CHAPTER 1

Charlotte:

The bed was warm, but the space beside me was frozen.

I turned my head slowly, eyes adjusting to the morning light pouring in through the curtains. Ashton lay beside me, shirtless, broad back turned, muscles tense, as if sleeping next to me was a punishment.

Maybe it was.

Maybe I was the punishment.

Maybe sleeping by my side was his form of punishing me, a reminding me that I was not going to be his lover, that I was never going to be enough in his eyes. Mate or not, I knew that he did not want me by his side.

I sat up slowly, pulling the sheets around me, watching the rise and fall of his breathing. His scent, a rich blend of pine and rain, should’ve calmed me. But these days, it just felt like a reminder of how far apart we really were, mated by fate, divided by choice. People who did not want to be with one another and yet we were simply forced to be together because of a bond that bound the two of us. A bond that we chose to accept rather than him rejecting me or I rejecting him.

We’d argued again last night. That made it what… four times this week? I could barely remember what started it. A word. A look. Maybe just the unbearable weight of the silence we lived in. At this point I stopped wondering what we were arguing about in the first place. It was just pure resentment, it was cold demeanor, it was hate and it was the lack of fire that was between us.

He hadn’t touched me. Not since the bond snapped into place. Not since that night when he had chosen to accept me as his Luna, when he chose to announce me as one, when he chose to tell his pack that now he had someone to help him with his responsibilities. Little did I know at the time that I was nothing more than a responsibility.

There was no love, no warmth and the feeling that any mate should not have had with her lover. I knew that I did not live.

I shifted my legs off the side of the bed, resting my elbows on my knees. My hands trembled slightly as I clasped them together, trying to ground myself. But the cold in the room wasn’t just in the air. It was inside me. This pain was one that my wolf felt, that I felt no matter how hard I tried to deny it.

It was a ghost I’d never stopped carrying.

Lydia.

My sister’s name passed through my thoughts like a blade, sharp and familiar.

Is it easier now that she’s gone? She's no longer overshadowing you, isn't she?

The pack had mourned her. My parents had crumbled in front of everyone. And me? I was blamed. I was exiled. I was just pushed away. I was cast out as if I was the one who was mistaken.

“She was your responsibility,” they said. “You took her into the woods. You were the last one to see her alive. You are the reason she is dead. Why? Is it simply because she is pushing you to be the best version of yourself? You chose to kill your sister because you were jealous?”

My mother's words had cut through me as a blade. I did not even have a response to give her. I tried to explain, but neither one of them wanted to listen.

No body. No answers. Just a hollow echo of her laughter and a family that turned their back on me the moment it was convenient.

And now… here I was again. Taken in by yet another pack. A new mate. A new bond.

Same emptiness. Same void feeling that I had, only this time it was simply a choice, one that he was making, one that I was forced to live with.

“Ashton?” I asked quietly, glancing over my shoulder.

He didn’t move.

I reached for him gently, resting a hand on his back. “Can we talk? I think that we really need to solve this problem between us that we can talk. We need to be able to talk, Ashton.”

He sat up abruptly, the muscles in his back tightening under my touch as he shrugged me off.

“What’s there to talk about?” he muttered, standing and grabbing a shirt from the chair across the room.

“You’re angry,” I said. “You’ve been angry since…”

“I’m not angry,” he snapped. His tone was low, controlled, but I could feel the fury simmering beneath it. “I just don’t have the energy to pretend. If you do, then that's on you. You should be granted an award for it, but I no longer have it in me to keep playing this game of lovers with you.”

I stood too, wrapping the blanket around me like armor. “I’m not asking you to pretend. I just want to understand, why are you pushing me away? What did I do for you to hate me this much?”

He turned then, dark eyes burning. “Because this wasn’t my choice, Charlotte. The Moon Goddess made it for me. You weren’t the mate I wanted. You never will be.”

The words hit me like claws to the chest.

I looked away, blinking hard, forcing myself not to cry. I wouldn’t cry. I’d done enough of that in my old life.

“I know what it’s like to be unwanted,” I whispered. “You don’t have to keep proving it to me.”

“Then I would suggest that you stop asking questions that would end up hurting your feelings if you cannot accept the response.” He said coldly. He got up from bed. I kept my eyes on him for a moment before looking down at my lap, no longer able to form a sentence or try to even clear my name, try to even explain to him why I was bothered.

He left the room in silence, closing the door behind him. It clicked softly, making my chest ache.

And once again, I was alone.

Not just in the room. Not just in the house.

But in the bond itself.