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.

The Omega servants saw me collapse and screamed in panic.

They rushed over, scrambling to carry me into the nearest examination room.

The Healer ran a full checkup. He said the fainting was caused by severe emotional distress combined with the physical toll of pregnancy.

The baby was stable for now, but I'd need strict bed rest going forward.

I came to quickly.

The first thing I did when I opened my eyes was reach for the phone beside my pillow.

I sent Bramwell an encrypted message, ordering him to contact my father — Alpha King James — immediately.

I laid everything out clearly.

Alex had been secretly seeing Vivian, the woman permanently banished from the pack, and had gotten her pregnant.

As Alpha, he had openly violated the pack's highest laws.

I requested that the Alpha King handle this personally.

My father was livid when he got the message.

He brought the Ashford Pack's Gamma and a squad of fully armed warriors and tore straight into the Blackwood Pack's healing center.

He didn't come to my room first.

He led his men directly to the treatment room at the other end of the hall.

Alex and Vivian were hiding inside.

Vivian was crying, telling Alex how the Luna had caught her at the medical center, how she was afraid the Luna would hurt her and the baby.

Alex held her tight, swearing up and down that he'd protect her and the child.

Then — BANG.

My father kicked the door open.

Alex's head snapped up. The color drained from his face when he saw his father-in-law flanked by armed warriors, radiating pure fury.

He couldn't get a single word out.

My father didn't give him the chance to explain. He didn't waste a single breath.

He stood in the doorway and delivered the verdict.

"By the absolute authority of the Alpha King, I hereby strip Alex Blackwood of his Alpha title, effective immediately."

"All territorial jurisdiction of the Blackwood Pack is revoked and placed under Ashford Pack management."

"Current pack members may choose to stay or leave."

My father's cold gaze swept over Alex's ashen face.

Alex's identity as Alpha ceased to exist from that moment on.

After stripping Alex of his rank, my father ordered his warriors into action.

They removed Vivian from the territory without mercy.

Only after all of that did my father come to see me.

He looked at my pale face, his expression torn between heartbreak and rage.

He said through gritted teeth that he should just kill Alex and that woman and be done with it.

Hearing those words, something warm finally stirred in my frozen heart.

I shook my head. I told him our Mate Bond hadn't been fully dissolved yet.

Once the Bond was completely severed, I would handle the rest myself.

My father sighed, and left with his men.

I forced myself out of bed and went back to the pack house.

I pushed open the door and found Alex slumped on the living room couch, utterly defeated.

He looked up at me.

There was no guilt in his eyes. Only a deep exhaustion and cold resentment.

"You called your father." His voice was flat and sharp.

"Yes." I didn't flinch.

Alex shot to his feet and strode toward me.

His voice was low, but every word cut like a blade.

"Ivy, if you'd been generous enough to tolerate Vivian, I would have kept being your mate. Kept being this pack's Alpha."

"But you kept pushing."

"First you hired rogues to kill her. Now you've dragged your father in to interfere."

"You're the one who destroyed our pack. You ruined my position!"

"Vivian is carrying my child. How can you be this heartless?"

He looked down at me, his tone dripping with accusation.

"I will never agree to dissolve the Bond."

"You're going to stay put and have this baby."

"Once things blow over, I'll go talk to your father myself. I can get the Alpha title back."

"You're my Luna. What you should be doing right now is helping me hold things together — not fighting me."

I stared at him and his breathtaking audacity.

But my mind drifted, unbidden, to the day we first confirmed our bond as Fated Mates.

That was the first time Alex felt the resonance of the Bond.

He'd been trembling with emotion, gripping my hand, his eyes red.

"Ivy, the luckiest thing that ever happened to me was the Moon Goddess giving me you."

He'd dropped to one knee under the moonlight and sworn a solemn vow.

"I swear you will be my only mate in this lifetime."

"If I ever break this oath, let me lose my wolf."

I looked at the man standing before me now.

The boy who once made vows under the moon was long dead.

This Alex only saw me as the obstacle standing between him and someone else's love — the one who'd cost him his power.

I didn't have a single word left for him.

I turned away without acknowledging him and called Bramwell.

"Get the car," I said coldly.

I went to the bedroom, packed a few belongings, and walked out without looking back.

I drove straight to the Ashford Pack's main residence.

My mother took one look at my face and shook with anger, tears streaming down her cheeks.

My father slammed his hand on the table so hard it rattled.

"Everything he has came from me. And now he's going to give every last bit of it back!"

I looked at my furious parents, my voice perfectly calm.

"After the Bond is dissolved, he leaves with nothing."

"The territory, the assets, the pack — all of it was granted by the Ashford family."

"He doesn't get to take a single penny or an inch of land."

I let out a cold laugh and made my final decision.

"Let him and Vivian have each other with nothing to their names."

"I want to see how long their grand love story lasts without wealth, without power, without the Alpha title."