The Alpha Chose My Best Friend, I Abandoned Him

The year I got Clara away from the mate who beat her, I paid for the treatment to break their mark myself, bought the Bayview apartment, and funded a high-end clothing boutique for her.

Damian did not like her back then. He said Clara was twenty-nine and still could not get through a single full moon night alone, and that sooner or later she would drag me down. It was the first time I ever fought with my own fated mate over someone else.

"She saved my life when we were kids," I told Damian. "As long as she needs me, I'll take care of her."

Six months later I wrapped up the European roadshow and came back to Seattle early. I did not tell Damian, and I did not tell Clara. I wanted to surprise them.

By the time the driver dropped me at Clara's Closet, the store had closed for the night. Only the back room was still lit. Damian's black SUV was parked outside the staff entrance, and the Blackpine wolf's head on his license plate stood out in the rain like a mark.

I assumed he had come by again to keep an eye on Clara's business for me. For the past six months, every day or two, Damian had bought a dress here and sent it back to the house we had set up together. He always fished for credit on video, saying he was looking after my sister's shop and filling the future Luna's closet ahead of schedule. When the ninety-eighth dress was delivered, he asked me through the screen, "Have I been good?" I laughed and said I would wear them for him when I got home.

Then a stifled gasp came from the back room.

I stopped outside the door, my hand still on the handle.

Clara's voice came through the door. "Careful. The baby—"

It was quiet inside for a few seconds. Then Damian said quietly, "Nothing's going to happen. The doctor says the baby is healthy."

My fingers slowly loosened.

Clara said again, "Don't forget to take the ninety-ninth one back with you. You still smell like me."

Damian laughed. "A little scent blocker takes care of it. She can't even wake her own wolf. She won't smell a thing."

I stood at the end of the hallway and did not push the door open.

When I was seven, wolfsbane poison damaged my sense of smell and kept my wolf from ever surfacing. Any ordinary werewolf only has to get close to a mate to smell whether he has been with someone else. I could not. The two of them knew that flaw too well, so they spent six months wrapping ninety-nine betrayals into ninety-nine gifts.

I took out my phone and photographed Damian's car, the store's closing time, and the staff entrance. Then I emailed the building management and asked them to preserve tonight's access logs and security footage.

When that was done, I went home.

The keypad rejected the old door code. I tried a second time and it still would not open. Finally I entered Clara's birthday, and the door opened.

There was a pair of pink slippers in the entryway that were not mine. Clara's skincare products sat in the bathroom. Her nightgown hung in the closet of the master bedroom. She had even set a scented candle beside the photo of Damian and me, gardenia, her favorite.

I walked into the dressing room and turned on every light. Ninety-eight dress boxes were stacked there in neat rows. Every box had a date written on it. The earliest was March twelfth. That day, in a hotel in Paris, my old wolfsbane injury flared and I hurt too much to stand. I called Damian six times. He answered with one message, saying there was an emergency in the pack and he would reach me when it was handled. He did not call back until the next day, and then he blamed me for interrupting him over and over while he was dealing with real business. I apologized.

Now that date was printed on a dress box from Clara's store.

I photographed all ninety-eight receipts, tags, and delivery records, then filled the living room with the boxes, arranged by date. At one in the morning, a car finally pulled up outside.

Damian came in with Clara on his back, barefoot.

They both stopped the moment they saw the boxes. Clara recovered first, still draped over Damian's back, and explained in a small voice, "Evelyn, I twisted my ankle trying on shoes. Damian happened to be at the store. He was only bringing me home." One of her arms stayed looped around his neck the whole time.

Damian did not put her down right away. He frowned at me first. "Why didn't you tell me you were coming back?"

I picked up the last gift box from beside the sofa and threw it at their feet. The lid flipped open and a long silver-gray dress spilled onto the carpet. "If I'd told you, how would I have heard the two of you talking about scent blocker?"

Clara went white.

Damian finally set her down. After a moment of silence, he stopped inventing reasons for driving her home. "Since you heard it, I don't want to lie to you anymore."

Coming from a man who had lied to me for six months, it was almost funny.

I asked, "How long?"

"March twelfth." Damian answered fast, like he had rehearsed this conversation a long time ago. "The power went out at Clara's apartment that night. She'd just gotten free of her old mate and the dark hit her hard. I only went over to sit with her. Then it got out of hand."

"Out of hand ninety-nine times?"

His jaw tightened. "Evelyn, don't use that tone to humiliate her."

I looked at Clara. She had a hand on her belly, and her eyes reddened fast. "Evelyn, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take Damian from you, but I'm pregnant."

Something tore open in my chest. The mate bond carried Damian's tension and his protectiveness straight into me, and every bit of it was for another woman.

Damian stepped in front of Clara. "Two months. The doctor says the baby is healthy."

"So?"

"So she needs a real family." He looked at me, his voice sliding back into the calm he used to announce decisions in meetings. "At the next full moon, Clara and I will hold the mating ceremony. She'll be Blackpine's new Luna."

I stared at him. "And me?"

"I'm not going to reject you yet." Damian said it like he was granting me a favor. "Blackpine still needs you, and my wolf is used to your scent. You'll keep running your projects. Your pay and your title stay the same. We can keep the personal side separate from work."

Only then did I really understand. He wanted to hand my own mate over to Clara and still have me run the company for them, steady his wolf, and clean up every mess. Clara would get the love and the title of Luna. I would carry the responsibility.

Damian watched me, and a thread of impatience showed on his face. "Clara takes the Luna position, you stay at the company. Evelyn, you're strong. You can handle this much."