I am the only daughter of the Alpha King. When I was eight, I rescued a starving rogue pup named Alex from the border.

I begged my father to take him in, and we grew up together.

At eighteen, I discovered he was my fated mate. My father happily gave me to him in marriage, carved out a stretch of territory, and made him an Alpha.

Everyone said we were a perfect match.

Until a year ago — while I was pregnant — the boy who had always protected me and adored me fell in love with a Healer named Vivian.

He told me that he'd always seen me as a little sister. He got on his knees and begged me to let him go. He was willing to give up the entire territory and his Alpha title.

My hands trembled as I signed the Mate Bond dissolution agreement. But before it could take effect, that healer slipped wolfsbane into my medicine.

I miscarried.

When I finally opened my eyes, Alex rushed to my side with bloodshot eyes, held me tight like he was terrified of losing me, and apologized over and over.

He said he was wrong. He swore he would devote himself to me completely.

I was consumed by hatred. I ordered Vivian's execution.

But Alex grabbed my hand and stopped me. He told me he'd already banished her permanently.

For the next year, Alex was perfectly devoted — attentive to my every need.

Then, seven months into my second pregnancy, I stumbled upon the woman who should have been long banished — Vivian, quietly settled at the edge of the territory.

And Alex, leaning down to kiss her tenderly.

If he loves Vivian that much, then I'll take back everything I ever gave him — and let him have his "true love."

But if that's what he wanted... then why is he on his knees again, begging me to come back?

A year ago, when my Alpha mate Alex swore to me that he'd changed — that he didn't love Vivian anymore — I believed him. I thought everything would be okay.

Now I was pregnant again, seven months along.

This morning, Alex held my hand and walked with me to the Pack Elder's residence. We were there to register for the Naming Ceremony ahead of the baby's arrival.

The Elder pulled out the prenatal records from the filing cabinet and mentioned offhandedly, "The former Healer Vivian kept very thorough records back then. Shame what happened."

The moment that name left his lips, Alex's hand — resting on the edge of the desk — went rigid.

His jaw clenched. A flicker of panic crossed his eyes.

I stood quietly beside him, catching every single one of those tiny reactions.

That familiar bitterness rose in my stomach.

But I bit down hard on my lip, swallowed every last feeling, and said nothing.

The drive back was suffocating in its silence.

I leaned against the car window, my mind replaying the past year.

Alex had cut off all contact with Vivian. He stayed by my side every day, took care of me.

But sometimes, when he stared out the window, a faint, gentle smile would drift across his lips.

I knew that expression.

He was thinking about her.

Some nights, he called out her name in his sleep — "Viv."

Barely a whisper. But loud enough for me to hear.

He'd wake up, see me lying there with my eyes wide open, and scramble upright. Sorry, he'd say. It wasn't on purpose. He couldn't control what happened in his dreams.

Every time, I told him it was fine.

Then I'd roll over and lie awake until dawn.

I thought back to the first time I met him. I was eight years old.

I'd followed my father, Alpha King James, on a border patrol of the territory.

In the middle of a blizzard, we found a rogue pup half-frozen to death inside an abandoned watchtower.

That boy was Alex.

I cried and begged my father to save him, to bring him home with us.

My father sighed and wrapped the child in his own coat.

Alex grew up in the Ashford Pack. My father raised him like a son. We studied together, trained together, ran wild across the territory together.

He protected me. Spoiled me. Went after anyone who so much as looked at me wrong.

When we turned eighteen, we both awakened our wolves — and discovered we were Fated Mates.

My father smiled and said it was the Moon Goddess's design.

He carved out a stretch of border territory for Alex, helped him establish the Blackwood Pack, supported him as he became Alpha, and then gave him my hand.

Everyone said we were a perfect match.

But this same Alex — the one who swore he'd love me forever — betrayed me during my first pregnancy.

He fell for Vivian the moment she came to the pack house as my prenatal Healer.

