Chapter 2

Alex froze where he stood.

I didn't spare him another glance. I turned and walked away.

I hadn't gotten far when he caught up and grabbed my wrist.

"Ivy, calm down." His tone was the same as always — as if this were just another one of my unreasonable tantrums.

"The baby's almost here. Do you really want the entire pack to see us fall apart?"

I looked at him coldly, searching his face for any trace of genuine remorse.

"Today was my fault. I promise you, I will never see Vivian again." He softened his voice, trying to placate me.

He reached out to take my hand again.

I yanked it away before he could touch me.

Alex let out a heavy sigh.

He didn't push it. He just followed silently behind me as we walked back.

At the car, he opened my door first, the way he always did — attentive, considerate — and helped me in.

Then he walked around to the driver's seat and started the engine.

But I could feel how distracted he was.

His hands were on the steering wheel, but his eyes kept drifting to the rearview mirror — back toward the place we'd just left.

He was sitting next to me, but his heart had already flown back to Vivian.

I leaned against the window, closed my eyes, and thought about our Mating Ceremony two years ago.

He'd stood before the entire pack, holding my hand, and sworn his vow: I will have one mate in this life, and no other.

His eyes had been bright that day.

I thought that light was for me.

Vivian had come to the pack as a Healer, responsible for my prenatal checkups.

In just those few short days, Alex had already gotten tangled up with her behind my back.

When I found out, my entire world collapsed.

Alex didn't even hesitate. He was the one who asked to dissolve our Mate Bond.

"Ivy, I'm in love with Vivian." He looked me straight in the eye and said it, just like that.

He said he didn't need the territory. Didn't need to be Alpha. He just wanted me to let him go.

I signed the dissolution papers.

But before I could submit them to the Alpha Council, everything went wrong.

While preparing my pregnancy-support tonic, Vivian used the wrong herb. She'd put wolfsbane in my medicine instead of moonpetal.

I miscarried on the spot.

The agony swallowed me whole. I was unconscious for three days, then bedridden for six months.

But there's one image I'll never forget.

In the moment I collapsed, hemorrhaging on the floor, Alex heard the commotion and rushed in.

He didn't look at me lying in a pool of blood.

His first move was to run to Vivian — pinned down by the guards — and pull her into his arms.

Three days later, I finally opened my eyes in the infirmary.

Alex rushed over with bloodshot eyes, held me tight like he was terrified of losing me, and apologized over and over.

He said he'd come to his senses. He said he was wrong. He swore he'd devote himself to me completely.

I was consumed by hatred. I ordered Vivian's execution.

But Alex grabbed my hand and stopped me. He told me he'd already banished her permanently.

He said Vivian would never appear in our lives again.

For the next year, Alex was perfectly devoted. Attentive. Obedient to my every need.

I truly believed he'd changed. That his heart only held me and our unborn child.

But everything that happened today was a slap across my face.

The way he shielded Vivian just now proved that a whole year of devotion had been nothing but an act.

The betrayal, the damage — none of it had ever passed.

I was finally done with this shattered wreck of a relationship.

The car pulled up to the Blackwood Pack's main residence.

I pushed open my door without waiting for Alex and went straight to the side hall.

I found Beta Bramwell — the man my father James had sent to protect me.

"Bramwell, begin preparing a petition to the Alpha Council for the dissolution of our Mate Bond." I looked him in the eye and gave the order directly.

Bramwell blinked in surprise, but he didn't ask questions. He simply bowed his head.

"Luna, per the Council's process, if both parties have signed the petition, the earliest it can take effect is five days."

"Understood," I said.

I turned and went upstairs to the bedroom I shared with Alex.

In the walk-in closet, I pulled open the bottom drawer and reached deep inside to retrieve a sealed envelope that had been buried there for a long time.

Inside was the very Bond dissolution document Alex had pressured me to sign a year ago.

I'd signed it then. But after the miscarriage, the papers had stayed locked in that drawer for an entire year.

I stared down at both our signatures.

In my mind, I could still see Alex's face when he'd handed me this document back then.

There had been a faint flicker of guilt in his eyes.

But that flicker was nothing compared to the urgency he felt — the desperate need to be rid of me and run toward his new life.

I was still lost in thought when the bedroom door swung open.

Alex walked in behind me.

His eyes landed on the document in my hands, and his brow furrowed.

"Ivy, what's that you're holding?" he asked, already striding toward me with his hand outstretched to see.