Chapter 2

Alpha James lied to me again.

Because he didn’t come back soon at all.

I took a shower, but sleep wouldn’t come. So I sat on the living room carpet, staring blankly ahead.

Rowan’s voice was soft in my mind. “Clary, do you remember the first day we met him?”

Of course, I remembered.

The Moon Goddess assigns every werewolf their fated mate on their eighteenth birthday.

On my eighteenth birthday, the moonlight was especially bright.

I was sitting on the grass in the backyard, while Rowan hummed an off-key tune in my head.

Then, I caught his scent.

It was the scent of a powerful and commanding Alpha, carrying an authority that couldn’t be questioned.

I looked up.

Alpha James was standing just beyond the fence. He looked at me and reached out his hand.

Rowan screamed in my mind, “Clary! It’s him! It’s him! He’s your fated mate!”

In that moment, I felt like the luckiest she-wolf in the world. However, everything that came after proved just how naive I had been.

His family didn’t accept me. His friends mocked me. The rest of the pack looked at me differently.

So I rejected him.

James didn’t give up, though. Again and again, he confessed to me, coming closer on his own.

He even left the Northern Pack for me, staying with me in the Southern Pack.

In the end, my heart softened, and I agreed to be with him.

Sometime past midnight, rain began to fall outside the window.

With a click, the door unlocked. James walked in, carrying the chill of rain with him.

I could feel his exhaustion, his irritation, and a faint trace of guilt.

“Clary, you’re still awake?”

James sounded a little surprised. He came over to me, bending down to gently touch my cheek.

Then he lowered his head and pressed a kiss to my temple. “Baby, I need to head back north.

“You know my mom’s birthday is coming up.”

I lifted my head and stared at his face, catching every subtle change in his expression.

All of a sudden, the moment felt painfully ironic.

Was he really going back for his mother’s birthday? Or to comfort that Omega she-wolf?

“James, it’s raining outside.” I pointed toward the window.

A sudden flash of lightning tore across the dark sky.

It was a thunderstorm, the kind of weather I feared the most.

“I’m scared.”

I tugged at the corner of his shirt, my pale lips pressed into a thin line. I tilted my face up to look him in the eyes and at the small reflection of myself in his pupils.

The faint hope on her face, fragile like a flickering candle, made my eyes sting.

I was pregnant with his pup.

Six years together wasn’t something I could just let go of.

‘James, please don’t go.

‘Please, stay.’

I told myself silently.

If he stayed, if he chose to stay, I would forgive him.

However, he refused.