On the way home, neither of us spoke a word.

That night, I jolted awake.

Instinctively, I reached for the space beside me. The bed was empty. Alex was gone.

I pulled on a jacket and crept down the hallway to the study.

The lights were off. Alex sat alone in the dark.

His head was bowed, his hands clutching something tightly, his shoulders trembling.

"Alex?" I called out.

He startled, shoved whatever he was holding into his pocket, and stood up, brushing it off as nothing.

The next morning, Alex threw on his coat and rushed out.

He used "border patrol" as an excuse and drove off alone.

I didn't confront him. I got into the other car and followed.

Alex drove all the way to the restricted zone at the very edge of the territory.

That's where he found Vivian — the woman who'd been banished from the pack.

Vivian was crying, her shoulders shaking, saying something I couldn't hear.

Alex stood with his head down, listening in silence for a long time.

Then she threw herself into his arms.

He hesitated for a second, closed his eyes, and wrapped his arms around her.

Then he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

I stood twenty meters away.

A few pack members passed behind me and stopped, staring at me in stunned silence.

I couldn't watch any more. I stepped out from behind the trees.

Vivian saw me first, peering over Alex's shoulder.

She gasped and scrambled out of his embrace.

Alex spun around and met my expressionless face.

His first instinct was to shift his body sideways — shielding Vivian behind him.

"I'm sorry, Ivy." He said those words again. The same words that made me sick.

Vivian cowered behind him, crying. "Forgive us, Luna. We just — we couldn't control our feelings."

Several patrol guards heard the commotion and hurried over.

I looked at them all. I was calmer than I'd expected.

"Forgive you? You were the Pack Healer. You used my prenatal appointments to get close to my mate. Is that what you call professional conduct?"

"A year ago, you poisoned me and tried to kill the Alpha's bloodline. You should have been executed."

"Alex begged me to spare your life. That's the only reason you're still breathing. All I did was banish you."

Vivian's lips moved, but nothing came out.

"And after you were banished, you didn't leave. You've been lurking at the borders this entire time." I paused. "You were waiting for him to come find you. Weren't you?"

The color drained from her face.

Alex stepped forward, opening his mouth to defend her.

I didn't flinch. I met his eyes with ice.

He saw the wasteland in my gaze — and whatever words he had died in his throat.

My eyes drifted to the arm he had wrapped around Vivian, and a deep exhaustion washed over me.

"Every time you hurt me, you say you're sorry. And then you go right back to doing it."

"A year ago, you knelt in front of me and swore there would never be a next time."

"And today, right in front of me, you're holding the woman who murdered my child."

I drew a long breath. Every word landed like a hammer.

"Alex, I want to dissolve our Mate Bond."

Alex froze where he stood.

I didn't spare him another glance. I turned and walked away.

I hadn't gotten far when he caught up and grabbed my wrist.

"Ivy, calm down." His tone was the same as always — as if this were just another one of my unreasonable tantrums.

"The baby's almost here. Do you really want the entire pack to see us fall apart?"

I looked at him coldly, searching his face for any trace of genuine remorse.

"Today was my fault. I promise you, I will never see Vivian again." He softened his voice, trying to placate me.

He reached out to take my hand again.

I yanked it away before he could touch me.

Alex let out a heavy sigh.

He didn't push it. He just followed silently behind me as we walked back.

At the car, he opened my door first, the way he always did — attentive, considerate — and helped me in.

Then he walked around to the driver's seat and started the engine.

But I could feel how distracted he was.

His hands were on the steering wheel, but his eyes kept drifting to the rearview mirror — back toward the place we'd just left.

He was sitting next to me, but his heart had already flown back to Vivian.

I leaned against the window, closed my eyes, and thought about our Mating Ceremony two years ago.

He'd stood before the entire pack, holding my hand, and sworn his vow: I will have one mate in this life, and no other.

His eyes had been bright that day.

