Chapter 1
I gave Alaric Blackwood five years of devotion. He gave me a rejection mark in front of his entire pack.
Now I'm carrying his dead baby's blood on my dress, walking out of his territory forever.
And the man waiting at the border? His greatest enemy.
Let me start from the beginning.
I was born a Thornfield — one of the last bloodlines capable of producing Omega healers. Our women didn't just bear wolves. We bore wolves who could command life itself.
Every Alpha on the continent wanted a Thornfield bride.
At eighteen, the Moon Goddess paired me with Alaric Blackwood, the most powerful Alpha King in the Northern Territories. When I felt the bond snap into place at the Summit Ball, I thought fate had given me everything.
I was so naive.
Alaric looked at me that night — looked through me — and said five words that should have broken me right then.
"I don't want a healer."
He wanted a warrior. Someone fierce, someone cold, someone like Vanessa — his chosen Beta female who'd trained beside him since childhood.
But the bond was sacred. His council demanded he honor it. My father, Lord Thornfield, saw the political advantage and pressured the union.
So Alaric took me as his Luna in name only.
For five years, I shared his packhouse but never his bed. I healed his wounded warriors after every battle, earned the love of his people — and received nothing from him but silence and disdain.
"You're suffocating," he told me once, when I'd prepared his favorite meal after a border skirmish. "I never asked you to care."
I swallowed my pride and kept trying.
I told myself: if I just love him enough, the bond will do its work. He'll feel it eventually. He has to.
The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes.
But maybe she does. Because last night, I found Vanessa in his bed — her belly round with his child, his hand resting on it with a tenderness I'd never seen on his face.
And when he noticed me in the doorway, he didn't even flinch.
"Close the door on your way out, Selene."
Like I was the intruder. In my own home.
I stood frozen, my own secret burning in my pocket — the healer's confirmation I'd received that morning. Eight weeks pregnant. A miracle conception through the bond.
I'd been so happy. For three hours, I'd been the happiest woman alive.
Now I watched my husband cradle another woman's belly, and I felt something inside me crack — not break, not shatter. Crack. Like ice before it gives way.
"The pack healers confirmed it today," Vanessa said, not even looking at me. She nuzzled into Alaric's neck. "A boy. Strong heartbeat."
Alaric's golden eyes finally met mine. No guilt. No conflict. Just cold finality.
"You see, Selene? She's given me what you never could."
I opened my mouth.
Closed it.
Then I walked away.
Because what he didn't know — what none of them knew — was that my father had given me a deadline five years ago.
*Make him love you, or come home and marry the man I chose.*
My time was up.
And the man my father chose? He was no ordinary Alpha.
He was Dominic Ashford — the Alpha King of the South. Alaric's blood rival. The one man who'd been trying to destroy the Blackwood dynasty for a decade.
My phone buzzed in my pocket as I walked down the dark corridor, bleeding from a place no one could see.
One message. From my father.
*"Is it over?"*
I typed back with numb fingers.
*"It's over. Send him."*
Now I'm carrying his dead baby's blood on my dress, walking out of his territory forever.
And the man waiting at the border? His greatest enemy.
Let me start from the beginning.
I was born a Thornfield — one of the last bloodlines capable of producing Omega healers. Our women didn't just bear wolves. We bore wolves who could command life itself.
Every Alpha on the continent wanted a Thornfield bride.
At eighteen, the Moon Goddess paired me with Alaric Blackwood, the most powerful Alpha King in the Northern Territories. When I felt the bond snap into place at the Summit Ball, I thought fate had given me everything.
I was so naive.
Alaric looked at me that night — looked through me — and said five words that should have broken me right then.
"I don't want a healer."
He wanted a warrior. Someone fierce, someone cold, someone like Vanessa — his chosen Beta female who'd trained beside him since childhood.
But the bond was sacred. His council demanded he honor it. My father, Lord Thornfield, saw the political advantage and pressured the union.
So Alaric took me as his Luna in name only.
For five years, I shared his packhouse but never his bed. I healed his wounded warriors after every battle, earned the love of his people — and received nothing from him but silence and disdain.
"You're suffocating," he told me once, when I'd prepared his favorite meal after a border skirmish. "I never asked you to care."
I swallowed my pride and kept trying.
I told myself: if I just love him enough, the bond will do its work. He'll feel it eventually. He has to.
The Moon Goddess doesn't make mistakes.
But maybe she does. Because last night, I found Vanessa in his bed — her belly round with his child, his hand resting on it with a tenderness I'd never seen on his face.
And when he noticed me in the doorway, he didn't even flinch.
"Close the door on your way out, Selene."
Like I was the intruder. In my own home.
I stood frozen, my own secret burning in my pocket — the healer's confirmation I'd received that morning. Eight weeks pregnant. A miracle conception through the bond.
I'd been so happy. For three hours, I'd been the happiest woman alive.
Now I watched my husband cradle another woman's belly, and I felt something inside me crack — not break, not shatter. Crack. Like ice before it gives way.
"The pack healers confirmed it today," Vanessa said, not even looking at me. She nuzzled into Alaric's neck. "A boy. Strong heartbeat."
Alaric's golden eyes finally met mine. No guilt. No conflict. Just cold finality.
"You see, Selene? She's given me what you never could."
I opened my mouth.
Closed it.
Then I walked away.
Because what he didn't know — what none of them knew — was that my father had given me a deadline five years ago.
*Make him love you, or come home and marry the man I chose.*
My time was up.
And the man my father chose? He was no ordinary Alpha.
He was Dominic Ashford — the Alpha King of the South. Alaric's blood rival. The one man who'd been trying to destroy the Blackwood dynasty for a decade.
My phone buzzed in my pocket as I walked down the dark corridor, bleeding from a place no one could see.
One message. From my father.
*"Is it over?"*
I typed back with numb fingers.
*"It's over. Send him."*