Chapter 2

Skye 

I can't breathe.

The boy—this child who just called my husband daddy—is looking up at Jaxon with complete adoration. And Jaxon... Jaxon isn't denying it. Isn't pushing him away. He's just standing there with his hand on the boy's shoulder, watching me with those cold gray eyes like he's waiting for me to catch up to a joke everyone else already understands.

"I don't..." My voice cracks. "I don't understand."

Cassandra moves then, sweeping forward to place herself between me and the boy. Protective. Maternal. Everything I've apparently failed to be.

"Skye, I'm so sorry." Her voice is soft, pained. "I never wanted you to find out like this. Jaxon was supposed to tell you before the meeting today."

"Tell me what?" The words are barely audible. "Tell me what, Cassandra?"

She exchanges another look with Jaxon—and god, I hate that. Hate how easily they communicate. Hate how I'm always on the outside looking in at my own life.

"This is Liam," she says gently, resting a hand on the boy's head. "He's... he's Jaxon's son."

The floor drops out from under me. I grab the edge of the desk, my knuckles going white.

"That's not possible." But even as I say it, I'm looking at the boy's face. That jawline. Those eyes—steel-gray, just like his father's. "That's not—you left four years ago. You were already gone when we—"

"Before that," Cassandra interrupts. "Before Jaxon found out you were his mate. We were together, Skye. Surely you remember."

I did remember. I remembered watching them at pack functions, convinced they were perfect for each other. Remembered the night of my eighteenth birthday when Jaxon's scent had hit me like a physical blow, and I'd realized with devastating clarity that the Alpha heir I'd crushed on for years was mine. My fated mate.

And that he'd been sleeping with my sister.

"You knew?" I turn to Jaxon, and my voice is rising now, hysteria creeping in at the edges. "You knew about him this whole time?"

"No." His answer is clipped. "Cassandra only told me when she came back. A month ago."

A month ago.

That phrase keeps echoing in my head, each repetition driving the knife deeper.

"I'm so sorry," Cassandra says again, and if I didn't know her better, I might believe the tears gathering in her eyes. "I never wanted to interfere with your marriage. I left because I knew Jaxon had found his true mate, and I didn't want to stand in the way of that. I raised Liam alone, tried to build a life for us away from here."

"Then why come back?" The question tears out of me.

"Liam was sick." Her voice breaks convincingly. "He needed treatment that only Jaxon’s connections could provide. Our bloodline... you know how complicated wolf genetics can be. I didn't have a choice."

I look at Jaxon, desperate for him to contradict her. To tell me this is all some horrible misunderstanding. But he just stands there, stone-faced, and I realize with sickening clarity that he believes her. Every word.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask him. "I'm your wife. Your mate. Why didn't you—"

"Because today's meeting with the elders is to announce it," he cuts in, his tone maddeningly calm. "I needed to handle the political aspects first. The pack needs to know that despite this complication, you'll remain as Luna."

"Remain as Luna," I repeat numbly. "How generous of you."

His jaw tightens. "Don't be dramatic, Skye. This doesn't change anything between us."

A laugh bubbles up in my throat, sharp and painful. "It doesn't change anything? You have a son with my sister, and you think that doesn't change anything?"

"I have a responsibility to him." For the first time, there's heat in Jaxon's voice. "He's my firstborn. My heir. I won't turn my back on him just because the timing is inconvenient."

His heir.

The words hit me like a slap. I press my hand to my stomach, feeling the secret life growing there. The baby I was so excited to tell him about. The baby I thought would finally make us a real family.

But he already has an heir.

"You still care about her." It's not a question. I can see it in the way he positions himself, angled slightly toward Cassandra even as he argues with me. Can smell it in the way his scent shifts when she's near—less hostile, more... something. "All this time, you've been in love with my sister."

"This isn't about love," Jaxon snaps. "This is about doing what's right for the pack. For my son."

"What about what's right for me?" My voice breaks. "I'm your mate, Jaxon. Your fated mate. Doesn't that count for anything?"

His silence is devastating.

Cassandra makes a small sound, drawing Liam closer. "Skye, I know this is hard to hear, but Jaxon and I... we're just trying to figure out what's best for Liam. We're not trying to hurt you."

"You've been back for a month." I'm shaking now, rage and heartbreak warring inside me. "A month of secret meetings. A month of decisions made behind my back. A month of you two playing happy family while I trained myself into exhaustion trying to be the Luna he needed, not knowing I was already replaced."

"No one is replacing you," Jaxon says, but there's no warmth in it. No reassurance. Just that same cold authority he uses with pack members who challenge him.

"You slept with my sister." The words taste like poison. "You had a child with her, and you never told me. Not when we got married. Not during any of these three years. You let me believe—"

I can't finish. Can't voice the pathetic hope I'd been carrying around like a talisman. That maybe someday he'd love me. That maybe I could be enough.

"I didn't know about Liam," Jaxon says through gritted teeth. "I'm not keeping secrets to hurt you, Skye. I'm trying to handle a complicated situation with as much dignity as possible."

"Dignity." I taste blood where I've bitten my lip. "Is that what we're calling this? You want me to stand beside you at this meeting, smile prettily while you announce your son with my sister, and just accept that I'll always be second choice?"

"You're being unreasonable."

"I'm being unreasonable?" My voice rises to a near-shout. "You're planning some twisted arrangement where I play Luna while you and Cassandra raise your son together, and I'm the unreasonable one?"

"Skye—" Cassandra starts.

"No." I hold up a hand, something hardening in my chest. Something that feels almost like strength. "No, I'm done. I'm done being the understanding wife. The accommodating mate. The Luna who doesn't make waves."

I look at Jaxon, really look at him, and try to find any trace of the man I fell in love with all those years ago. But all I see is the Alpha who married me out of obligation. Who's been in love with my sister this entire time.

"I want a divorce."

The words drop into the silence like stones into still water.

Jaxon's eyes narrow. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me." My hands are steady now, even as my heart splinters. "Whatever sick arrangement you and Cassandra have planned, count me out. I won't be part of this."

"You don't mean that." Jaxon takes a step forward, and for a moment something flickers in his eyes—surprise, maybe, or anger. "Skye, you're my mate. You can't just—"

"Watch me."

I turn and walk out before he can see me fall apart. Before Cassandra can offer more poisonous sympathy. Before I do something stupid like tell him about the baby growing inside me—the baby that should have been his heir, but never will be now.

Behind me, I hear Jaxon call my name, sharp and commanding.

I don't stop.

I don't look back.