I thought that light was for me.

Vivian had come to the pack as a Healer, responsible for my prenatal checkups.

In just those few short days, Alex had already gotten tangled up with her behind my back.

When I found out, my entire world collapsed.

Alex didn't even hesitate. He was the one who asked to dissolve our Mate Bond.

"Ivy, I'm in love with Vivian." He looked me straight in the eye and said it, just like that.

He said he didn't need the territory. Didn't need to be Alpha. He just wanted me to let him go.

I signed the dissolution papers.

But before I could submit them to the Alpha Council, everything went wrong.

While preparing my pregnancy-support tonic, Vivian used the wrong herb. She'd put wolfsbane in my medicine instead of moonpetal.

I miscarried on the spot.

The agony swallowed me whole. I was unconscious for three days, then bedridden for six months.

But there's one image I'll never forget.

In the moment I collapsed, hemorrhaging on the floor, Alex heard the commotion and rushed in.

He didn't look at me lying in a pool of blood.

His first move was to run to Vivian — pinned down by the guards — and pull her into his arms.

Three days later, I finally opened my eyes in the infirmary.

Alex rushed over with bloodshot eyes, held me tight like he was terrified of losing me, and apologized over and over.

He said he'd come to his senses. He said he was wrong. He swore he'd devote himself to me completely.

I was consumed by hatred. I ordered Vivian's execution.

But Alex grabbed my hand and stopped me. He told me he'd already banished her permanently.

He said Vivian would never appear in our lives again.

For the next year, Alex was perfectly devoted. Attentive. Obedient to my every need.

I truly believed he'd changed. That his heart only held me and our unborn child.

But everything that happened today was a slap across my face.

The way he shielded Vivian just now proved that a whole year of devotion had been nothing but an act.

The betrayal, the damage — none of it had ever passed.

I was finally done with this shattered wreck of a relationship.

The car pulled up to the Blackwood Pack's main residence.

I pushed open my door without waiting for Alex and went straight to the side hall.

I found Beta Bramwell — the man my father James had sent to protect me.

"Bramwell, begin preparing a petition to the Alpha Council for the dissolution of our Mate Bond." I looked him in the eye and gave the order directly.

Bramwell blinked in surprise, but he didn't ask questions. He simply bowed his head.

"Luna, per the Council's process, if both parties have signed the petition, the earliest it can take effect is five days."

"Understood," I said.

I turned and went upstairs to the bedroom I shared with Alex.

In the walk-in closet, I pulled open the bottom drawer and reached deep inside to retrieve a sealed envelope that had been buried there for a long time.

Inside was the very Bond dissolution document Alex had pressured me to sign a year ago.

I'd signed it then. But after the miscarriage, the papers had stayed locked in that drawer for an entire year.

I stared down at both our signatures.

In my mind, I could still see Alex's face when he'd handed me this document back then.

There had been a faint flicker of guilt in his eyes.

But that flicker was nothing compared to the urgency he felt — the desperate need to be rid of me and run toward his new life.

I was still lost in thought when the bedroom door swung open.

Alex walked in behind me.

His eyes landed on the document in my hands, and his brow furrowed.

"Ivy, what's that you're holding?" he asked, already striding toward me with his hand outstretched to see.

Alex's hand was already reaching for the document in my hands.

Then his closest subordinate burst into the bedroom in a panic.

"Alpha! Something's happened!" The man hadn't even knocked. "Vivian was attacked by rogues at the border!"

At the sound of her name, Alex's hand froze in midair.

The subordinate shot a nervous glance at me, swallowed, and continued.

"The warriors you secretly assigned to protect Vivian captured the rogues."

"The rogues confessed that the Luna paid them to kill Vivian."

Alex's face changed instantly.

He whipped around and stared at me, his eyes blazing with disbelief and fury.

"You hired rogues to kill her?" he snarled through clenched teeth.

