All Chapters of The Mate He Took for Granted: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

After Vanessa went upstairs, Adrian stopped me in the living room. "There's something else."He placed a transfer form on the coffee table. "The clinical research coordinator position at the pack medical center—the one they reserved for you—I'm giving it to Vanessa."That job was supposed to be my mating gift. I'd passed three rounds of assessment and spent two years working unpaid in Dr. Hurst's lab to qualify for it.Vanessa had no medical training. She'd completed one year of administrative studies at a community college and dropped out.Adrian wouldn't meet my eyes. "She's been struggling emotionally. Her therapist thinks having a career would give her some direction. The coordinator mostly handles records and communication. She can learn as she goes.""The center already submitted your name, so you'll need to sign a voluntary withdrawal before they can replace you. Wait a little longer. I'll find you something else."I looked at the blank signature line.Northstar's offer was insi

At four that afternoon, Adrian left the council hall with a velvet box in his pocket and a rare sense of satisfaction.He'd spent three months having the Luna ring made. The black diamond had come from the old Blackwood mine, and the silver band carried the crest of his bloodline. He'd even booked the glass conservatory where we'd first met and ordered the same wildflowers I'd carried at our private mating ceremony.Vanessa had called twice during the meeting. He'd silenced both calls.[Tonight is Elena's,] he'd told himself. [She deserves that much.]He hadn't forgotten our anniversary. Not really. He'd only been waiting for the right moment to make up for the years he'd kept me in the shadows.At least, that was the story he told himself on the drive home.The house was too quiet when he walked in. My coat was gone from the hook. The ceramic mug I always left beside the sink wasn't there, and Ash's food bowl had disappeared from the laundry room."Elena?" Adrian called as he took the

Once Adrian started looking, the lies came apart fast.The medical-center salary was only the beginning. Vanessa had charged designer clothes, spa weekends, and hotel suites to the widow’s relief fund. The Redfang wolf had helped move the money through accounts outside Blackwood territory. Together, they’d siphoned nearly half a million dollars from accounts meant for families who’d lost wolves on patrol.Marcus's death had made Vanessa untouchable. She'd used his sacrifice as both shield and key.The worst discovery waited in the security archive.Adrian found footage from the night Vanessa claimed she’d tried to kill herself. The camera outside the guest wing showed her entering the bathroom with the same Redfang wolf six minutes before I arrived. It showed the man leaving through the service door with a small vial in his hand.When the paramedics tested her blood that night, they'd found only a mild sedative—nowhere near enough to stop a werewolf's heart.Vanessa hadn't been dying.

Dr. Hurst's first treatment cycle lasted twenty-nine days.I spent most of them between the hospital and the guest cottage, reviewing lab data at the kitchen table while Ash slept across my notes. At seventeen, he was more gray than black and deeply offended by travel, but he still yelled whenever I opened tuna.On the tenth morning, I found a small tabby kitten on the porch with a note attached to her carrier.[Ash's granddaughter. The shelter was going to send her outside the territory. No obligation—if you don't want her, I'll find another home.]I looked across the yard. Adrian was repairing a fence nearly two hundred yards away. He never glanced toward the cottage.The kitten climbed into Ash's bed, bit his ear, and went to sleep on his tail. He sighed like a wolf burdened by fools.I named her Nova.Adrian and I spoke only when Dr. Hurst's care required it. He drove blood samples through an ice storm when the courier service shut down. He found an apartment for her nurse near the