Chapter 1

That night, Aaron held me harder than usual.

His mouth had moved over my collarbone, then lower, leaving slow heat everywhere he touched. When he kissed the skin above my heart, I had almost closed my eyes and let myself believe the tenderness was real. For a few breathless seconds, I forgot that Aaron only held me this way when he was about to ask me to give something up.

His Alpha scent still lingered in the room, cold and dominant, threaded with black pine and aged whiskey. The back of my neck was warm where his mate mark rested, the mark every wolf in Blackridge recognized as proof of our sanctioned bond. Once, that closeness would have made me soften and convince myself that I still mattered to him.

This time, before my breathing had fully steadied, he lowered his mouth to my ear and said, "Claire, Vivian returns to the pack in three days."

My body went still, but I did not question him. Aaron's thumb brushed over the mark at the back of my neck, gentle enough to feel like comfort, while his voice carried the calm of a decision already made.

"She is coming back for a film promotion. Hollywood reporters will follow her, and the media outside the pack will watch every move. If they find out she is staying under my protection while I still have a sanctioned mate, they will make her the other woman before her film even premieres. The elders will not allow that kind of scandal around Blackridge's public face."

After a few seconds, he said what I already expected. "We will go to the Bonding Hall tomorrow. We dissolve the mate bond first."

Blackridge called it a sanctioned mate bond.

It was not the kind of fated soul bond old stories said could never be broken. It was the bond the pack recognized, the bond written into the elders' ledger, the bond that gave me the right to stand beside Aaron as Luna.

As long as both wolves signed and the elders witnessed it, the Bonding Hall could dissolve it.

And later, if Aaron wanted me back, the same hall could write my name beside his again.

It was not the first time.

The first time, I nearly broke. I asked him why Vivian's reputation had to be protected with my place beside him, and he only told me that her father had saved his life. He could not let that man's only daughter be ruined by rumors.

Later, I understood that I could never compete with a debt left by the dead.

The year Aaron became Alpha, Blackridge was ambushed by rogues near the border. A silver blade meant for Aaron's heart came from behind, and Vivian's father took the strike in his place. Aaron survived, while Vivian lost the only family she had left.

From then on, she became the woman Blackridge had to protect. When she wanted acting lessons, Aaron cleared the path. When she wanted Hollywood, he spent pack resources to send her there. She was not the biggest actress in the industry, but she was the only Blackridge she-wolf who had walked a Hollywood red carpet, so her reputation became a pack matter, while mine became something he could set aside.

I had not always accepted it. After the first dissolution, I returned to the Alpha residence on a rainy night and saw Vivian standing upstairs in his jacket while he wiped the tears from her face. I stood outside the gates until dawn and finally understood that no one inside had planned to open the door.

The second time, I followed his schedule, showing up at restaurants, charity galas, and audition venues while pretending every meeting was a coincidence. Aaron only looked at me with pity and said, "Claire, this is ugly."

Eventually, I learned to behave. When Vivian returned, I signed. When Vivian left, I stood in the Bonding Hall again and waited for Aaron to take my hand while the elders read our names aloud. By then, everyone in Blackridge knew what I was: the woman their Alpha could set aside and reclaim whenever Vivian left.

Aaron kissed my forehead as if rewarding my silence.

"It will not be long," he said. "Vivian's promotion lasts one month. Once she leaves, we will renew the mate bond."

I took the papers I had already prepared from the bedside table and placed them in front of him. My signature was already there.

Aaron paused.

Every other time, I cried, delayed, and forced him to promise me an exact date. This time, I asked for nothing.

Surprise flickered through his eyes before a small smile appeared.

"You have finally learned to be good."

He signed and pushed the papers back to me. "The twentieth of next month. I will wait for you at the Bonding Hall. Do not throw a tantrum, and do not appear in front of Vivian on purpose like before. She is not only my responsibility now. She is Blackridge's public face."

Once, seeing our names side by side had meant everything to me. Now they rested together on a bond dissolution document, and the tightness around my chest loosened, as if a rope that had been cutting into me for years had finally gone slack.

I went into the dressing room and packed my suitcase. Fifteen minutes later, I came out with my clothes, documents, jewelry, and the old photographs I had never been able to throw away.

Aaron was still sitting on the edge of the bed. Only then did he seem to realize I truly meant to leave.

"Claire," he said, "you do not have to move out. I can have Vivian stay at a hotel."

That small, belated concession almost made me laugh.

"No," I said. "She matters more. That has always been your choice."

I pulled the suitcase toward the door. Aaron rose and caught my wrist, his voice dropping.

"Since you have learned to behave, behave all the way. Do not create chance encounters. Do not let the media photograph you fighting with Vivian. Do not let outsiders know we dissolved the mate bond again."

Old headlines moved through my mind. Vivian drunk against his shoulder. Vivian wearing his jacket into a hotel. Vivian crying in interviews, saying only that she was being cared for, while never once explaining that I was Aaron's mate. In the end, I was always the one they cursed.

When I once showed those comments to Aaron, he only said, "Do not care about them. You have me, and that is enough."

But I had never truly had him.

I pulled my wrist free.

"Aaron, this time I will not appear in front of her."

He seemed satisfied.

I opened the door and walked out without looking back. Behind me, his voice followed.

"The twentieth of next month. Do not forget. Bonding Hall."

I did not answer. The heavy door closed behind me, and the night wind pressed against my face as I looked down at my phone.

The flight itinerary had been there for days, and the departure date was the twentieth of next month.

That day, Aaron would be waiting for me at the Bonding Hall, and I would be leaving Blackridge.