Chapter 3

During the years of the secret mark, Callum wasn't bad to me.

At least that's what he believed. I suppose I believed it too, back then.

When I got hurt on the border, he would sneak to my cabin at night and use his Alpha pheromones to suppress the lingering silver poisoning.

His pheromones were like burnt cedarwood—hot and heavy.

The burning sensation when they flooded into my glands actually made me feel safe.

My wolf would sometimes lose control from constant fighting, and every time it happened, he would hold me from behind and use the resonance of the mate bond to pull me back.

Even when he had no money, he remembered every anniversary. I had twelve moonstones saved in my drawer, each one sourced from who-knows-where. One year, right after the pack had fought a brutal territorial war and the treasury was bone dry, he still snuck into my cabin on our marking anniversary and pressed a thumbnail-sized moonstone into my palm.

"I'll get you a bigger one next time," he said.

Aside from the title of Luna, Callum gave me almost everything.

I repeated that line to myself for twelve years, using it to comfort myself, to convince myself. He didn't not love me—the timing just wasn't right. The pack wasn't stable yet; he needed more time. Once everything settled, he would make it right.

I actually believed it.

Later, Blackridge Pack grew more powerful by the day, and Callum's ambitions swelled with it. He was no longer content to just hold his territory. He wanted alliances, expansion—he wanted to become the most influential Alpha in the North.

That was when Vivienne Whitmore appeared.

The only daughter of the Whitmore Pack Alpha, she came with an entire pack's worth of alliance resources and political leverage. I was the one who introduced her to Callum.

After Vivienne appeared, Callum stopped letting me fight on the front lines.

"Sera, you're too important. I can't let you take that risk." So I stepped back to a support role and began training new warriors.

From then on, I worked behind the scenes and started mentoring Vivienne personally.

She was genuinely talented. Great bloodline, beautiful, charming, a quick study. I taught her hands-on how to use speed to her advantage in wolf form and how to use terrain for ambushes. She learned fast—within the first month, she had repelled three waves of rogues in a row.

Callum was full of praise for her performance. At a pack meeting, he publicly appointed her as Gamma. I saw the excited flush on Vivienne's face and the adoration in her eyes when she looked at Callum.

After that, they patrolled the territory together constantly and fought side by side on the training grounds. More than once I saw them emerging from deep in the woods at dawn, their clothes damp with dew and each other's scent.

I confronted him about it. What I got in return was Callum storming off and cold warnings.

"Don't project your filthy thoughts onto my relationship with her."

"You're turning into one of those jealous she-wolves. It's disgusting."

"Push me again and I'll sever the bond."

Those words were like silver daggers, stabbing into my heart one by one.

I shut up every single time. Because back then, I still didn't want to lose him. The moment he said sever the bond, I froze like prey with a hand around its throat, and swallowed every last bit of my anger and grievance.

Then I got pregnant.

Against all odds, after everything my body had been through, I conceived again. The healer said that given my body's condition from years of combat injuries, conceiving at all was a miracle."

I wanted to tell Callum. I wanted to tell him we were finally having a pup of our own.

On our marking anniversary, I prepared a full dinner in my cabin. I waited one hour. Two hours. Three hours. The food went cold and I reheated it, then it went cold again.

He never came.

I went to find him.

The door to the study in the Alpha's residence was unlocked. I pushed it open, and the scene inside hit me like a bucket of ice water over my head—

Callum had Vivienne pinned on the study sofa, her dress bunched at her waist, her legs wrapped around him. Neither of them had even heard me open the door.

The air was thick with the smell of pheromones and sweat. Vivienne's nails raked red marks down Callum's back, like she was staking her claim.

I stood in the doorway, and the anniversary dinner I'd spent three hours preparing surged up from my stomach.