Chapter 1

I stood outside the private room, listening to the smug laughter spilling through the door.

"Xander, you've got some nerve, stringing two women along like that. Aren't you scared Serena will find out and lose it on you?"

Xander's wineglass paused in midair. He scoffed. "Once Vivienne's family helps me become Alpha, Serena will be begging me for a mating ceremony. Why would she be mad?"

"Women are all the same. As long as you've got money and power, they'll forgive you for anything, even the worst things a man can do."

"Especially an orphan like Serena. Her parents are gone. She has nothing in this world but me. However angry she gets, one sweet apology and she'll come crawling right back."

Another round of laughter. Through the crack in the door, I watched the smug look on his face, and my stomach heaved.

He lifted his glass and took a slow sip. "Vivienne's different. She's a noble's daughter. I can't become Alpha without her help. That's why I had to talk Serena into leaving the pack, so she wouldn't find out and ruin everything."

Someone in the crowd spoke up. "So say you become Alpha and both women want a mating ceremony at the same time. Who are you picking?"

Xander frowned and mulled it over for a few seconds. "Vivienne would make my position more secure. But Serena's been my girlfriend for five years. I do have feelings for her."

"I'll hold the ceremony with Vivienne for the power. Serena can stay on the side as my mistress. I'll set her up with plenty of money. She won't suffer."

The whole room fell over itself flattering him.

"Xander, you're a true romantic. Even after becoming an Alpha, you still hold your girlfriend dear."

"Just don't forget your brothers here once you're Alpha."

Listening to all of it, I felt sick to my core.

The same people who used to look down on Xander were now calling him brother and tripping over themselves to please him, all because he turned out to be an Alpha's son.

And Xander soaked it all up, perfectly at ease, like a man enjoying what he was owed.

That was the moment it hit me. The man I had loved for five years was rotten all the way through.

Xander grew up in the slums, an orphan who never even knew who his father was.

I was the daughter of a powerful pack's Alpha, but I hid my real identity so he would never feel the pressure of it.

He worked himself to the bone to give me a good life.

But his lowly background made him a target in the pack, and people stepped on him at every turn. Each time, I quietly reached my father through the mind-link and asked him to help Xander from the shadows.

My father strongly disapproved of my relationship with this poor man, yet he reluctantly agreed for the sake of my happiness.

I still remember the night Xander got his promotion and raise for landing my father's investment project. He came home, swept me up, and spun me around and around.

"Serena, I did it. I told you I'd give you a good life. I will never let you down."

Watching him beam like a little kid, I felt my whole heart go soft and sweet.

He bought me a necklace. It was the first real gift he had ever given me, and it cost him half a month's pay.

I owned necklaces worth a hundred times more, but that was the one I treasured most. When he clasped it around my neck, I nearly cried.

I always believed he was different from the men who lied and cheated and drank their lives away. So when those words of his reached my ears, I couldn't believe the man I had loved for five years was just another scumbag.

The disappointment, the grief, and the anger washed through me, and then my heart slowly went quiet. How fast I accepted it surprised even me.

I walked out through the front door of the bar. The cold wind cut across my face hard enough to sting.

But nothing felt colder than my own betrayed heart.

Two streets later, I reached for my father through the mind-link.