Chapter 1

ALESSIA

“Congratulations, Alpha Maximillian. Lady Clementine is pregnant!”

I had barely taken three steps out of the assessment room when I heard it.

At the far end of the corridor, Alpha Maximillian Steele—my husband—held Clementine Fiore at the waist. Her belly was beginning to swell. 

Pregnant.

“A full-blooded werewolf baby,” Doctor Morgana said, her smile radiant. “One who will carry your legacy perfectly.”

Legacy?

They are celebrating his child?

Clementine leaned into him with a grace that seemed to mock me, unchanged after all these years. 

Clementine had been Max’s ex, gone for four years with her mate. Yet six months ago, she returned, and just like that she was welcomed back as if she’d never left. Perfect as ever, the Pack’s darling, the Luna everyone dreamed of. And now, their dream had come true.

“You’re too kind, Doctor Morgana” Clementine said demurely. “The baby isn’t even born yet, and you’re already praising me?”

“Because you deserve it,” Morgana replied. “Your bloodline is strong. You are exactly what this Pack needs to produce a true heir for Alpha. Something a human Luna could never give.”

I clenched the pregnancy test result in my hand, the paper trembling under my fingers.

 “So… if the one carrying the heir is Alessia…” Clementine trailed off, almost savoring the thought.

“She would only give birth to a weak pup, everyone knows that. Your pregnancy shoves away that ill possibility.”

Tears blurred my vision.

I’ve understood this truth for far too long. 

I always knew no one here respected me as their Luna, but they’d never dared speak it aloud—out of some hollow respect for Old Beta Ragnar’s wish, for my marriage to Max.

But Ragnar is dead.

And now none of them need to pretend anymore. Clementine is back. And she’s carrying his child.

I should have seen this coming. I should have known.

“Max, do you hear that?” Clementine’s gaze flicked to him, a smug edge in her tone. “So I was right when I told you all the disadvantages Alessia would bring if she were the one pregnant."

“That won’t happen,” Max said without hesitation. “Just focus on your pregnancy, nothing else matters.”

Of course. 

Max would never let a lowly human bear his Pack’s heir. 

Bile rose in my throat, and I swallowed hard, forcing it down.

I took a step back. 

I ran.

The drive to the Packhouse blurred through tears and sobs. I went straight to our bedroom, hands trembling as I opened the drawer and found our marriage agreement.

The clause Ragnar had added was there. The one that gave me the power to end it unilaterally.

“Alessia Stone had the right to terminate this marriage without Alpha's permission.”

All this time, I’d never needed it. Never imagined I’d have to tear apart a marriage with the man I had loved with everything in me.

But now it was all a lie.

The marriage had been a lie from the start.

Max had never loved me.

The only woman he had ever loved was Clementine Fiore. She had been the reason he stayed away from home, returned only to mock me with his presence, and left again. The Pack’s whispers, their pitying stares, their quiet laughter—they all knew the truth I refused to see. 

“Alessia,” Max’s voice sounds behind me.

I nearly jump, shoving my hands behind my back and forcing a smile. “You’re home early.”

“I am,” he says flatly. “Have you prepared dinner?”

“I’m not feeling well,” I murmur, voice barely above a whisper. “I haven’t prepared anything.”

“That’s fine.” He shrugged, brushing a stray lock of hair behind my ear. “Just rest then. I’ll have dinner out.”

“I want to go with you.”

“No need. I don’t want you to get sick. I’ll get the food myself—just say the word.”

My lips twisted bitterly, “You don’t want me there because my presence would ruin your precious little moment with Clementine, right?"

Max’s eyes darkened. “Don’t start this,” he snapped. “You always drag Clem into everything. At least show some respect—she’s my friend.”

“But I’m your wife!” I stepped closer, hands trembling. “And yet, these past few months, you’ve treated me like a stranger, someone who just happens to live in your house. I’m not the one you return to anymore since she stepped foot here. Every day you went to her, stayed by her side, accompany her everywhere. You’ve forgotten I exist.”

“Clementine has suffered a lot,” he said, his voice flat, "She's abused by her mate. While you? you’ve been living in comfort all this time." Max’s eyes flickered, a cold, unreadable hardness cutting through them. "Did being kind to her cost you anything?”

I fell silent.

Of course, he didn’t see. He never saw. How broken I’d been these past months. 

How my heart splintered day by day, watching them together at events, on television, in reports—her adjusting his tie, brushing a hand through his face, smiling at him as she owned him.

“No,” he said, returning to the table, his back to me. “So stop whining. How do you expect to manage Luna’s responsibilities if you crumble for something this small?"

“You’re right, Max,” I murmured, “I wasn’t worthy to be your Luna." My voice is trembling. "So why not just end this? Let’s divorce.”

“Divorce?” Max repeated, turning to face me, eyes narrowing. “You want a divorce? From me?” 

He stepped closer, his presence pressing in.

“Yes," I said. "Why do we even continue if you never loved me? I always wanted-” My throat tightened, cutting the words short. “I always wanted to build a warm family with you. But how could we ever have that when you could never fully accept me? Let alone accept our baby-"

Something in his eyes stopped me cold.

“Three years ago, I married you when I didn’t have to." His gaze was cold, almost mocking. "Did I consider what I wanted? No. But I made sure you were safe. Protected. That was always more important than what you wanted, Alessia."

My throat tightened. 

The sharp ring of his phone sliced the silence. 

Max turned and stepped out of the room to take the call, clearly convinced he had put enough distance between us.

But I could still hear him.

“…Alex will pick you up tonight, Clem,” he said quietly. “Want to eat? Of course. Your favorite restaurant. Whatever our pup wants.”

Our pup?

My hand flew to my stomach.

What about mine then?

A mistake?

Max didn’t come back to my room. 

I heard his footsteps descend the stairs, fading with each step until silence swallowed them completely. 

Only then did I reach for the marriage agreement and a pen.

I read the last clause again. Unilateral termination.

Just before my hand touched the pen, flashes of our life together tore through me—how I had been the happiest woman alive on our wedding night, married to the man I loved, an Alpha, while I was… nothing. An ordinary human.

Then the night Clementine returned. Max had abandoned our anniversary, leaving behind every dinner I’d prepared, disappearing for three days. And after that, everything only got worse. Every smile he gave her, every whispered word I wasn’t meant to hear—it all carved deeper into my chest, hollowing me out piece by piece.

I pressed the pen to the paper, and the signature came easily.

I went to my walk-in closet and opened the small cupboard where I kept my medicine. 

It was forbidden. Poison for any pack member—a pill designed to erase the mark that bound us to the Pack in two weeks.

I took a single pill and swallowed it dry.

The mark on my arm pulsed. Soon, it would vanish. And with it, my place here.

I would disappear. Just as Max and the Pack had always wanted.

Two weeks. Two weeks, and then… I would leave you, Maximillian.