Chapter 1

"Sorry, the Alpha is upstairs with his lady. We don’t take visitors without an appointment."

What? His lady? Then who am I...

Three years of secret marriage, I was never allowed to step foot inside his company building.

Now I stood in front of the receptionist’s desk at the company headquarters clutching a gift box in my hands. Inside was a surprise that I knew Julian, the Alpha of Thorn Pack and my husband, would be overjoyed to receive. This could fix everything for us.

But she’d said Julian was with his lady. That couldn’t be right. If anybody was his lady, it was me. I was his wife.

My stomach sank with confusion and fear. Who was up there with him?

We’d met in medical school, where he’d defended me from the other students’ ruthless harassment. I was a human, and the other students were werewolves who didn’t believe I belonged at the pack university.

Back then, Julian’s protective nature had been endearing. Little did I know that the patterns formed in medical school would follow me for the rest of my life.

Because I’m a human, Julian didn’t allow me to become Luna when we wed. In fact, he kept our marriage secret. Out of worry for how I would be treated as the Alpha’s human wife.

Through all that, though, I still wore the diamond necklace Julian had given me. The necklace that marked me as his chosen mate.

And now, I carried his child. The ultimate fulfillment of the promise he’d made when he gifted me the necklace all those years ago.

I was flooded with happiness.

Maybe I’d been a little naive. I’d never been to his office before. In fact, I’d never been to company headquarters at all, as Julian thought it best that I keep mostly to the house and away from prying eyes.

“There must be some mistake,” I said, trying to keep my voice as steady as possible, even as my pulse beat wildly in my throat. “I’m Alpha Julian’s wife.”

The receptionist looked at me, confusion flashing in her eyes before being replaced by customer-service sheen. “Alpha and his fated mate are together right now. I’ve never heard anything about him having a wife, especially not a human who isn't even a wolf.”

I could feel embarrassment and confusion creeping up my skin, turning my neck and face red. Instinctively, I clutched the box in my hands closer to my chest.

“Please, just let me go up and see Julian,” I said. “It’s important. He’ll clear everything up for you, I promise.”

The receptionist recoiled with my casual use of Julian’s first name without his title. Her face hardened at the perceived disrespect, and I kicked myself for the slip up. I’d used Julian’s name the way we did at home, when we were just two people together, not a human and an alpha.

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the premises,” the receptionist said, all pleasantness gone from her voice.

Behind her, I could see the elevators. If I could just make it into one and get to Julian’s floor, everything would work out. He’d explain the misunderstanding. He’d celebrate our baby with me.

The elevator doors opened, and I booked it, cradling the gift box under my arm like a football.

“Ma’am! Get back here!” the receptionist called after me.

I didn’t stop. I couldn’t stop. I almost made it into the elevator.

I ran into something large and firm. Looking up, I realized it was a security guard. There were two of them. The receptionist must have notified them of my presence at some point during our conversation.

The guards grabbed me under each arm, practically carrying me back past the receptionist’s desk and out of company headquarters altogether. Once outside, they shoved me away, and the gift box I’d barely managed to hang on to dropped to the ground, the lid coming off and the contents spilling everywhere.

I knelt to the ground, scrambling to pick up the once purposefully organized baby onesies and bibs strewn all over the concrete. I picked up the pregnancy test last, looking at the two blue lines that formed a cross in the little plastic window.

Plus for positive. Plus for pregnant.

I wanted to leave, to go home and hide under the covers and never come out. I thought of the fetus that lived inside me now, and I thought about Julian standing up for me at Wolf University when I was being bullied. I found the courage to wait for him at the company's entrance.

I waited for what felt like hours in the cold wind. I called him, but he hung up without talking to me. The pulse in my throat quickened, my anxiety spreading. Eventually, he came out of the building, but he didn't even look at me.

He was escorting a woman to the shiny black company car waiting on the curb.

“Julian!” I called.

He nodded stoically at me, then helped the beautiful woman into the car. Finally, he turned to me.

"What is it?"

His face was plain, showing no emotion. This was typical for Julian. He’d always been hard to read, even for me, who knew him the best.

I offered him the gift box.

“What are you doing, showing up here like this?” Julian demanded.

“Just take the box. Please,” I begged.

He turned back to the car, apparently indifferent to my pleas. “I thought you understood the position I’m in, Amber. I can’t be publicly linked to a human woman.”

I’d never heard Julian say the word “human” with such purpose, such disdain. He’d never made me feel bad about who I was before.

I pulled the box back to my chest, cradling it like I hoped I would soon cradle my child. I still had no idea what was going on, but suddenly telling Julian about the pregnancy didn’t seem like such a great idea.

A group of reporters sporting microphones and cameras had appeared around us while Julian and I were talking. I imagined the receptionist picking up the phone and tipping off the media about the juicy drama happening at company headquarters. Drama involving a human woman demanding to see Alpha Julian.

But actually, they didn’t come for me.

The woman Julian had ushered to the car emerged. As soon as she appeared, the reporters around us excitedly flashed their cameras.

"This is Olivia!"

"Alpha's fated mate has returned!"

"She's a politician from the Obsidian Pack, responsible for fostering economic cooperation with the Thorn Pack," one reporter said, speaking to a camera on a live broadcast.

The crowd rushed toward us, shoving me off balance. I struggled to protect the already battered gift box, but Julian gently shielded the other woman instead.

She was dressed in an elegant business suit, looking incredibly graceful and beautiful. "Julian, is this one of your fans?" she asked.

"No," Julian said, "I don't know her."

Olivia scrutinized my plain clothes with a disdainful look. "What do you do?"

How could I tell this woman, this elegant professional, that not only was I human, but I was also just a housewife? How could I bring myself that low?

Julian told her to get back in the car. “Be careful with the baby,” he murmured.

The pulse that had been beating in my throat dropped down into my stomach. Olivia was pregnant? With my husband’s baby?

My heart cracked down the middle. Why wouldn’t Julian stop and talk to me? Why wouldn’t he tell me what was going on?

Why the hell my husband got another woman pregnant?

Olivia smiled shyly as she was escorted back into the car. She looked elegant, beautiful, yet humble. The fantasy woman.

The car door shut and reporters swarmed around. The crowd shoved me aside, and I fell to the ground, the gift box once again hitting the cold concrete.

Julian started the car and left without even a glance in my direction.

Everything went black.