
The road unrolled in front of me, tranquil and empty, as Owen and I exited the city for our long-deserved vacation.The sun was going down, sending down a soft orange light on tree tops beside the winding road.Owen was murmuring a familiar tune in the back of the car, looking out of the window, feeling thrilled by our little excursion.It was meant to be an escape from everything – a moment for us to relax and run away from all these happenings that had turned into our lives in multiple crazily overflowing cases. I had started feeling so confused especially since Landen came into sight again after long since he left me with tears in my eyes.This journey was meant to clear up my mind concentrating on Owen only, however; I still had deep within me this weird intuition that something bad could happen.But I tried to suppress it anyway. It was meant to be our moment together and I was determined to make it feel interesting. Looking at the mirror behind me, I saw Owen’s face smiling at