Chapter 1

Bella's POV

My smile dropped the second I saw the servants bringing in the boxes of gifts from Alpha Jaxon, my mate, into my chambers.

It was the morning of our third mating union anniversary, and anxiety had already settled heavy in my chest. Given my history with Jaxon, it was only right that I felt uneasy. But seeing the boxes only made me more agitated than I already was.

The servants dropped the gifts on the bed where I sat. I watched as the three of them turned to leave, giggling softly, whispering among themselves while glancing back at me at intervals. They thought I didn’t notice. I waited until they were well out of earshot before leaning forward and reaching for one of the boxes.

Jaxon had never given me a gift on any of our previous mating anniversaries.

During the first year of our union, I had used my personal savings to book a private lounge experience for him, knowing he preferred the outdoors and exclusive spaces. He never showed up. Later, I learned he had spent that entire day lavishing his attention on Peony—the ex-lover he had never been allowed to mate with.

The second year was no different. He claimed he was busy with pack duties all day, avoiding me entirely. Yet the mate bond punished me relentlessly that night with sharp waves of pain tearing through my body. Proof that he had been active, yes… but not with pack matters. With his mistresses. With women he kept trying to impregnate so he could produce an heir for his throne as he had deemed me an omega, unworthy of carrying his seeds.

So receiving gifts from him this year felt wrong and suspicious even. It made my stomach churn as I wondered what I had done, or what he expected me to overlook in exchange for such sudden generosity.

“Alpha Jaxon must have finally fallen in love with you, Luna,” a voice said from the entrance.

I flinched, lifting my head quickly to see Sumi stepping into my chambers.

Sumi was my friend and the gamma’s mate. She was one of the few allowed into my chambers freely.

I forced a smile as I unboxed a dress, my fingers trembling despite myself. The fabric shimmered, rhinestones catching the light. For a fleeting moment, my heart lifted. For the first time in three years, I felt seen.

“Do you think,” I asked softly, “that he has finally realized my importance and worth?”

Sumi joined me, admiring the dress, but before she could answer, a card slipped from the box and fluttered onto the bed.

She picked it up instantly.

The change in her expression was immediate and devastating.

“What does it say?” I asked, my voice tight, my gaze darting between her face and the card she now held behind her back.

“Sumi,” I whispered, stretching my hand toward her. My chest tightened as dread crept in. Whatever was written there had wiped the admiration from her face in seconds.

Reluctantly, she handed the card to me.

The moment I read it, shock slammed into me—followed by humiliation so sharp it stole my breath.

My hands trembled and my vision blurred. And with a voice stripped of all warmth, I summoned the servants back into my chambers.

“Who gave these boxes to you?” I roared at the three of them when they gathered before me, kneeling as tradition bound them to whenever a Luna had been offended.

“Did Alpha Jaxon truly send you here with these gifts you claimed were from him?” I asked again, bile clawing up my throat as I hated their silence despite my questioning.

When none of them seemed ready to speak, even though they knew exactly what had happened with the gifts, I resorted to threats, until one of them suddenly rushed forward, trembling, desperate to talk.

“Alpha Jaxon bought the gifts originally for Lady Peony of the West Palace,” she said quickly. “But she didn’t like all of them, so she advised him to send the ones she rejected to you as an anniversary gift.”

My stomach dropped the moment she finished speaking.

My knees weakened and Sumi rushed to my side, holding me tightly to steady me before I could fall.

I had almost believed that Jaxon had changed, and that he had begun to appreciate my efforts and sacrifices. But I had been wrong all along. The gifts I had thought were meant for me were nothing more than his mistress’s rejects.

“Get out!” I screamed.

The servants rushed out of the room immediately. Rage burned inside me, yet even in my anger, there was nothing I could do and no one I could vent to except Sumi.

A tear nearly slipped from my eye, but I held it back. I refused to let it fall in front of her. I didn’t want her to see me like this.

“I’ll go and visit my father,” I whispered as I stood, my voice barely steady.

Sumi had been my rock since I became an adult. I hated that I still burdened her with my problems even now, at twenty-one.

She nodded quietly and escorted me out of my chambers, then gave me the space to leave alone for the beta’s house, the house of the man who was my father.

Only a few minutes passed before I arrived. I stood frozen at the door when voices drifted from inside.

“Bella needs to be fast in committing the crime, Paul,” my father’s voice snapped. “When are you going to bring in the servants who will accuse her of promiscuity? Peony isn’t doing enough, and Jaxon needs to reject her today. Today is the final day and you of all people should know the rules of the mate bond!”

I didn’t hesitate when I pushed the door open, making him aware of my presence and of the disappointment burning inside me.

But my father didn’t even flinch when he saw me.

It was as if I were nothing more than a random passerby. There was no guilt in his eyes. No shock that I might have overheard everything he had just said.

I met Paul’s gaze, and it carried the same cold indifference I had grown accustomed to over the years.

“What are you doing here?” he snapped suddenly, as though the idea of a daughter coming to visit her father was forbidden in my case.

“Do you ask Peony that whenever she comes to visit Father from the West Hall?” I fired back, resentment churning violently inside me. He was the very one charged with hiring servants to accuse me of a crime I was innocent of, all to force Jaxon to reject me.

“Peony is my sister, Bella,” he scoffed. “My legitimate sister, born of beta blood. You’re just an illegitimate urchin whose mother seduced father. Being allowed to even answer our family name should make you grateful enough to stay silent when we’re talking!”

The words were familiar as he had used them on me for years.

When I was six—after my mother, who had been on the run with me, died in a fire accident—Beta Maxwell had taken me in as his child. But acknowledgment never meant kindness.

I was brought back to this house only to be treated like a servant by his wife and worse than a servant by his children, my step-siblings.

I endured it all for years, clinging to the hope that when I turned sixteen, I would awaken my wolf, find my mate, and finally matter.

But my wolf never awakened.

That alone was enough for him to brand me a disgrace—useless and tainted by traces of my mother’s omega blood.

“Bella dear,” my father finally spoke, his tone disturbingly calm, startling me out of my thoughts, “when you return to the palace, you will request a rejection from Alpha Jaxon, if you do not want to be framed for infidelity. That is the only way you will be allowed to continue being a member of this family.”

I turned to him in shock, my mouth falling open.

That this was all he had to say?