# Love at the End of the Road

My pup Max was burning up with fever, his small body wracked with coughs that shook his tiny frame. The healer had said we needed a rare healing moss only harvested from the high northern peaks, that it would cost every cent I had left to get it in time. I’d gone straight to the pawn shop in the downtown human district and sold the diamond pendant King Rex had given me for my Come of Age Ceremony—my only piece of valuable jewelry from the royal family, the last thing I had left after I’d cut ties with the palace to be with Lewis.

My hands shook as I clutched the thick wad of cash the pawnbroker handed me, already rushing home to call the healer. But Lewis was waiting by the door of our small apartment, and before I could even speak, he’d wrenched the entire stack of bills out of my grip, tucking it into his jacket pocket like it was his by right.

“Max is still breathing, isn’t he?” he said, his voice cold, no trace of worry for our pup in his tone. “He doesn’t need a healer yet. This money’s got a far more important use. You wouldn’t understand, you’ve always been too selfish to think about anyone but yourself.”

I begged him. I knelt on the floor and grabbed his wrist, sobbing that our boy was dying, that he needed the treatment. But he shook me off hard enough that I fell back against the wall, and turned to walk out the door without a single glance back at Max, whimpering in our bedroom.

Three days later, my little boy went still in my arms. His fever never broke, his little lungs filled up and he stopped breathing. I wrapped his cold tiny body in a blanket, and stumbled through the dark streets to Felicity’s apartment on the other side of town. I’d known Lewis would be there.

I pushed the door open, and there they were. Lewis, Beta of the Ashwood Pack, my fated mate, was leaning over the couch, holding out a sparkling diamond tennis bracelet to Felicity Collins, the Gamma warrior he’d loved since childhood. His face was soft, the kind of soft he’d never given me, and she was leaning into him, her hand resting on his chest, the scent of her jasmine thick in the air. They looked perfect, like they belonged together, just like I’d always known they would.

Rage and grief burned through every vein in my body, and I bared my claws I’d hidden in my jacket, charging at them, ready to take them both with me before I died from the broken mate bond that was already tearing my soul apart. Pain exploded in the back of my head—Lewis had shoved a bookshelf at me, I distantly remembered, and the world went black.

When I opened my eyes again, the morning sun was streaming through my bedroom window in the royal palace. I looked down at my stomach, flat, no sign of the pregnancy I’d carried when I died. I fumbled for my phone on the nightstand, checked the date. It was three years ago, the week after I’d first found out I was pregnant with Max. I was back. The Moon Goddess had given me a second chance.

I’m a Lycan Princess, only daughter of the Lycan King. I gave up everything for Lewis Hunt once: I left the palace, turned my back on my father, cut off every privilege I’d been born with just to stand by his side, because the Moon Goddess had marked him as my mate, and I’d loved him. I’d thought love was enough. What I got in return was my dead boy, a broken bond, and an early grave.

This time would be different. I walked to the window, pulling out my phone to call him. When he answered, his voice lazy and annoyed at being disturbed, I spoke the words I should have said long ago, clear and steady, just like the ritual requires:

“I, Aurelia Griffin, Lycan Princess, daughter of Lycan King Rex Griffin, reject you, Lewis Hunt, Beta of the Ashwood Pack, as my mate.”

The faint burn of the mate bond on my neck fizzled out, leaving only cool skin behind. No pain, no regret. Just freedom. I hung up before he could reply, and turned as a soft knock sounded on my door. Gabriela Russell, the senior Omega servant who’d served my family for decades, stepped in, dipping her head in respectful greeting.

“Princess,” she said, her voice gentle. “King Rex requests your presence in the throne room. He says someone is waiting to see you.”

I smoothed down my dress, already knowing who it would be. Joseph Kelly, the Lycan Prince who’d been watching me from afar since I saved him when we were kids, the third in line to the throne, Alpha of the Black Peak Pack. The second chance mate the Moon Goddess had been saving for me all along. This time, I wouldn’t make the same mistake. This time, I’d choose right.

A sharp, cramping pain twists through my abdomen, and I can’t hold back a soft, pained gasp.

