Alpha King’s Mate, Not My Ex’s Servant

The bonfire was at its peak when I spotted Jaxon.

He stood surrounded by a crowd, his dark grey eyes sweeping toward me—filled with nothing but cold indifference.

That was exactly how he'd looked at me three years ago.

The night he banished me from the pack, standing on the other side of the border stone, there hadn't been a shred of warmth in those eyes.

I looked away and glanced down at my clothes. I'd come in a rush tonight—just thrown on a faded linen dress, its cuffs already fraying at the edges.This is the clothes I wore during training. The fabric is very comfortable and I have never been willing to throw them away.

Elias had said I was only here to pick him up. No need to dress up.

"Oh my, is that Alice?"

A familiar voice cut in from the side.

Damon, Jaxon's Beta, strolled over with a drink in hand. He looked me up and down and let out a mocking laugh.

"What brings you here today? This is a private gathering for the North Mountain Pack."

He deliberately dragged out his words, his gaze sliding from my faded hemline down to the boots on my feet.

"A banished rogue like you thinks she belongs here?"

A few young wolves nearby laughed along.

I said nothing. My right hand discreetly pressed the phone in my pocket—Elias still hadn't replied.

Damon stepped closer, lowering his voice, malice undisguised in his eyes.

"What's the matter? Three years out in the wild and you've forgotten how to talk?"

"The Alpha banished you, and the Luna was kind enough to spare your life. Instead of staying far away, you have the nerve to show your face here?"

Banished from the pack.

Three years later, those words still landed like a blow to my chest.

I looked up at him.

Damon hadn't changed. That same air of superiority he'd carried since we were children.

He'd once been one of the few people in the pack who actually had my back.

But the day Jaxon banished me, it was Damon who personally threw me and my belongings out the door.

He'd bared his teeth, grinning viciously.

"Tina's carrying the Alpha's pup, Alice. You know damn well what you did. Be smart and get lost."

I didn't leave.

I waited three days—until Jaxon came to see me himself.

He stood at the pack entrance, looking at me the same way he was looking at me now. Those dark grey eyes, frosted over.

"How do you still have the nerve to be here?"

I stared at him, forcing the words out.

"Jaxon, are you really telling me you can't smell the drugs in that room?"

A werewolf's sense of smell far surpasses a human's. There was no way he didn't notice.

He scoffed.

"You've always been healthy. Tell me—what kind of drug knocks you out for a full hour? One that still hasn't worn off by the time I get back from the hunt?"

I clenched my jaw. "What about the mate bond? Did you actually sense that I cheated?"

The moment those words left my mouth, I saw it clearly in the moonlight—the silver bond mark on his wrist had vanished.

A werewolf's mate bond was supposed to represent the deepest connection between two mates. He had already severed it himself.

Before all of that—on our mating anniversary—what I'd gotten instead was Tina walking in with her pregnant belly, smiling, asking if I could give her the wolf crest brooch that Jaxon's mother had left behind.

It was an heirloom passed down through generations, worn over the mate's heart as a symbol of the pack's recognition.

I'd worn that brooch for ten years. From sixteen to twenty-six.

When I took it off, the emptiness in my chest felt like something had been ripped out of me.

I'd sensed it through the mate bond link the very first time Jaxon slept with Tina. But he'd come to me with red-rimmed eyes, explaining over and over that the Elder Council had demanded it.

Because I couldn't conceive, and the pack needed an heir.

"Alice, I promise it won't happen again."

I'd looked into his earnest eyes and, against my better judgment, nodded.

Then came the second time. The third...

Every time he slept with Tina, he'd bring me back gifts—like guilt offerings.

I numbed myself, clinging to the belief that once he had his heir, everything would go back to normal.

He'd go back to being the Jaxon who loved me more than anything.

But once Tina got pregnant with his pup, everything changed.

He spent every waking hour at her side. My title as Luna became meaningless.

The way he looked at Tina grew warmer with each passing day, while the love in his eyes when he faced me froze over, inch by inch.

The pack gradually figured it out—I was Luna in name only. Tina was the one really running things.

Then one day, Tina came to my door and slashed her own arm right in front of me.

She collapsed, frail and trembling, into Jaxon's arms the moment he arrived.

I tried everything to explain, but the only thing left in his eyes when he looked at me was disappointment—edging into revulsion.

He pinned the charge of attacking the heir on me and stripped me of my Luna title.

I was devastated. Cast off to a shack at the edge of the pack grounds.

Tina drugged me, and Jaxon walked in at just the right moment to find me lying beside a strange wolf.

He was livid. There wasn't an ounce of pity left in his eyes as he banished me from the pack without a word of explanation.

Damon's voice dragged me back from my memories. He waved a hand in front of my face.

"What are you spacing out for? I asked you a question. What are you doing here? Nobody wants to see trash like you."

I snapped back to the present and looked at him calmly.

"I'm here to take my mate home."

A beat of silence—then an eruption of even louder laughter.

Damon doubled over, wine sloshing from his glass onto my dress.

"Alice, have you lost your mind? A banished rogue with a mate? Where?"

"Don't tell me you paired up with some random rogue out in the wild and thought that was your ticket into our gathering?"