Chapter 1

“Caine...please...” I gasped.

My nails dragged red lines down the broad muscle of his back.

The Alpha had me pinned to the bed, fucking me harder than he ever had before.

Under him I came apart like water.

When the tenth wave hit, my vision went white.

After, he pulled out and the cold mask slid back over his face like nothing had happened.

“Starting tomorrow, you'll handle the schedule for the engagement,” he said, offhand.

I lay there, still trembling in the aftershocks.

A wild, foolish hope rose in me, and my heart started to race.

I was his fated mate.

For ten years, I have stayed by his side. I have been his secretary, his weapon, and his bedmate.

But he'd never claimed me. There was always a reason. Never the right time.

Was he finally going to make me his Luna?

“Caine.” I sat up, my voice shaking. “Are you... asking me to marry you?”

He turned and looked at me like the question surprised him. Like he hadn't expected anything so naive.

“Marry you?” His tone was lazy. “The engagement's for Celina.”

Celina. The daughter of the River Pack Alpha, next territory over.

Something closed around my heart and dropped it straight through the floor.

“You're marrying her.” My mind went blank.

“The alliance needs this match.” He rose and walked toward the bathroom, calm as anything.

“Then what am I.”

He stopped and turned.

He stood over me and tipped my chin up with one finger.

“Sophia,” he said. “You're an Omega. For ten years I've given you the best of everything. Protection. Status. My time.”

His thumb stroked along my jaw. “But you know you can never be Luna. Don't go telling yourself fairy tales.”

Fairy tales.

My mouth opened. Nothing came out.

He thought of those ten years as a gift he'd handed me.

“Once we're allied with the Rivers, Silver Moon will be the strongest pack in the entire East.” He let go of my chin and turned for the bathroom.

“Don't worry.” He paused in the doorway, still calm. “I'll keep you on. Same as always.”

The shower hissed on.

I sat there and watched the steam fog up the mirror, slow and white.

Same as always.

When he said it, he honestly believed he was being kind.

He thought he'd given me more than enough. He thought an Omega should be grateful for an arrangement like this.

He came out of the bathroom and started rattling off instructions.

“The gown needs ten thousand diamonds. Celina likes things that sparkle.”

“And the roses—fly them in from France.”

I sat there, numb, feeling his sperm slide out of me, down my thighs.

The whole thing felt absurd.

My phone slipped off the nightstand and hit the floor. The screen cracked.

He glanced back at me.

“It's broken, get a new one,” he said. “Send me the vendor list for the engagement in the morning.”

Then he left.

The door closed softly, like nothing had happened at all.

I sat on that cold bed and started to laugh, and the laughter turned into tears.

It took me a long time to stand up again, to cross to the safe and key in the code.

Inside was a single encrypted phone.

I dialed a number I hadn't called in ten years.

“Dad.”

“Sophia. My little princess. You've finally come to your senses?”

The second I heard his voice, my throat locked up.

“You were right, Dad. I want to come home.”

I forced down the catch in my voice. “Come for me in five days.”