Chapter three

“What?” she asked, shocked beyond reasonable doubt.

He stared at her in surprise, his face twisting at the fact that she looked genuinely shocked.

Was she an actress too? Because she was clearly acting very strangely. She had made a fool of him and everyone else, and he was going to find out why.

He was certain she wasn’t acting alone in this deception. She was definitely hiding something—or someone. Maybe a lover.

The thought that she had a lover pierced him painfully. She was a cold, cruel woman, abandoning her daughter and leaving her to grow up without a mother.

She cared more for herself than she cared for Rosie. Neil hated her for it. And he hated the stirring in his blood as he looked at her.

It was anger, yes, but it was something more.

She was wearing a shimmering rhinestone short dress with a slit that reached up to her hip. The V-cut neckline revealed far too much skin, and her nipples pressed against the meagre fabric of her top, shamelessly drawing his attention.

He remembered, though he did not wish to, the smoothness and softness of her breasts, the tightly budded nipples at the centre of her perfect breasts.

He remembered their first mating when he had marked her. She had been so shy but had quickly adapted to him. It had been pure pleasure, the way she welcomed him into her bed for an entire month of passionate nights.

“Your wife?” She shook her head adamantly. “That is not possible. You must be mistaken.”

Behind him, he heard the heavy stomp of footsteps.

He knew it was the man from before without even turning around, and this time he had come with others.

The man who had looked at her with such love in his eyes that his wolf struggled to restrain the urge to burst out and tear him to pieces.

“I will ask you one more time to leave,” Thiago said. “Our bouncers will escort you out.”

Neil grunted in amusement.

His beta and two other members of his pack were outside. He also had his wereguards stationed at strategic positions outside the club.

Not that he expected an attack or any kind of trouble, but mostly because he was the Alpha of the biggest and strongest pack in all of Moonridge.

Though he wouldn’t need them to handle a few humans who didn’t know what—or who—he was.

It wasn’t something he wanted to do, and yet he knew he wasn’t leaving without Avira.

Without his wife.

Without his Luna.

Never.

“Don’t worry about him, Thiago,” she said, her eyes fixed on Neil. “We have something to talk about for a few more minutes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Thiago looked confused for a moment, then walked away with the bouncers, leaving Neil alone with Avira once more.

“I guess you know what I am,” he said, implying that she knew he was a werewolf. “Wise decision you made there to save your lover.”

She ignored what he said and sank into a nearby seat, her fingers trembling as they ran through her beautiful, lush olive hair.

Her heavily made-up, large eyes stared at him in pure confusion.

“Why would you think I am your wife? I have never been married or mated to anyone before.”

Anger clawed at his insides.

“Deny it all you like, but it won’t make it any less true, so stop with the pretense.”

Her brows drew together as she stared at him.

“I don’t know you, and I don’t know why you are here telling me all this, or why you think I am your wife or mate. I have never met you, and I don’t even know your name.”

He didn’t believe her for a moment.

“You don’t know my name?”

“Yes! I don’t!”

“Neil Callister.”

“Neil?” she repeated. “I haven’t heard of anyone with that name. Are you a friend of my father, Harold Diago?”

Oh.

She knew about her father but was pretending not to know him, or remember being married to him, or even having his child.

“I won’t play this silly game with you, Avira,” he growled. “Do you really expect me to believe that you have no memory of being married to me? You must think I am stupid.”

She frowned deeply.

“The only thing I know about you is that you are one of my kind and that your name is Neil. You might be confusing me with someone else. It’s not unusual for men to try anything at all just to get close to me because I’m a stripper and they think I might be available for prostitution. But I’m not, okay? So don’t waste your time.”

Neil resisted the urge to shake her.

“You are Avira Diago, daughter of Harold Diago and the late Selena Diago. Four years ago, you and I got married, and two years ago you were kidnapped by the rebel Alpha pack. A week later, while searching desperately for you, I lost our mating bond and thought you had died.”

He couldn’t bring himself to mention Rosie to her—not when she was pretending to know nothing about any of this and making a fool of him.

She blinked, her expression carefully blank as she shook her head.

“No. I was told that my wolf was too weak to get a mate and that when they tried to help me get stronger, it went awry, and things became a little fuzzy. Why would anyone hide the fact that I was married if what you’re saying is true?”

Everything inside him went still.

“Who told you that you were too weak to get a mate? Who knows you’re here?”

She met his gaze again. “My aunt, of course, and my foster parents, whom I have been staying with after my dad disappeared years ago.”

“Your dad knew you were alive?”

“Yes.”

Fury whipped through him and disbelief. Her family knew she was alive?

That was impossible.