Lewis Hunt hears the sound from outside my door, and his voice comes cold, sharp with irritation:

“Stop making that noise. It’s annoying.”

I drag myself to the mirror hanging on the wall and stare at my reflection. My face is gaunt, my eyes hollow, my hair a disheveled mess. In the back of my mind, I hear the desperate, wailing cry of my inner wolf, and my heart clenches so hard it aches.

In my first life, Lewis always put his childhood sweetheart Felicity Collins first, saying she was orphaned and alone, that he owed her care. I’d resented it, but I’d told myself he was just loyal, that his kindness to her was a good quality. Not until our pup Max fell deathly ill with a fever, his tiny body burning up, did I see the truth. Lewis didn’t care that our son was dying. He stole every cent we’d saved for the healer to buy a fancy new necklace for Felicity. That day, my heart for him turned to ash. I lost my mind, ran at them with a kitchen knife, and ended up dead myself, broken and bleeding on the floor of that cramped apartment.

I never expected the Moon Goddess would give me a second chance. I’m back, right here, months before the marking ceremony, before Max was even born.

I yank open the front door, and there he stands, holding the silver locket my mother left me—my most precious thing—ready to walk out. I hurry forward to block him, my voice cracking: “This locket was my mother’s! You can’t take it!”

“It’s just a stupid trinket,” he says, and yanks his arm out of my grasp hard enough to send me stumbling back a step. “Felicity likes it, so I’m giving it to her. What’s the big deal?”

“Likes it?” I laugh, raw and angry. “Do you even remember you’re already mated to me?”

He’s never had a steady job, never contributed a cent to this apartment. Everything we have I got from selling my mother’s jewelry, gifts from my father the Lycan King. And now he’s giving away the last of what’s mine just to impress his mistress.

He looks guilty for half a second, then his jaw sets, and he’s all righteous indignation again. “I’ll get a promotion at work soon, I’ll pay you back, okay? What’s the fuss?”

“Besides,” he continues, “Felicity hasn’t been feeling well this week. You go over to her place later and make her some soup. Be quick about it, don’t keep her waiting.”

Bitterness rises sharp in my throat, and I can’t help the sneer that tugs at my mouth. “Lewis, if you care so much about her, why did you ever accept me as your mate in the first place? I didn’t give up my place in the royal household to come here and be your servant.”

His alpha aura flares with anger, and he glares at me. “Aurelia Kelly, how can you be so jealous?” He snatches the locket off the dresser and shoves past me, slamming the door behind him as he heads straight for Felicity’s apartment down the hall.

The walls in this building are paper thin. Every word we just said carried straight to her, and she’s waiting, leaning soft and sweet against her doorframe when Lewis walks up.

“Lewis was only pitying me because I’m alone, that’s all,” she calls, loud enough for me to hear through the wall. “Don’t be angry, Princess. I’ll talk to him about it later, I promise.”

She lets her soft jasmine scent drift through the walls, deliberately fanning the attraction that tugs at Lewis’s wolf, looking so perfectly innocent, so soft and wronged, like she’s the one who belongs here, not me. And Lewis looks at her like she hung the moon, all that soft tenderness he never gave me, his wolf preening at the sweet scent she’s putting out.

“Go rest, darling,” he says. “I’ll make the soup myself, don’t you worry about it.”

He never did a single kind thing for me. When I had the flu last winter, he complained I was making too much noise, locked himself in the study to study for his certification exam and didn’t check on me once. Now he’s rushing to cook for her.

I snort and turn away, slamming my own door hard enough to rattle the frames. I’m not going to make the same mistakes again. If he wants Felicity so bad, I’ll give her to him. This pup I’m carrying… I won’t let him grow up unloved, the way Max did. This life, I’m going to reject Lewis, walk away, and never look back.

I press a gentle hand to my still-flat stomach, and tears blur my vision. Forgive me, little one. I can’t let you suffer the way Max did.

My stomach growls, empty, but I don’t have any appetite to eat. I glance around the small apartment, and notice the expensive wool comforter my father had sent from the royal household is gone. I don’t even need to guess. Lewis gave that to Felicity too.