Chapter 1

I ripped my arm from their grasp, glaring up at him.

"I was marked six months ago," I warned, my voice low and steady. "My mate is an Alpha. And he is not someone you want to cross."

I thought making things clear with Kyle would be the end of it. A disgusting chapter finally closed.

I wouldn't let this man, an ex who meant nothing to me anymore, get under my skin.

I didn't bother giving him a response and turned to leave.

But he stepped in front of me, his body blocking my path.

"Amelia, do you really take me for a fool? Making up lies about some new mate?" he sneered. "Still caught up in your fantasy of landing an Alpha, are you?"

He smirked, crossing his arms as if he had me all figured out.

"Trying to make me jealous? Pathetic. A pity, but I don't waste my energy on weak little humans."

I just stared back at him, my expression blank. He wasn't worth the energy of a reply.

I had already told him. I had a new mate.

If he didn’t believe me, that was his problem.

My silence only fueled his rage.

"Humans like you, crawling around in the werewolf world… you’re lower than an Omega. Besides me almost marking you, what other wolf would want you? And you clinging to an Alpha? That's a fucking fantasy!"

He shot a look at his men.

"I can't let that bastard pup ruin my plans. Take her to the clinic. Now! I will not allow some unknown bloodline to exist! Even if it’s born, it will just be a mutt that stains my bloodline!"

I instinctively clutched my stomach, my other hand balling into a fist.

The pup in my belly was the hope of an entire pack. The future heir.

And this stupid Beta wanted to kill him?

“Kyle, if you don’t want the entire Northern Pack hunting you down, get out of my sight. Now.”

The only reason I’d returned was to buy my mother a vacation home. My mate had given me an unlimited black card for it.

My mother had been sick with an illness only the wolf world could supposedly cure. That’s why my family came here in the first place.

Then a witch prophesied that my other half had to be a wolf.

Even though we lived here as outsiders, after so long, this place had become our home.

My mother couldn’t bear to leave the city we first lived in. She wanted a vacation house here, to come back and stay for a while whenever she pleased.

But before I could even find the right house, I ran into Kyle.

A disgusting ex like him should stay dead and buried.

"Alright, I know you're still playing hard to get."

Kyle looked at me with a cold smirk, as if he had everything under control.

"Amelia, I know you couldn't stand to leave me. That's why you came back, pregnant with my pup, just to beg for a place by my side."

He stepped forward and grabbed my chin, his fingers digging in.

"But let me warn you. No pack will accept a half-breed pup that might have no powers at all. Get rid of it, and I might let you stay with me."

Stay with him?

I jerked back, pulling my face from his grip.

"What about your pure-blooded lady, Selena? Didn't you two bond six months ago?"

I thought back to that day.

For a while, I really believed Kyle was the fated mate the witch had talked about.

But the day before our bonding ceremony, I got a video.

It was him and Selena in the pool of a mountain villa, rutting like animals. His lips were latched onto her breast.

Selena let out a soft moan, and Kyle’s cold voice slid right into my ears.

"You know she’s just a human. She doesn't deserve me. Just show up at the ceremony tomorrow. I’ll dump her on the spot and make you my true mate."

I cried in my apartment until sunrise.

The despair of total betrayal nearly drowned me.

It was the third time he’d hurt me.

The first two times, he’d postponed our bonding for Selena. I told myself to forgive him. He had to protect his family. Selena was in trouble.

But this time, the betrayal was right in front of my face. I couldn't lie to myself anymore.

The love I had poured my entire soul into was nothing but a joke.

I took my mother and left immediately, cutting all ties with him.

But on our way out, we fell into a river.

The icy water swallowed me whole. When I woke up, I was staring into a pair of golden eyes.

That was my true fated mate. The Alpha, Ethan.

The moment he touched my hand, a jolt of electricity shot through me.

I realized then that you don't have to be a wolf to feel the pull of a fated mate.

Kyle was never my mate.

Now, six months later, my baby with Ethan was almost due.

And this shameless lunatic, Kyle, still thought the pup was his.

The memory made my gaze turn to ice.

"Kyle, do you really think the world revolves around you? Go back to your Selena before she has another meltdown. You'll have your hands full."

He grabbed my wrist, his grip so tight I winced.

"You think I'll fall for this act? Amelia, I knew you still had feelings for me. Why else would you keep the pup?"

He started dragging me, probably towards the clinic. "I remember how you used to be terrified of bonding with a wolf. You even said you never wanted to have a wolf's pup. But that last time, you didn't drink the contraceptive herbs, did you? You thought having a baby would be enough to tie me down, right?"

I ripped my hand away.

His pathetic confidence was almost funny.

"Kyle, I'm only going to say this once. We are over. Everything is over."

I took a deep breath and lifted my hand, my fingers tracing the moonstone pendant Ethan had given me.

"Look closely. I don't beg." I clutched the pendant, its soft light glowing in my palm. "If I was fated to be with a wolf, then I’ve already found my fated Alpha."