Chapter 1

Madison Blackwood smiled and tossed a stack of files onto my desk. "Aria, Alpha Alex needs this border defense proposal tonight. Put it on his desk before you leave, okay?"

The pile was thick as a brick.

I grabbed them and nodded. "Got it."

But she wasn't done. "Oh, and I have a council meeting with Alpha tonight. After you finish, clean up his office while you're at it."

Her heels clicked against the floor as she turned and walked away.

The office went quiet, and my coworkers all looked at me with sympathy, but no one said anything.

This was Shadow Ridge Pack now. Everyone knew Alpha Alex was my intended mate, and I still had his temporary mark on my neck. Still, everyone also knew he only had eyes for Madison now.

Madison was an Omega who'd been poached from Riverside Pack.

Three months ago, Alex suddenly promoted her to Beta level and handed her the territory expansion project I'd been working on for two months. I'd pulled countless all-nighters on that project, and it was almost done.

I challenged it.

So Alex called for a pack vote. "Let democracy decide," he said.

The result? Of the fifteen pack members, fourteen voted for me, and only Alex voted for Madison.

I thought he'd respect everyone's choice, but I was wrong.

He exploded right there. He pointed at me and shouted, "You're forming cliques against me? This is MY pack!"

Then he used his Alpha Command, and it felt like someone was slicing through my nerves with a knife and forcing my wolf to submit. Everyone who voted for me was forced to the ground and couldn't move.

He stripped my position, demoted me three levels, and took away hunting privileges from everyone who supported me for a month.

No one dared to speak or fight back.

Afterwards, he came to me and said he wanted to "avoid favoritism," so Madison wouldn't "feel isolated."

I actually believed him then. Now it seems ridiculous.

Madison couldn't fight worth a damn, and even the newly initiated warriors could take her down. Whether he was covering his tracks or playing favorites, the whole pack could see it. Only he pretended to be blind.

I heard movement from the stairway.

I looked up and saw Alex. He'd changed into black casual clothes, and the scent of cedar cologne drifted over. Madison had given it to him. He never used to wear this stuff. Our natural wolf scent was enough.

But now he wore it every day.

He did it on purpose. I knew that.

He'd been doing this for five years.

It started when I found out he and Madison were saying goodnight to each other every night. I asked him about it, and he blew up. "Since you don't trust me anyway, I might as well give you a reason not to!" Then he made Madison his personal assistant.

The angrier I got, the worse he behaved.

He served her food at pack gatherings in front of everyone. He took her on full moon hunts but left me behind. He let her sit in Luna's seat during council meetings.

When I fought with him, he gave me the silent treatment. When I apologized, he'd call up his friends to "educate" me and tell me I was petty and didn't deserve to be Luna.

I used to think it was all my fault.

Until three days ago.

I was too sick to get out of bed that day. I had a fever, and my whole body ached, and my wolf was too weak to shift. He glanced at me, then turned around and started packing. "Madison and I are going on patrol up north," he said. "Take care of yourself."

Then they left.

An Alpha left his sick intended mate behind and took another woman on "patrol."

That moment woke me up.

He never saw me as his mate. All that "desensitization therapy" and "teaching you to be generous" was bullshit. He wanted Madison, but didn't want to admit he was a cheater.

After they returned from that patrol, their relationship grew closer. They still kept up the "work relationship" act on the surface, but my wolf could feel it. A bond was forming between them.

Not the half-dead temporary mark between him and me. A real mate bond.

But I didn't care anymore.

Five years was enough.

This drama needed to end.