Chapter 1

I wake to the smell of someone else’s skin beside me, a scent that doesn’t belong to my mate.

Morning light slips through the blinds, cutting across the room in pale gold. My head throbs, heavy and sharp, each pulse like a hammer pounding from the inside. My throat is dry. My tongue feels thick. I blink, but the world keeps spinning.

I shouldn’t have drunk so much last night. Everything is a blur, music, laughter, flashes of light, too many shots I swore I’d stop at.

Then the scent hits me. Wrong. Not Draven’s.

Not the smoky cedar that’s been home to me since the day I met him ten years ago. This one is bitter, musky, and foreign.

My stomach twists violently. My heart slams against my ribs so hard it hurts. My wolf stirs uneasily, pacing beneath my skin, something in her voice trembling with panic.

I turn my head slowly, dread is building like a storm in my chest.

And lying beside me, bare skin against mine, his arm heavy across my waist like it belongs there is Rowan. Draven’s Beta.

For a heartbeat, I forget how to breathe.

I stare at him, frozen, every cell in my body going cold. My scent is tangled with his. The sheets smell like both of us. My pulse stutters so hard I think I might faint.

This can’t be real. This can’t be happening.

Then a shift in the air makes my blood turn to ice. I look up, and that’s when I see him.

Draven stands at the doorway. Silent.

His chest rises and falls too fast, his eyes fixed on me, not with warmth, but with something raw, dark, and cold enough to kill.

Behind him stands Lauren, my best friend. Her hand covers her mouth in shock, and behind her, two pack elders hover, their expressions heavy with judgment.

The room tilts. My hands shake so hard I can barely clutch the blanket to my chest.

“Draven—” My voice cracks, barely a whisper.

He doesn’t speak. His jaw tightens until the veins in his neck strain. His hand grips the doorframe like it’s the only thing keeping him from tearing the place apart.

“Draven, please,” I beg softly, my throat tight with tears I can’t stop. “This isn’t what it looks like. I don’t even know how—”

“Save it.”

His voice is low, but it cuts like a blade.

Tears spill down my cheeks before I can blink them back. “I swear, I don’t remember. I didn’t—”

He laughs, broken and bitter. “Of course, you don’t remember. That’s convenient.”

“Draven, please. You know me. I’d never—”

But he turns away and leaves just like that.

The elders follow, one shaking his head. Lauren lingers long enough to meet my eyes, and there’s something cold there. Something that makes my stomach sink, then she turns and leaves too.

“Lauren!” I cry, my voice breaking. “Lauren, please! You know I didn’t do anything!”

She doesn’t even look back.

My chest feels like it’s collapsing. A sob escapes before I can stop it. I grab the pillow beside me and slam it against Rowan’s shoulder. “Wake up! Wake up, you bastard!”

He jerks up, confused, eyes wide. “Luna Rhiannon?” His voice trembles.

“What—what happened?”

“You’re asking me?” My voice shakes. “How did I end up here? What did you do to me?”

He rubs his face with shaky hands. “I—I don’t know. I had dinner, then went to bed. That’s all I remember, I didn't do anything to you, my lady.”

His sincerity only makes the fear worse. My whole body is trembling now. My skin feels too tight for my bones.

Someone did this.

“I need to talk to Draven,” I whisper, wrapping the blanket tighter around me. My hands are shaking so hard I can barely pick up my dress from the floor. I rush into the bathroom and lock the door, staring at my reflection.

My face looks like someone else’s, eyes red, makeup smeared, hair tangled. There’s a mark on my neck I don’t remember getting. My lips tremble. Tears fall fast, blurring my reflection until I can’t see anything but shame.

By the time I run out the door, my whole body is shaking. My heartbeat feels like a drum in my throat. I need him to believe me. He has to believe me.

When I reach the main house, whispers already fill the air. Wolves don’t keep secrets, they scent them. And right now, every eye in the hallway follows me like I’m something filthy.

Some look away. Others smirk.

I keep walking, head low, heart pounding so hard it hurts.

Draven’s office door is cracked open. I hear his breathing, rough and uneven.

I push the door open, and what I see almost breaks me.

He’s sitting behind his desk, fists bloody, hair a mess, his whole body trembling with barely-contained rage. Lauren stands beside him, hand on his shoulder, whispering softly.

“I know it’s hard to love and trust, but look how it ended.”

My stomach turns. “Lauren?”

Both of them look up.

Draven’s eyes are red, not from tears, but from something darker. Something that used to scare everyone but me.

“Get out,” he says, voice sharp as glass.

“Draven, please,” I whisper, stepping closer. “Just listen. I don’t know how it happened. You know how much I love you—”

“Don’t.” His voice cracks, but the anger swallows it. “Don’t you dare say that to me right now.”

“Please…” My lips are shaking. Tears spill faster, and I can barely get words out.

He leans forward, voice low and dangerous. “Do you know what kind of fool you made me look like?”

“Draven, I didn’t—” Turning to Lauren with pleading eyes, I say, “We were together last night, right? We went to celebrate your birthday at the club. You were the one who—”

“Wrap it up, Rhiannon.” Lauren’s tone is cold, sharp enough to make me flinch. “I’ve covered for you before. But this? I can’t lie for you anymore.”

Lie for me? My mind blanks. “What are you talking about? You’ve never—”

“Enough.” Draven’s voice slices through mine.

My wolf howls inside me, clawing to reach him, to make him listen. But I can’t even breathe through the pain. “Draven, please, I—”

“I saw you, Rhiannon!” he roars, slamming his fist on the desk with a loud thud. “Naked on my Beta’s bed!”

I flinch, shaking. “You think I’d destroy us on purpose? After everything we’ve been through?”

His laugh is bitter. “Everything we’ve been through means nothing now.”

I step closer, tears running freely. “You said you’d trust me over anyone—”

He looks at me with so much hurt it makes it hard to breathe. “That was before I saw you with him.”

The words hit harder than claws. My knees almost give out.

He looks away. “I’m done, Rhiannon. Mate law says I can’t kill you, but you’re not my Luna anymore.”

My breath catches. “Are you divorcing me?”

He nods once. “Effective immediately. You’ll leave Midnight territory by sunrise.”

“Draven, please let me prove it. Let me find out who did this. Someone set me up, I swear—”

“Get out!” His growl shakes the room.

I stumble backward, heart pounding, tears spilling uncontrollably.

Lauren’s lips twitch, the smallest smirk hiding there.

I turn to her, desperate. “Why are you doing this? You know I didn’t—”

“Guards!” Draven’s voice cuts through mine. Two wolves appear instantly, big and stone-faced.

He doesn’t look at me when he speaks.

“Take this whore out of my sight.”

The word slices through me. My wolf flinches, shrinking inside me, whimpering like she’s been struck. The word stings more than claws ever could. My body goes cold.

The guards grab my arms. I try to pull free. “Please, just listen to me—Draven, please—”

But he doesn’t move. He just sits there, head bowed, fists clenched, breaking silently while I’m dragged away.

I feel the mate bond twist painfully inside me, like a knife turning in my chest. It burns, searing through every nerve. His heartbreak crashes into me through the bond, sharp, unbearable, and it’s almost worse than my own. I can feel his pain pounding in my heart, tearing me apart from the inside. And I know he’s feeling mine too. I know he feels my fear, my guilt, my desperate need for him to believe me. But he turns away anyway.

Before the door closes, I see Lauren lift her hand and wave.

A slow, mocking wave, with a smile curling on her lips.

And that’s when it hits me. My best friend was never really my best friend.

Everything I had, my marriage, my bond, my home, was gone in one morning. And no one, not even my mate, believed me.