The night Alpha James was supposed to stand beside me before our entire pack, he kissed another woman in her wedding dress.
Chapter 1
For a moment, I honestly thought I had imagined it. Camera flashes burst around the ballroom, our elders stared from the front row, and the officiant stood beside me with the ceremonial vows still open in his hands. Then James pulled Lily closer, kissed her again, and whatever had been left of my dignity cracked clean through.
Eight years. Eight years of defending him, managing his responsibilities, smoothing over his mistakes, pleasing his parents, and swallowing every humiliation because I believed saving our bond mattered more than my pride.
And I was carrying his child.
“Enough,” I said.
Lily pulled away from James. Her face turned white as paper. “Emmy, I—I never wanted to hurt you.”
“You came to my mate ceremony wearing white.”
Her lips trembled dramatically. “James said—”
“Of course he did.”
She swayed.
James caught her before she hit the floor.
“Lily!”
She clutched his jacket. “Jamie, I can’t breathe. My anxiety—”
Panic transformed him instantly. The man who had watched me endure injuries, exhaustion, and heartbreak without blinking lifted Lily into his arms as though she were the most precious thing alive.
Then he looked at me.
“You just couldn’t leave her alone, could you?”
I stared at him. “You kissed her in front of me.”
“If something happens to her because of this, Emily, I swear—”
He didn’t finish.
He simply carried Lily out.
My father, David Carter, stepped toward me while the reporters whispered and cameras continued flashing. He had spent his life serving James’s family as their beta, and apparently that mattered more than being my father.
His palm struck my cheek so hard my head snapped sideways.
“You useless disappointment,” he hissed. “You couldn’t keep one man under control?”
I tasted blood.
James’s mother, Margaret, was hardly kinder. “Emily, whatever James has done, you never humiliate your Alpha publicly. A Luna understands sacrifice.”
I almost laughed.
Sacrifice.
My mother had died protecting James during a rogue attack when we were eighteen. Her last words had been a plea that he take care of me. James had cried beside her body and promised he would.
I had spent the next twelve years treating that promise like sacred law.
Apparently, I was the only one.
The guests left one by one until I stood in the ruined reception hall wearing a soaked white gown beneath a ceiling of dying flowers.
Outside, thunder rolled over the Blue Ridge mountains.
Rain came down in sheets.
I saw my father’s SUV pull up and hurried toward it, lifting my skirt with both hands.
“Dad!”
The rear window came down.
For one ridiculous second, I thought he had returned because he couldn’t bear leaving his pregnant daughter alone.
Then I reached for the door handle.
Click.
The locks engaged.
“Your mother died securing this bond,” he said through the rain. “Go fix what you ruined.”
I stared at him.
“I’m carrying his child.”
“Exactly. Lily can’t compete with that. Use your advantage.”
“Dad…”
He rolled up the window.
The SUV drove away, spraying muddy water across my wedding dress.
That was the moment something inside me stopped begging.
There was no cell service at the lodge. No taxis. No guards waiting for me. I borrowed an umbrella from a server and started down the mountain road in high heels.
Rain soaked through my gown within minutes. My feet blistered and bled, thunder shook the trees, and every painful step seemed to strip another illusion from me.
Halfway down the mountain, my phone found a signal.
Twelve missed calls from James.
Then a text.
Why can’t you just accept Lily? She’s like family to me. You made everything ugly.
A video arrived seconds later.
Lily had sent it.
James sat beside her hospital bed, holding her against his chest and kissing her forehead.
“Please be okay,” he whispered. “I can’t lose you.”
I watched the clip once.
That was enough.
Three years earlier, rogues had ambushed me near our western border. My legs were torn so badly the patrol had carried me unconscious to the clinic.
When I woke, I begged the healer to call James.
He had answered with irritation.
“You’re alive, aren’t you? What am I supposed to do? I’m not a healer.”
He never came.
Later, I learned Lily had twisted her ankle that afternoon. James spent three days at her side.
My phone rang.
James.
I answered.
“Get to the clinic,” he barked. “Lily had a full anxiety attack because of you. You owe her an apology.”
“I’m still on the mountain.”
Silence.
“You’re alone?”
“Yes.”
“Your father left you there?”
“Yes.”
His voice shifted slightly. “Where are the guards? Forget it. I’ll come—”
Lily’s trembling voice sounded behind him.
“Jamie? Is Emmy still angry with me?”
James softened instantly.
Then he came back to me angry.
“See what you’re doing? If you could be more generous, none of this would happen.”
The last little piece of love I had protected for him simply vanished.
“James.”
“What?”
“We’re done.”
He went quiet.
“I’m stepping down as Luna. Give Lily everything you’ve been pretending wasn’t already hers.”
“Emily, don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not apologizing. I’m not competing. And I’m not staying.”
I ended the call.
At the bottom of the mountain, I finally found a ride.
The driver glanced at my ruined wedding dress in the mirror. “Where to, ma’am?”
I looked at my hands resting over my stomach.
“The clinic.”
The nurse who checked me in took one look at my soaked gown and bruised face and lowered her voice.
“Are you hurt?”
“Yes,” I said. “But not where you think.”
She waited.
I took off my wedding ring and placed it on the counter.
“I need to discuss ending my pregnancy.”
Down the hallway, James’s voice drifted around the corner.
He was speaking to Lily.
“Emily will come around,” he said. “She’s spent eight years with me. Who else is going to want her now?”
My hand closed around the ring until the stone cut my palm.
Then I followed the nurse through the door.
