Chapter 1

Allene’s POV

  The bike came to a screeching stop, and immediately, shouts and cheers filled the air.

  I remained frozen where I stood, watching Leonard—my mate—as he descended from his bike. He had just won the biking competition against two other biker groups.

  I was supposed to be happy.

  I was but not in the way I should have been as his mate and as the Luna-to-be. Today was meant to be our fifth mating anniversary. Instead of the reservations I had carefully made at a hotel for us to celebrate, Leonard was racing. And worse, I hadn’t even known he planned to race today.

  Weeks ago, when he had met me to help him practice for an upcoming competition—secretly, because his father had banned him from racing months ago so he could focus on pack duties as the future Alpha—I had believed it was for something important. I was bis coach as I was good at biking, but only on secret as he didn't want anyone knowing that.

  Now that I knew the truth, I couldn’t help the disappointment curling in my chest. Not just disappointment in him, but in myself.

  “Eagle Racers has just won the match!” the referee announced.

  The crowd erupted once more, the noise snapping me out of the haze of my thoughts.

  I watched Leonard mount the podium to give his winning speech, just like he always did. The same podium I had once dreamed of standing on, giving my own winning speech when I was younger.

  But five years ago, after my parents had died protecting Leonard’s Alpha parents during a rogue attack, I had given up those dreams. My marriage to Leonard had been the reward for their sacrifice.

  It didn’t help that Leonard’s father despised bike racing. So I had been relegated to being a good Luna-to-be, a devoted mate to his son, and a future mother to his pups.

  Pups we hadn’t had, despite five years of mating.

  “He’s so handsome and dreamy,” a woman standing beside me whispered to her friend as they watched Leonard on the podium. “I’m jealous of whoever is going to become his mate.”

  From the scent clinging to her skin, she wasn’t from SilverFang Pack.

  “You don’t know he already has a mate?” another voice said from behind her.

  I didn’t turn as I didn't need to.

  The scent was unmistakably SilverFang.

  When the woman shook her head, the second voice continued, her tone dripping with disdain.

  “He’s already mated to a lowly omega. A charity marriage his father forced on him because of the Alpha Council’s decree. It won’t be long before he rejects her and claims Coach Jessica Sanders instead. She’s a beta’s daughter and far more suitable to be Luna of SilverFang.”

  I swallowed the lump forming in my throat and said nothing.

  It was true that I was an omega. Worse, one of the lowest among them. Disrespect was something I had long grown accustomed to. That was the fate of omegas like me.

  Only the decree and Leonard’s father, had made it impossible for him to reject me.

  I shook my head slightly, as if that alone could chase the thoughts away.

  I needed to be in the right spirits for when Leonard would eventually call me onto the stage, to thank me for being his dedicated mate and coach.

  Since our academy days, I had been the one tutoring him in secret, long before we became mates.

  Long before I learned that love, no matter how hard I worked for it, was never guaranteed.

  When he would call me to the stage, I would plant a kiss on his lips to show the girls that I was his mate, the woman who would be crowned Luna beside him on his upcoming Alpha coronation day. That was what I told myself.

  “I’d like to start my vote of thanks by acknowledging my father, who raised me into the best racer in the world.”

  Leonard’s voice pulled my attention back to the podium. Once again, my eyes found him, and I forced myself to focus on his words, ignoring the girls whose whispers had almost ruined my mood. His father who was beside me was in smiles as he had won and made him proud. Forgetting that he was the same person who had banned him from racing just few months ago.

  “And next, I’d like to thank my coach, Jessica Sanders. If not for her training, I wouldn’t have—”

  The world blurred.

  No. This couldn’t be happening.

  Jessica Sanders was Leonard’s coach in name alone or so he had told me. She didn’t know racing. She didn’t even know how to tutor anyone. But as the beta’s daughter, someone who could bring brand deals and influence to the team, he had made her their coach.

  She was also his first love.

  They had broken up years ago, even before the decree. Leonard had asked her to marry him, and she had refused. In the end, she had gone abroad to study. But three years ago, she returned to the pack and since then, she had been a weapon aimed at my marriage to Leonard.

  Still, I had endured and condoned it.

  Hoping that one day, he would learn to love me, for always being there, for never giving up on him.

  So how could he call her up to the stage and not me?

  How could he thank everyone, from his parents to his teammates and now Jessica, without even mentioning me?

  I didn’t understand. I didn’t know how to react. So I lifted my chin and held my head high, watching and waiting, telling myself to be patient. Surely, he would explain and call me later.

  My chest tightened when I saw Jessica kiss Leonard on the cheek.

  This wasn’t new. I had endured worse behind closed doors ever since she returned to the pack years ago.

  Leonard had made it clear that she was his first love. And that he hadn’t forgotten her, even after she rejected him.

  But seeing it in public and before everyone was something I couldn’t condone.

  We weren’t in SilverFang Pack, where their fathers and the elders would turn a blind eye. We were in public, at the autonomous packs’ racing center.

  How could he allow her to be affectionate with him like this when I was the one who was supposed to stand by his side? Even if it wasn't as his coach but atleast his mate.

  When Leonard handed Jessica the microphone to give her own speech, I decided I had had enough and turned to leave.

  Perhaps he was acting this way because the pregnancy test i took last night had come back negative.

  As an Alpha-in-training, he was required to have a child with his mate before he could be crowned Alpha. Five years had passed since we became mates. Since I was eighteen and still, I had never conceived. Not even a stillbirth.

  Perhaps that was why he had called Jessica onto the stage instead of me.

  Perhaps that was why he ignored my existence in the crowd, pretending I wasn’t standing there beside his father, the same father he had publicly acknowledged.

  Perhaps that was why, after all these years, he had never learned how to love me.

  As I left, I couldn't stop wondering, just how much more would I have to endure at his hands before I would tell myself that I had had enough?