Chapter 1

Our Alpha Brooks Sutton sat on the couch, his knuckles tapping a slow, steady beat against the armrest.

When those golden eyes swept over me, my whole body tensed before I could stop it.

“Where were you last night? I think I caught your scent too.”

I dug my nails into my palm and forced myself to stay calm.

“There was an emergency in the middle of the night. By the time I'd dealt with it, it was nearly morning, so I just slept in the downstairs guest room.”

Thankfully the heat poison left a wolf half out of his mind, so Brooks couldn't have gotten a clear look at my face.

Cassia tilted her head slightly, and the kiss marks on her neck were plain to see.

It made for a simple story, and the old Luna nodded, satisfied, then turned to her son.

Brooks's gaze rested on Cassia for a long moment before he finally spoke.

“Since you're the one who broke the poison for me, you should stay at my side. The full moon celebration is coming, and I'll mark you in front of everyone.”

Cassia flushed and pressed herself against him, delighted.

Brooks took her hand as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

For a moment the room blurred, and I saw the version of myself from my last life.

Back then, I had stepped forward and shown the old Luna the mate bond and the marks on my skin.

Brooks's eyes had been bright with excitement too.

He had held my hand and started arranging everything that came next, dead serious.

“I never imagined my first mate was right beside me, Lena. It really was you last night, my love.”

He threw together the full moon celebration overnight so the whole pack would know I was about to become their Luna.

Full of hope, I gave up my plan to join the Healers Without Borders.

After I became Luna, we did have a sweet stretch together.

Then, for reasons I couldn't see, he suddenly changed.

He shut me out for three full months, until the night he finally came home again.

He pinned my wrists above my head hard enough to crush the bone.

When his mouth came down on mine, it wasn't a kiss at all. It was a harsh bite.

He bit through my lip and my collarbone, tasted blood, and made a low, rough sound in his throat.

I turned my head to escape, and he gripped my jaw and wrenched it back.

His thumb dug into my cheek, forcing my mouth open.

He held me hard enough to leave prints on my skin.

“What are you crying for?”

His voice was rough and hoarse, but there wasn't an ounce of pity in his eyes.

“Lena, I was barely seven or eight when we met. You were a few years older, and you used that, always coming on to me. The night I was hit with the heat poison, are you telling me a doctor had no other way to break it? You still chose to give yourself to me. Go ahead, tell me you weren't after the Luna seat. You disgust me.”

I truly didn't know how to defend myself then.

The truth was, I had loved him since we were children.

Later, he had me keep Cassia close and fold her into our lives.

He even kept her in the small bedroom next door while the two of us slept together.

After that he gave up the peace alliance with a neighboring pack all for my sake, and the whole pack seethed, and every curse landed on me, because I was the one in his bed.

When he saw it eating at me, Brooks's voice went cold.

“Cassia is my real mate, and I have to look after her. But she's young and soft, and she doesn't know how to scheme, so all those ugly words people throw around, you take them for her.”

I kept my head down and pretended none of it touched me.

One day he would say Cassia had a fever and he needed to stay with her.

The next, he would say she was better and he was taking her to the private hot-spring estate.

I waited for him day after day, and he never came back.

I cried until there was nothing left, and all that remained was a regret with no bottom to it.

Thank the Moon Goddess, she gave me the chance to start over.

The old Luna was pleased with how it had all turned out, and told Cassia to move her things over.

I had finally let myself relax when Brooks's cold voice cut through the room.

“But I keep thinking the one last night was Lena. That scent, I know it. And the way it felt.”

It was the height of summer, and still I had to fight back a shiver.

I followed his gaze and shook my head with a smile.

“Alpha, you were poisoned. Your mind was a fog and your senses were dulled, that's only natural. Cassia is your mate. She's gentle, and she'll make us the best Luna we could ask for.”

He slowly turned the silver ring on his pinky, his eyes gone cold and flat.

“You're really content to watch someone else take the Luna's seat?”

When I didn't answer, the corner of his mouth lifted after a moment into something that wasn't quite a smile.

“She really is just my type. Lena, we grew up together, so when I'm happy with the woman I love, you of all people shouldn't have to miss it.”

What he didn't know was that my application to the Healers Without Borders had already gone through.

I was going to give my child a future far steadier than anything that leaned on an Alpha.