Chapter 4

I wore jeans, boots, and my plainest gray sweater. No jewelry, no perfume. Nothing that could be mistaken for trying to impress.

The drive to Blackmoon Dominion took forty minutes. The whole ride, I rehearsed what I'd say. Kept it simple. Kept it as honest as I could without sounding insane.

My wolf was restless. She'd been humming since the morning, a low vibration in my chest that wouldn't settle. She wanted this. She wanted him.

I pulled up to the main compound. Stone walls and iron gates, guards posted at the entrance in dark uniforms. Everything about Blackmoon screamed military.

A Beta met me at the gate. Soren. Tall, blond, arms crossed over his chest like I was a door-to-door salesperson interrupting his lunch.

He looked me over. Then he rolled his eyes.

"He's not here," Soren said. Flat. Bored. "You can wait if you want, but I wouldn't hold my breath."

I waited.

I sat on a bench outside the main building. Morning turned into afternoon. The sun crossed the sky and the shadows stretched long across the courtyard. I hadn't brought food. My phone stayed silent. No call from Soren. No update.

Pack members passed me. Some stared. Most looked away fast, but I caught the whispers.

"Isn't that the girl who rejected Alpha Jaxon?"

"At the banquet. In front of everyone."

"Three months ago and people still won't shut up about it."

I kept my eyes forward. My face neutral. But my stomach shrank tighter with every murmured word.

They were right to talk. What I'd done was the wolf equivalent of spitting in someone's face at their own dinner table. Rejecting your fated mate happened sometimes. Doing it publicly, in front of five hundred wolves at a formal banquet?

That was something else entirely.

Derek had spent weeks feeding me horror stories before that banquet. What if he forces the mark? What if he drags you away? And I'd been so in love with Derek that I'd believed every word.

Evening came. The sky turned amber and the guards changed shifts. I was still on the bench.

Then I heard it. Two pack members walking past, voices low but not low enough.

"—saw Alpha coming out of the east wing this morning—"

"Thought Soren said he was out?"

They noticed me and went quiet. Kept walking.

My hands curled into fists.

He'd been here. This whole time, Jaxon had been here. Soren had lied to my face and left me sitting there for ten hours.

Something hot and sharp replaced the guilt in my chest. I stood up. My legs ached from sitting so long, but I didn't care.

I walked past the front desk. A woman called after me. "Ma'am, you can't—" But I was already through the corridor, up the east wing staircase, to the second floor where the main office was. I knew the layout from my mother's old alliance maps.

I pushed the door open without knocking.

The office was large. Dark wood, minimal furniture, a wall of windows looking out over the mountain ridge. And behind the desk, Jaxon.

He looked up.

I'd seen him before, at the banquet, from across the room. But this close, in his own space, he was different. Darker somehow. Black hair pushed back from his face, sharp jaw, eyes so pale gray they looked silver in the fading light.

Those eyes landed on me, and every cell in my body went still.

He didn't speak. But something crossed his face. Not anger. Closer to confusion, like he genuinely couldn't understand why I was standing in his doorway.

I swallowed. The anger in my chest was winning over the fear. Barely, but winning.

"I was told you weren't here," I said. "Apparently that was a lie."

Jaxon said nothing.

The door slammed open behind me. Soren, breathing hard, grabbed my arm.

"You can't be in here," he snapped. "I told you to wait—"

"You told me he wasn't here. He was here the whole time."

Soren's jaw tightened. He didn't deny it. Instead he looked at Jaxon, expecting an order.

"This is the woman who humiliated you in front of half the territory," Soren said, his voice clipped. "Whatever she's going through, it doesn't compare to three months of being a punchline at every council dinner."

The words hit me in the ribs. My anger deflated a little. He wasn't wrong.

Jaxon looked at Soren. His expression didn't change, but something in his voice dropped a degree colder.

"Next time," Jaxon said, "don't make decisions for me. If you don't want her here, tell her to leave. Don't lie about where I am and create rumors in my own pack."

Soren's mouth opened. Closed. He stepped back.

Jaxon's gaze returned to me. "You heard me. Leave."

"No." The word came out before I could think. "Not until you hear what I came to say."

Jaxon's eyebrow lifted. Just barely. Like I'd said something mildly unexpected.

"I came to apologize," I said. "What I did at that banquet was wrong. I know that. I'm not going to make excuses." I swallowed. "I want — I'm asking if we can start over. Try to get to know each other. The way we should have from the beginning."

I couldn't tell him about the rebirth. Couldn't say I watched my husband try to kill me and now I know everything I chose was wrong. He'd think I was insane.

But I could tell him this much. That I regretted it. That I wanted a chance.

Silence.

Jaxon leaned back in his chair. His eyes narrowed, and for a moment I saw something flicker there. Not anger. Something colder. Contempt.

"Are you joking?" he asked. Quiet. Almost amused.

"No. I'm serious."

"Am I something cheap to you?" His voice was low, unhurried. "Something you can pick up and put down whenever it suits you?"

I opened my mouth to explain.

"You publicly rejected me in front of every Alpha that matters. You made me a joke for three months." He leaned forward. "And now you think you can walk in here and say one sentence, and I'll just agree to try again?"

Each word was precise. Each one landed exactly where it was meant to.

I tried to speak. To say something about the Moon Goddess. About fate.

"Don't." His voice cut mine clean. "You don't get to invoke the Moon Goddess after what you did. You are simply a fool who rejected your own fated mate. Nothing more."

My face burned. My throat closed. I could feel Soren watching from the doorway. Every word Jaxon had said was a bruise forming in real time.

But underneath the shame, something else stirred. Something hotter.

"If I'm a fool," I said, and my voice shook but I didn't stop, "then the Moon Goddess paired you with a fool. What does that make you?"

Jaxon moved.

Fast. One second he was behind his desk, the next he was in front of me, hand on my shoulder, my back pressed flat against the wall. Not violent. Not painful. But absolute.

His face was close. Too close. I could smell him. Cedar and something warmer underneath, something my wolf recognized before my brain could catch up.

And then the bond hit.

Not a gentle pull. Not a whisper. A wave. Hot, electric, rolling through every nerve in my body until my knees softened and my breath caught in my teeth.

My wolf surged forward, joyful, frantic. Mate. Mate. Mate.

Jaxon's hand tightened on my shoulder. His jaw clenched. His pale eyes burned into mine from inches away.

I couldn't move. I couldn't think.

All I could feel was him.