Chapter 1

At the ceremony where my fiancé, Mattew, was to become Alpha, he abandoned me. He chose Claire and her unborn child for the power they represented.

Three years later, I was back, accompanying my mate on a tour of his lands, when I ran into Mattew.

He mocked my shabby clothes and offered me a job as a servant.

He had no idea I was the Alpha King's mate—the most revered Luna in the entire werewolf world.

I scanned the crowd at the airport, looking for the person David said would be picking me up. I finally spotted a sign at the private terminal exit: "Luna of Blackwood Pack."

Then I froze.

I saw the sign, but the person holding it was Mattew—my former fated mate.

Standing beside him was Claire, the woman who had taken my place at my own mating ceremony, along with a few other wolves I recognized from Mattew’s pack.

"Oh my gods, look who it is," a wolf named Marcus was the first to spot me, braying with laughter. "Georgia? You’ve got some nerve showing your face here again."

"I thought she'd be dead in a ditch somewhere by now," another woman snickered, covering her mouth.

Mattew turned. When his eyes landed on me, a flicker of something complicated crossed his face before it was replaced by smug superiority.

"Georgia," he said, his voice dripping with a smug, I-told-you-so tone. "I knew you’d come crawling back."

I said nothing, watching them with a calm I had to force.

Three years, and they hadn't changed a bit.

"Look at the state of you," Claire said, her eyes raking over me with disdain. "Is that what you're wearing? Can't even afford a decent outfit anymore? I guess this is what happens to rogues without a pack to protect them."

I glanced down at my loose-fitting clothes.

It was a maternity dress David had custom-made for me. Special protection charms were woven into the fabric, strong enough to stop a silver dagger.

But they didn't need to know that.

"If you're having a hard time, just say so," Marcus sneered, walking closer and giving me a pitying look. "Stop pretending. You're just here to beg Mattew to take you back, aren't you?"

"Yeah, why else would she come all this way?"

They all started chiming in, acting like they’d already figured out my pathetic story.

Mattew raised a hand, silencing them.

He stepped in front of me, a mask of false generosity on his face. "You've thrown your tantrum long enough, don't you think?"

I looked at him, a complete stranger.

Was this really the man I had loved for seven years?

"Come back, Georgia. Claire's son needs a nanny. I'll even pay you an omega's wages."

Claire immediately looped her arm through Mattew’s, tilting her chin up. "Mattew's doing you a favor, you know? Giving you an Omega’s job watching the kid. What else are you going to do out there? Get torn apart by another pack?"

The group behind them snickered.

I just listened, a wave of pure exhaustion washing over me.

The boy who used to read me poetry under the moonlight was gone, replaced by an arrogant Alpha drunk on his own power.

"So, Georgia, have you thought it through? Don't do something stupid just because you're jealous. Besides me, who else is going to take care of you?"

I lifted my head, met his eyes, and let a sarcastic smile touch my lips.

"Take care of me? And the baby I'm carrying, too?"

The smile vanished from Mattew's face. "What?!"