Chapter 1

"I am the exalted Luna of this pack, and my bond was a gift from the Moon Goddess. Tainted, it was worthless.

I needed no one but myself.

"What did you say?!" A crystal vial whistled past my ear and shattered against the stone wall.

Shards of glass and a month's worth of irreplaceable healing balm splattered across the floor.

My son's half-shifted eyes burned with a golden rage.

"How dare you say you're leaving him! I'm the one who should hate you! If anyone's leaving, it's me! I'm leaving you! The only one I respect is our pack's greatest Beta warrior, Aunt Valerie!"

I hadn't noticed my son, Rory, standing in the doorway. The raw power of an Alpha pup radiated from him, strong enough to make the herb racks tremble violently.

Right behind him stood Valerie, the pack's Beta.

She was tall and statuesque, clad in combat leathers that hugged her powerful frame.

The moment she saw me, her voice trembled with a practiced fragility. "Luna, please forgive me," she knelt, her face a mask of distress.

"I tried to stop the Alpha, but I had to obey his command. I never wanted him to tattoo my sigil on the mark, but I never imagined it would cause you such pain. I am so sorry. I swear it will never happen again. Please, forgive me."

She continued, tears welling in her eyes. "Luna, if it will appease your anger, use your healing power to punish me. I only beg you not to break with Alpha Wyatt. I could never bear to be the cause of a Rejection."

Seeing her kneeling, Wyatt's face hardened. "All this over a tiny tattoo? You're being hysterical."

"The Luna, bullying her own Beta," he scoffed. "Have you no shame?"

He moved to her side, helping her up by the shoulders, his expression laced with pity.

"You never cared about this mark before, so what does it matter if I added Valerie's sigil? She's a symbol of our pack's battle-forged glory. Must you be so narrow-minded?"

He said it so casually, as if discussing the weather. But this mark, seared into our souls by the Moon Goddess herself, was more precious to me than life. I don't flaunt what is precious to me; I protect it.

And he had casually defiled our sacred bond, tarnishing every memory we had built together.

It was his transgression, yet somehow, I was the one being called "narrow-minded."

Even Rory, his face contorted in rage, lunged forward. His half-shifted claws tore through my healer's cloak. "Who do you think you are, making Aunt Valerie kneel?" he snarled. "You're forgetting your place!"

"I'm ashamed to be your son."

He raised his sharp claws, about to rip my herb pouch to shreds. I shoved him away.

"Stop it!"

Rory fell hard onto the stone floor, staring at me in stunned disbelief.

The pup I had carried for ten months and raised with all my heart now called me a disgrace.

A pain, sharp as a silver needle, pierced my heart.

Fine, I thought, a shard of ice forming in my heart. Then you are no longer my son.

It was the first time I had ever laid a hand on him.

I ignored the shock in his eyes, bending down to gather the scattered herbs. Then, my voice cold, I spoke to the father and son.

"If you want to honor Valerie, then give her the rewards she deserves. Let the entire pack know of her deeds."

"But to desecrate our sacred mark for her? Aren't you afraid of the whispers? That your Beta wants my title so badly, she'd carve her name on our bond?"

Wyatt's expression grew uglier, his face a thundercloud. "Shut your mouth, Faye. There is nothing but respect between Valerie and me. Don't you dare stain our pure relationship with your filthy accusations."

I stared at his self-righteous face and felt a surge of absurd laughter.

If their bond was so pure, why did he leave me burning with mating fever to spend the night on patrol with her?

If she suffered a minor scratch, he would abandon his duties to brew her a poultice, while I, waiting for him in a downpour, was forgotten entirely.

At dinner, he would instinctively serve her the most tender cut of venison, while pushing the silverleaf greens I was allergic to in front of me.

And all of this… what was all of this? This was what he called a "pure relationship"?

Beside him, Valerie's eyes welled with tears, her long lashes fluttering as she looked up at Wyatt.

I didn't have the energy to argue anymore. It was time to lay my cards on the table.

"Wyatt and I are proceeding with the Rejection. You can drop the act."

"Congratulations. You've finally climbed from Beta warrior to the Luna's throne."

With that, I turned to leave. Another second in this room would make me sick.