I’m already eating breakfast in the mess hall when Ash arrives, Sabrina on his arm. As the kid sister of our delta, she knows what an honor it is to come in on the Alpha’s arm.

An honor he has never given me. We’ve been together for seven years, and not once has he allowed me the privilege of walking in on his arm.

“You’re not officially my Luna,” he’d say. “We wouldn’t want people to get the wrong idea.”

As he takes his seat next to me with Sabrina on his other side, he leans in to kiss me.

I turn my head away.

“Don’t be like this, Mariah,” he grumbles as he opens his napkin. “I’m sorry I had to cancel our dinner, something came up. The other pack alphas wanted to have some drinks and…”

He doesn’t bother finishing his sentence, turning instead of laughing at something Sabrina said about the shape of the pancake she had put on her plate.

“Besides, it was your fault we didn’t get to spend time together. What were you doing that kept you out so late?”

I say something about being in the hospital but he isn’t really listening. I want to tell him about the baby. I want to tell him about what I found and how confused and hurt I feel.

But even though I pull on his arm, he’s only paying half attention to anything I say. Sabrina is whispering something in his ear again and I find myself growing more and more angry as the moments pass.

I slam my fork down on the table, rattling my glass of water, and knocking it over by accident. It dribbles down the table, landing in his lap.

Ashton turns and glares. “What the hell, Mariah? I..” Blinking, he sits back, taking in my appearance, his mouth dropping open as he notices the cuts and bruises. “You look like shit. What the fuck happened to you.?”

His words hit me like a slap. Not a single word of care or concern. I could have died yesterday and my body shows the proof, but he cares more about a little spilled water than he does about me.

“Maybe she ran into a door?” Sabrina teases, laughing at my expense. “You should really be more careful, Mariah. You’ll hurt your pretty nose running into doors.”

My wolf, Natasha, snaps at her in response as my anger rises. I have to take deep breaths to keep my beast from rising and tearing out her glistening blonde hair.

Ashton watches as I stand, amusement coloring his features as I my cheeks flush with pain and rage. He’s laughing with her, his hands across his belly as he fights to contain his mirth.

“I WAS IN A CAR ACCIDENT!” I finally snap, drawing his attention away from her. “Didn’t you get ANY of my messages?”

He mumbles something about being busy.

“Yeah, you were so busy you blocked my calls,” I scoff. “I could have died.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Mari,” he rolls his eyes. “Obviously you’re fine, you just need to calm down.”

“I lost our…” I stop. I don’t want the pack to know our personal business. “You know what, Happy anniversary to you too!” I shout as I turn, leaving him standing there, not bothering to look back to see if he followed me out.

The door closes behind me with a loud slam.

“What was that?!” Ash demands a few minutes later as he yanks open our bedroom door. “Do you realize how much you just embarrassed me out there?” His face is red, his blond hair sticking out in each direction as he rubs his hands through his pomade, ruining his slicked-back style. “Yeah, so I had to schedule something on the same day as our anniversary. So what? It’s not like we’re married. It isn’t even real.”

I don’t argue, I don’t beg for forgiveness, instead I pull a paper bag out of the closet and hand it to him.

“You’re right,” I reply. “It isn’t real.”

He looks inside, frowning until his eyes widen in shock.

“You should really tell Sabrina to be more careful with her things next time,” I sniff, turning my back on him.

I hear the sound of paper crumbling right before he opens the door.

“You want to be a suspicious bitch, fine!” he growls, using his alpha influence to cowl me. “But don’t expect me to hang around and listen to you accuse me. I’ve got a pack to run. I don’t have time for your suspicious she-wolf bullshit!”

The walls shake as he uses his full alpha strength to slam the door. The old me would be whimpering on the ground, begging for him to give me another chance to show him what a good Luna I could be.

But after yesterday, I’m done bowing to him, soothing his pain and anger while ignoring my own.

Grabbing a suitcase out of the closet, I begin shoving my things inside.

Taking my suitcase out to my car, I hide it in the trunk until I’m ready to leave. I might be done with Ashton, but I’m not done with this pack and I can’t leave them like this. I may not be Ashton’s official mate, but I’m still acting Luna.

As acting Luna, I have an office in the basement. It’s actually in a hallway that ties the kitchen to the gym, so everyone passes it at some point as they go about pack business. It isn’t the most glamorous room, or the most spacious, but it is big enough for my needs and gives me some privacy.

