Chapter 1

My fated mate, Victor, and my brother, Julian, fell in love with a low-blood Omega named Mia.

One of them betrayed the mate ceremony we’d promised each other: “A socialite like Grace? Yeah, no thanks. I’m not blessed enough for that.”

The other forgot Mom’s dying words: “Mia’s so pitiful. I’m just sharing half of the love I give you with her. That’s not too much, right?”

And on my birthday, my fiancé Victor chose to stay with Mia.

Julian spent Mom’s death anniversary with Mia and her mother, too.

The last time I brought up our mate ceremony to Victor, everyone in the private room went quiet first.

The air reeked of hard liquor, and of an Alpha’s pressure that refused to ease like an invisible hand closing around my throat.

Victor’s friend Henry caught the impatience on Victor’s face and immediately started hooting.

“Still hung up on your mate ceremony?”

“Our Grace’s always been proud as hell, hasn’t she? What reality finally giving you a little crisis?”

I ignored the ugly laughter and noise.

I just looked at Victor on the couch, and the neglected bond between us made my heart ache in that dull, constant way.

I could feel the wolf inside me stirring, claws scraping at bone—an instinctive reaction when a mate bond was being trampled.

His shirt collar was slightly open. On the side of his neck and along his collarbone, there were faint marks and kisses that hadn’t fully faded.

“This man has already betrayed us.”

My wolf, Linda, roared inside my chest.

It felt like a needle so fine it barely registered at first then the pain arrived a beat late, sharp and cruel.

“When we were young, we didn’t understand,” Victor said, lifting his gaze. The curve of his lips was thin, mocking.

“We really thought whatever the Moon Goddess picked had to be right.”

He looked at me lazily. “Grace, we’re grown now.”

“Let the kids’ stuff go.”

He rejected me, just like that.

I stared at him, stunned, about to speak and the door to the private room pushed open.

Mia walked in wearing a server’s uniform.

Brown hair, slim hands, a tray balanced carefully as she stepped inside.

That faint, cloying Omega sweetness on her was especially sharp among a room full of Alphas.

When she saw me, her body trembled. “Grace…”

Her eyes reddened instantly, and she flicked a quick glance at Victor.

“S-sorry. Am I interrupting?”

Her voice shook as she spoke, and she moved to set the tray down and leave.

Victor suddenly kicked over the table in front of him.

Glasses smashed across the floor.

Shards flew, one of them sliced my arm. Blood welled up, hot and immediate, the sting turning into a bright, vicious pain.

The second the scent of blood hit the air, my wolf lifted her head with a low growl, ready to strike back.

But Victor didn’t even look at me.

His face was storm-dark as he strode straight to Mia.

He didn’t bother reining in his Alpha pressure like he wanted everyone to know, loud and clear, who he was protecting.

He reached out and yanked the black coat off her shoulders, rough enough to make her stumble.

“Mia, didn’t I tell you? No more working part-time.”

Mia nodded quickly, obedient.

Then her eyes went red again as she whispered timidly, “I just… I don’t want to keep taking your money.”

“You and Julian have already done so much for me.”

“If I work, I can earn my own living expenses…”

“But… I’ll worry.”

Victor tossed the coat aside.

“You’re coming back with me. And if I ever see you working again…”

“You step into one place, I’ll have people smash it.”

Then he turned his head and looked at me.

“And if anyone thinks they can throw their weight around and bully her, don’t blame me when I stop caring about old times.”

I clutched my bleeding arm.

In the chaos and the mess, I met his eyes without expression.

This bar was one of our Pack’s businesses.

This was my territory land in my name as the heir, land I’d walked with my father on inspections countless times since I was a kid.

Victor thought Mia had come here to work because I was deliberately humiliating her.

But what was funny and what was pathetic was this:

Mia was cradled in his and my brother’s palms now, guarded like some little princess.

She had more money than she could ever spend.

Why would she come here and suffer on purpose just to earn tips?

But I knew, too.

Even if I said it out loud and even if I dragged a Gamma over to swear it was all a coincidence—

Victor wouldn’t believe me.

In his eyes, I was the poisonous, vicious socialite.

An Alpha-blood female heir who used her status to do whatever she wanted.

And Mia was the low-blood Omega I “bullied.”

“Grace.”

Victor pulled Mia into his arms, shielding her.

“A socialite like you? I’m not blessed enough for that.”

“As for some fated mate nonsense, forget it.”

The moment those words landed, the room went dead again.

The mate mark on my chest felt like someone pressed a red-hot brand into it. My fingertips went numb with pain.

Mia’s face went paper-white. She shook and burrowed deeper into Victor’s embrace.

The friends around us looked at me like I was a threat.

And for a second, I almost laughed.

Because yeah, ever since Mia’s mother wormed her way into our family…

ever since Mia wedged herself between me and Victor…

I’d snapped. I’d fought. I’d made a scene.

The favoritism that used to belong to me alone had started tilting, without condition, toward Mia and her mother.

How was a spoiled socialite like me supposed to swallow that?

But the result of all my crying and screaming was only this:

I pushed everyone further into Mia’s arms.

And now… me and my wolf were tired.

Even Linda stopped howling.

“Fine.”

I nodded, terrifyingly calm.

I took a few steps forward.

Victor instinctively shoved Mia behind him.

“Grace. If you’re going to do something, do it to me.”

I let go of my arm and opened my hand.

On my pale palm, blood smeared bright and red.

Victor’s lips pressed into a line. The coldness in his eyes seemed to crack for a second just slightly.

But then Mia suddenly broke free from his arms.

“Grace, don’t make things hard for Victor.”