Chapter 3

Skye 

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.

My hands tremble and my legs shake as I make the climb up the cliff to my secret hideaway, but I keep going until I reach the top. I found this place when I was fourteen, after one of the numerous times Cassandra humiliated me in front of the entire pack and I've been coming here ever since.

It's beautiful up here. Peaceful. Everything my life isn't.

I wrap my arms around my knees and let myself cry—really cry, the kind of gasping, ugly sobs I'd never allow anyone to see. My carefully applied makeup is probably running down my face in dark streaks. The blue dress Jaxon supposedly liked is creased and dirty from the climb up here.

I don't care.

Let it all fall apart. It was an illusion anyway.

"I knew I'd find you here."

I jerk my head up, my wolf surging with alarm before I catch the familiar scent. Warm brown sugar. Safe. Known.

Noah.

He's standing a few feet away, hands in his pockets, his dark hair slightly windswept. Those warm brown eyes that used to crinkle with laughter when we'd sneak away together are filled with concern now.

"Go away," I tell him, my voice raw.

"Can't do that." He moves closer, settling onto the rock beside me with the easy comfort of someone who's done this a hundred times before. "You're upset."

"Brilliant observation." I swipe at my face, hating that he's seeing me like this. "Shouldn't you be with your Alpha? I'm sure he needs his Beta to help manage the fallout from his dramatic wife."

Noah doesn't rise to the bait. He just sits there, solid and steady, the way he always has.

We used to do this all the time back when we were still best friends. I even wondered if we might be fated mates, though I was too busy crushing on Jaxon to give it much thought. Ridiculous, considering he was dating my sister and I’d never been brave enough to do more than admire him from afar. 

But that was before everything went wrong. Before the night of my eighteenth birthday when Jaxon's scent hit me and I realized my best friend wasn't my mate after all. Before Noah pulled away from me, leaving me to navigate a loveless marriage and my new role as Luna alone. 

"I'm sorry," he says quietly.

"For what? You didn't knock up my sister."

"Skye—"

"He still loves her.” I blurt out, the words spilling over before I can stop them. “Maybe he always has. And he ended up stuck with me. The pathetic girl who'd been crushing on him since she was fifteen, so desperate to be chosen that she'd accept any scraps he threw her way."

"Stop." Noah's voice is firm now, edged with something almost like anger. "Don't talk about yourself like that. You're not pathetic, Skye. You're the best Luna this pack has had in generations."

The praise makes my throat tight. "That won't matter when he divorces me."

"He can't." Noah's hand finds mine, warm and solid. "Even if he wanted to—which I don't think he does, not really—unbonding from a fated mate isn't something easily done. Especially not to replace you with someone who isn't even his true mate."

"He has a son with her." The words feel heavy. Final. "An heir. That changes everything."

"It changes the political landscape," Noah concedes. "But it doesn't change what you are to him. What you've been to this pack. You've been a better Luna than Cassandra could ever be—more compassionate, more dedicated, more—"

"More foolish." I pull my hand away. "I thought loving him would be enough to win his heart eventually. But I've wasted three years trying to make him love me, Noah. Three years of pretending everything was fine when it clearly wasn't. And all that time, he's been pining for my sister."

"You don't know that."

"I saw the way he looked at her today." My voice breaks. "Like she was the answer to a question he'd been asking for years. And I saw the way he looked at that boy. His son. There was... tenderness there. Something I've never seen directed at me."

Noah is quiet for a long moment. When he speaks, his voice is careful. "I was in the meeting room after you left. I saw how crushed you were. Hell, everyone saw it. And for what it's worth, Jaxon looked pretty shaken too."

"Shaken because his dirty secret got exposed."

"Maybe. Or maybe because he realized what he's about to lose."