CHAPTER 1

"Are you seriously planning to keep me waiting all night, Elena? Because the scent of desperation is starting to overlap with that perfume."

I flinched, but only for a fraction of a second. Standing before the full-length mirror in our primary suite at the Blackwood Estate, I smoothed the crimson lace against my skin. It was more a suggestion than a garment, designed to catch the eye of a predator. My wolf, usually restless and pacing in the back of my mind, was uncharacteristically silent, as if she were embarrassed for us. I looked like a prize-winning show dog trying to beg for a scrap of affection.

"I didn't think punctuality was a crime, Sebastian," I replied, my voice steadier than I felt.

For three years, I had played the role of the perfect Luna. I was the silent partner, the gracious hostess of the Blackwood Group, and the obedient mate to the most powerful Alpha in the North. But tonight, I wasn't looking for a partnership. I wanted a legacy. I was tired of being a ghost in a mansion that smelled of old money and cold stone.

Ever since my father, Fernando Navarro, used my mother’s medical bills at St. Mary’s Private Hospital to sell me into this "political union," I had been a captive in a gilded cage. Sebastian Blackwood was a man of ice and iron—the star captain of the Manchester Ice Kings and the heir to a fortune, yet he possessed the emotional range of a glacier.

"You look... different," Sebastian said, leaning against the doorframe. He hadn't even taken off his coat. His scent—winter air, expensive leather, and the underlying musk of a dominant wolf—flooded the room, making my knees weak.

"It's ovulation day," I said, dropping the pretense. "And I'm tired of this house being silent, Sebastian. I talked to Valentina today. She told me that a pup could change things. That maybe if there was someone else here—someone who belonged to both of us—you wouldn't look through me like I’m a pane of glass."

Sebastian’s eyes, usually a piercing, frozen blue, didn't soften. "Valentina Cruz should learn to mind her own business. A child isn't a band-aid for a contract, Elena."

"It’s been three years!" I stepped toward him, the silk of my robe fluttering open. "We share a bed. We share a name. Every time you shift, every time we hunt, I feel the pull. I know you feel it too. When we’re together, you aren't this cold. You’re a storm. Why can’t that heat stay when the sun comes up?"

He moved then, a blur of predatory speed. Before I could draw another breath, he had me pinned against the cold mahogany of the wardrobe. His thumb traced my lower lip, his touch burning like a brand. His wolf was close to the surface now, his eyes darkening until the blue was swallowed by charcoal.

"You want me to stay?" he growled, his voice a low vibration that rattled my ribcage. "You want to see if I can be more than a contract?"

"I want you to be my mate," I whispered, reaching up to knot my fingers in his dark hair. "I want to feel you inside me without the barrier of a pill or a piece of latex. I want us to be real."

His hunger was a physical weight. He didn't waste time with words. He hoisted me up, my legs instinctively wrapping around his waist, and his mouth found mine with a ferocity that bordered on violent. He tasted like scotch and ambition. He carried me to the bed, throwing me back onto the silk sheets, his gaze raking over my body with a territorial heat that made my skin prickle.

"If this is what you want, Elena," he muttered, stripping his shirt in one fluid motion, revealing the powerful, scarred muscles of an Alpha who spent his mornings on the ice and his nights ruling a pack. "But don't say I didn't warn you about the frost."

The passion was, as always, a whirlwind. On the ice, Sebastian was a strategist; in bed, he was a conqueror. He knew every nerve ending, every sensitive curve of my hips. I lost myself in the rhythm, the scent of our combined pheromones filling the room until I couldn't remember why I was ever angry.

But just as he reached the peak, just as his heart hammered against mine like a trapped bird, he suddenly went rigid. He pulled back, his breathing ragged.

"The suppression," he rasped, his eyes snapping back to that icy blue. "You didn't take the dose this morning."

The spell shattered. "No," I said, sitting up, feeling the sudden chill of the room. "I told you. I want a family, Sebastian. We have the space, we have the resources—"

"We have an arrangement," he snapped, standing up and reaching for his trousers with clinical efficiency. The heat was gone, replaced by a wall of granite. "I told you from day one, Elena. You are the Luna because the Blackwood line needed stability. You are convenient. You are a formality. But a pup? Linking my bloodline to a Navarro permanently? You’re out of your mind."

The words felt like a silver blade to the heart. "Convenient?" I whispered. "I have spent three years making sure your life is seamless. I’ve handled the pack disputes, I’ve organized the charity galas at the Royal Crescent Hall, I’ve even sat through dinners with your mother, Doña Carmen, while she looked at me like I was something she stepped in. I did it because I fell for you, you arrogant bastard!"

"Then that was your first mistake," Sebastian said, not even looking at me as he buttoned his shirt. "Next time, don't waste your money on lace and candles. I come home for rest, not for a lecture on domesticity. Stay in your lane, Elena. Be the flawless Mrs. Blackwood, and you’ll have everything you ever need. Ask for more, and you’ll find yourself back in that cramped apartment in Manchester faster than you can shift."

He walked into the ensuite and slammed the door. The sound of the shower starting was a finality I couldn't ignore.

I collapsed back onto the bed, the "Redbridge" jasmine candles flickering out one by one. I had humiliated myself. I had offered him my soul in red lace, and he had stepped over it like a puddle.

My phone buzzed on the nightstand. A message from an unknown number.

I opened it, and the world stopped spinning. It was a photo—high resolution, unmistakable. It was Sebastian at St. Mary’s Private Hospital. He was standing in a hallway, leaning down toward a woman in a hospital gown. His expression wasn't cold. It was tender. It was the look of a man who was seeing his entire world in one person.

The woman was Ava Monroe. His first love. The one they said had moved to London and broken his heart.

Underneath the photo was a scan of a sonogram. The date was from last week—the same week Sebastian had been in London for the European Screen Awards.

The irony was a physical ache. He didn't want a family with me.

The Alpha had a secret heir. And I was just the placeholder until he was ready to burn the contract.