The courtyard of the Silver Fang Pack was hauntingly lit by the high moon hanging in the obsidian heavens. The gathered wolves—my pack, my family—were illuminated on the cold night air by flickering torches. But tonight, they were absent from celebrating. Here they were to see my collapse.

My pulse thumping against my ribs like a trapped animal, I stood in the middle of the circle and my breath came in uneven gasps. Before me stood my friend, Sebastian King, Alpha; his golden eyes lacked the warmth they previously possessed. His voice sounded icy, impersonal, as though I were nothing more than a stranger.

Ignoring the whispers crawling through the throng like venomous snakes, I swallowed against the constriction in my throat.

"Is he truly turning her aside?"

"She is insufficient to be our Luna."

She ought to have seen this coming.

Sebastian inhaled deeply and spoke in a straight voice free of doubt.

"Zaia Toussaint, I, Alpha Sebastian King, reject you as Luna of the Silver Fang Pack's mate."

We heard a collective gasp all around. My whole body froze as the words landed with the weight of a silver dagger precisely on the heart.

For weeks I knew something was off. He had become far-off, no longer looking for me, and no longer stroked me the way he used to. Still, I had clung to optimism, reminding myself that his love for me had not changed and that he was simply under stress.

I had been a stupid person.

I pushed my lips apart, but no sound came out. Every instinct in me cried to defend my partner, for my place at his side. I had turned over everything to him. My allegiance Love, my dear. Her soul.

Still, he had turned me aside as though I were nothing.

A soft, feminine chuckle pierced the quiet.

Before I even turned my head, my nose smelled honey and roses. Liliona.

Rising from the darkness, her blood-red dress hung to her ideal curves and her golden hair flowed over her shoulders in waves. Her emerald eyes wavered with something like entertainment.

I tensed. She ought not to be here.

She was friend of Sebastian from childhood. the daughter of a Beta. She had always lingered close, but I never considered—

My gut fell as insight hit me like a flashbulb.

Sebastian had not just turned me aside. He had decided already on another.

The treachery set my blood on fire. My claws digging into my palms, I closed my fists.

I said, raw, "You're making a mistake." "S Sebastian, you are my mate."

His mouth constricted. Something flicked in his eyes for a moment—guilt? Question?

However, it vanished then.

"I love you, Zaia not here."

Raw and intolerable pain burst in my chest. Inside me, my wolf whined in misery at his words.

Sebastian turned away, already discounting my presence. Liliana followed him, her hand lightly stroking his arm as though she were quite entitled to touch him.

And he allowed her as well.

She put on a nasty smile. "You ought to leave, Zaia. You no longer find place here.

The whispers around me got more audible. Though most were disgusted, some were full of pity.

Turned down. Deleted. Noteworthy.

Their looks broke me, but I wouldn't let them see me break. Not local. Not now.

Straightening my spine, I raised my chin. I wouldn't beg Sebastian if he decided to toss me aside. I would not start to cry.

I could survive.

Turning on my heel, I pushed past the throng, discounting the whispers, the looks of pitying contempt.

Every stride away from him seemed like a knife cutting my soul.

I would not allow them to see my suffering, though.

Not quite yet.

For one day they would regret this.

They will come to know what they had lost one day.

And I would confirm it absolutely.

An unusual scent—one that should be impossible—fills Zaia's senses as she sets out. She stiffens; her heart is beating.

Because under the heavy weight of suffering and treachery is something fresh.

A pulse.

living.

Her handshakes when it reaches her stomach.

She is departing not only as a rejected mate.

She is headed out as Sebastian King's child's mother.