It doesn’t protect me from gossip, however. The walls are paper thin and I can hear every snide comment as people pass.

“Did you see how Luna Mariah acted? She was so angry.”

“Wouldn’t you be angry? He walked in with that delta pup. You don’t think…”

“No! Do you think the Alpha is planning to make Sabrina his official Luna.”

Unintentionally crumpling the papers in my hand, my wolf comes forth, snarling.

“Let me teach them some respect,” Natasha growls. “How dare they gossip about us.”

“Leave it, Natasha,” I say aloud as I try to calm her. “They don’t matter. None of it matters. Ashton was never really ours.”

“I don’t believe that and neither do you,” she huffs as she paces in my mind.

She isn’t wrong. I know my relationship with the Alpha is toxic, but my heart still wants him to want me. I crave Ashton’s touch, even as he reaches for another.

Deeply engrossed in my thoughts, I don’t notice the passage of time until someone pushes open my door. Looking over, I see Ashton standing in the doorway with a plate of cookies and a large, frothy milkshake.

“I brought your favorite,” he placed the treats on my desk. “Strawberry.”

Looking down bashfully, he leaves a long green straw next to the milkshake in apology.

I frown. I stopped drinking dairy three years ago but I guess that detail wasn’t important enough for him to notice or remember.. “Thank you,” I try to smile, touched that he is trying so hard.

“I hope you like oatmeal raisin. I tried to text you to ask you what kind, but you didn’t respond. Why didn’t you answer my texts,” his face is calm but his ears are turning red, revealing his irritation.

“Sorry,” I apologize, noticing my phone is on silent. He says something grumpy about there being no point in having a phone if it is on silent all the time. I refuse to argue back. It’s a pointless conversation. Accidents happen and he always seems to have a good reason for making every small thing about him.

“Hey, don’t you want it,” he pouts looking at my untouched sweets. I reach forward for a cookie but then stop when my hand is only a few inches away.

What is this a trap?

He’s always teased me about my sweet tooth and called me immature for wanting so much sugar. “Only pups eat that much candy. You’re gonna get fat eating like that,” he’d mock me. “Maybe you’re really a pig and not a wolf? Bacon bacon, who likes bacon,” he’d nibble my arm.

“Piggy piggy, oink oink.”

“Aren’t you hungry, babe?” his eyebrow twitched. One of his tantrums is coming up. I can tell. “I had those baked for you special.”

“I’m on a diet,” I lied, not wanting to eat under his watchful gaze.

When I don’t reach forward to grab the sweets, he throws his arms in the air. “Of course not. Why would you care that I spent the last hour trying to make you something nice? I came to apologize for your bad mood and you’re still crying over yesterday like a baby”

“You know what, fuck it,” he slams his fist on the desk and the cookies go flying. “I don’t know why I even bother.” he crosses his arms, glaring down at me like I’ve done something wrong. “I can’t stand your dramatics, Mari. You need to grow the fuck up.”

Slamming the door behind him, he heads back towards our room.

Crying, I reach down to pick up one of the broken cookies. His mood has always been erratic and hard to read. He was as unpredictable as the weather, hot and then cold, violent and extreme. And like the weather, often the forecast is wrong and you’re left without an umbrella in a rainstorm.

As I pull the plate closer to me, I notice his phone lying on the ground underneath my desk. It must have fallen out of his pocket while he was raging.

It blinks on as I lift it, a message from Sabrina flashing brightly on the screen.

“These cookies are the best! I love them! But you’re going to make me so chubby with all this sweet love.”

Frowning, I close his phone. All that fuss and he’d made her some too. So much for doing something special “just for me.”

These were probably for Sabrina. I hate raisins. We’ve been together seven years and he still doesn’t know what I like.

“Doesn’t know or doesn’t care,” I frown as I carefully pick up pieces of broken plate.

By the time everything is clean, I’ve missed dinner and It’s dark and quiet when I cross the threshold to my living space. Ashton is nowhere to be found and from the look of things he left in a bit of a rush, his stuff strewn all over the room.

On our bed, there is a note and a velvet box.

Opening the box I find a beautiful set of diamond earrings with a matching choker and a glimmering tiara. I recognize these jewels at once.

They belonged to his mother, Luna Grace.

Is he planning to propose?