I looked at him and felt nothing but disgust at the absurdity.

"It wasn't me," I said, meeting his gaze evenly. "Since the day she was banished, I haven't spared a single thought about whether she lived or died."

"This is obviously a setup Vivian staged herself — to force you to go running back to her."

But Alex wasn't listening.

He snatched the document from my hands and slammed it down on the table.

"Ivy, your jealousy is terrifying!"

He threw those words at me, grabbed the car keys, and stormed out.

"Get the car! We're going to the border for Vivian!" His voice echoed down the hallway.

I stood there, watching his retreating figure until it was gone.

I decided I was done waiting.

Five days was too long. I needed hard evidence of his betrayal to fast-track the Alpha Council's proceedings.

I walked into Alex's study.

In a hidden compartment at the very bottom of his desk, my fingers found a hard metal case.

A second phone.

I tried his birthday as the password. Wrong.

I paused — then tried Vivian's birthday.

The screen lit up.

The moment I opened the photo gallery, my blood ran cold.

It was full of Vivian's photos and selfies.

Several were intimate pictures of the two of them together.

Scrolling further, I found explicit videos.

But what destroyed me was a locked folder buried at the very bottom.

I entered Vivian's birthday. The folder opened.

Inside were screenshots of every love note Vivian had sent Alex a year ago.

When I'd discovered those messages back then, Alex had knelt before me, sobbing.

He'd deleted every last one right in front of my eyes.

Now, every single screenshot had been recovered.

Saved again. Neatly arranged in chronological order.

This phone had been sitting in the desk where he worked every single day.

A whole year of devotion. A whole year of tenderness.

The truth had been right there the entire time — within arm's reach.

But it never occurred to me to look through his drawers.

Because I'd trusted him without reservation.

I let out a bitter, mocking laugh.

I pulled out my own phone and screenshotted everything that mattered.

I backed up all the photos and videos and sent them straight to my private email.

Then I called Bramwell.

"Archive everything I just sent you," I told him. "Submit it along with the Bond dissolution petition as evidence to the Alpha Council."

After I'd handled all of that, my body suddenly felt wrong.

A dull, tightening pain gripped my lower abdomen.

I didn't dare ignore it — not with a seven-month baby inside me.

I called an Omega servant and had him drive me to the pack's medical center.

The car stopped at the entrance. I stepped out, one hand pressed to my belly.

I pushed open the doors.

And there, walking out of the examination room at the far end of the hall, was Alex — with Vivian on his arm.

One of Vivian's hands rested gently on her slightly swollen stomach.

Her other hand clung to Alex's arm.

She wore a delicate, coy smile, tilting her head up to say something to him.

Alex's head was bowed, his gaze glued to Vivian's belly.

His eyes were soft, focused entirely on the life growing inside her.

As they walked, his hand hovered protectively around her waist.

I stood frozen in the doorway.

Vivian was pregnant too.

Alex looked up and his eyes met mine.

The tenderness on his face turned to stone. A flash of panic crossed his gaze.

Vivian followed his line of sight and saw me.

She spoke first, her voice quivering on the edge of tears.

"Luna... I didn't expect to run into you here..." She shrank back slightly. "Please don't hurt my baby. Whatever happened between us adults — the child is innocent..."

The moment those words left her mouth, Alex's entire body went rigid.

He immediately stepped forward and shielded Vivian behind him with his body.

His eyes locked onto me, full of suspicion, watching my every move.

He'd even tensed every muscle, fully expecting me to lunge at her.

I stared at Alex, standing guard over Vivian like that.

The old scars ripped wide open.

A year ago, I drank poison, collapsed in a pool of my own blood, and lost my child.

He'd rushed into the room — and the first person he reached for was Vivian.

Now Vivian was carrying his baby.

He was protecting her with everything he had, pouring all his love on her.

A violent wave of dizziness hit me.

My vision went black. Every ounce of strength drained from my body, and I collapsed.