Aveline’s POV

On the day I lost my pup and nearly lost my womb, my husband was across the hall in another she-wolf’s room, tending to her because she had an allergic reaction.

“I’m sorry, Luna Aveline, there was nothing we could do. You’re fortunate you were brought in on time. If you had stayed out there any longer, you would have lost your womb,” the pack healer said, her voice echoing in my head.

That day had started like every other day.

Evander woke before dawn and dressed for his duties. It was the first time he had slept in our chamber in the past two weeks. He had returned late last night from the southern territory, and I had prepared his favorite meal for him.

He left after a brief goodbye.

A few hours later, his voice sounded sharply through our mindlink, ordering me to prepare seafood and bring it to the pack house.

At first, I was confused. Evander hated seafood. He could barely stand the smell of it. But before I could ask why, he cut the link and told me to hurry.

Like a dutiful mate, I went to the market, bought everything myself, and prepared the meal.

When I was done, I climbed into the carriage and made my way toward the pack house.

Then, out of nowhere, a blizzard struck.

It came so suddenly that the road disappeared beneath the snow, and panic spread among the travelers. Several wagons collided. My own carriage was thrown off the road and left hanging over the edge of a cliff.

I struggled to breathe.

The carriage had rolled several times before it caught on the edge. My whole body ached, bruises covered my skin, and a sharp pain tore through my abdomen.

I cried out for help, but the storm swallowed my voice.

Shaking, I reached for Evander through the mindlink.

The bond connected at once.

“Evander…” I whispered weakly.

“How can you be so vicious, Aveline?” His cold voice cut through me before I could say another word.

“But Evander—”

“Seafood. It was a simple thing, yet you couldn’t do it. I provide everything for you, but you can’t even help me with this. Don’t reach for me again.”

Then he severed the link.

I tried again and again, but he shut me out every time.

Then the carriage shifted.

I screamed as it tilted farther over the cliff, as though it meant to drag me down with it. No one heard me.

And then it fell.

I closed my eyes, heart heavy with pain and anger, knowing my husband had refused to hear me—refused to save me—over seafood he did not even eat.

But before the carriage could crash below, it was caught.

One of the patrol wagons had reached the lower pass just in time. They stopped the fall and pulled me out, then rushed me straight to the healer’s den.

That was when the pack healer told me I had been with pup for three weeks.

The pup hadn’t survived the accident.

And if I hadn’t been found when I was, I would have lost my womb from the bleeding.

“Is there anyone you’d like us to call for, Luna Lily?” the healer asked gently.

I blinked, trying to clear the fog in my head as the last few hours came flooding back.

I shook my head, swallowing hard against the grief rising in my throat.

My pup was dead before I had even known it existed.

“What about your husband?” the healer asked.

Her words struck a nerve as I stared down at the moonstone on the table beside me. I had reached for Evander more than forty times through the bond. Not once had he answered.

How could he be so cruel?

The healer seemed to understand my silence. She adjusted the blanket over me and sighed.

“I’ll leave you to rest. We’ll discharge you tomorrow once we are certain the bleeding has fully stopped.”

I barely acknowledged her as she turned to leave, but she paused at the door.

“If you need someone to speak with, we can send for the mind-healer.”

I gave her a blank look as she slipped out and closed the door softly behind her.

A few moments later, I reached for Evander again.

This time, instead of his voice answering through the bond, I heard his familiar voice just down the hall.

Hope bloomed painfully in my chest.

Evander hadn’t abandoned me completely. He was here.

I pushed myself upright, ignoring the pain in my body, and stepped out of the room.

I moved slowly down the hall and stopped at the next room when I heard his voice again.

Before I could think, I pushed the door open.

What I saw chilled me to the bone.

Aveline’s POV

My mate was holding another she-wolf tightly in his arms, his hand moving over her hair with a tenderness he had not shown me in months.

“Evander?” I called, but my voice came out hoarse and weak.

He turned at once. His forest-green eyes landed on me, and his expression darkened.

“What are you doing here?” he demanded. “Did you follow me? Did you come here to spy on us?”

“Evander, I—”

“Save it,” he snapped. “You were cruel enough to hurt her, and now you have the nerve to stand here and watch? After everything I have done for you, you could not carry out one simple request. Look at what you caused.”

He stepped aside then, and I finally saw her clearly.

Even with the slight swelling in her face and the redness around her eyes, I recognized her at once.

Calista Ravaryn.

Evander’s childhood friend.

The she-wolf who had returned from the London pack seven months ago.

I frowned, confusion tightening in my chest. Why was she here with him?

Then her scent reached me.

Lilies and jasmine.

It struck me so hard I nearly staggered.

For months, Evander had smelled different. When I asked, he told me he had changed the oils he used after training.

He had changed something, yes.

But standing in that room now, with Calista’s scent thick in the air and clinging to him, I knew the truth.

That scent had never belonged to oils.

It had belonged to her.

Still, I tried to tell myself I might be wrong. Perhaps I was only exhausted. Only hurting. Only letting my wolf run wild with suspicion.

“After everything you put her through, you still cannot even ask what happened to her?” Evander’s cold voice cut through my thoughts.

My throat tightened. “What happened to her?”

“She had an allergic reaction because of you,” he said harshly. “I told you to bring the seafood, but you never came. She had to go out and eat instead, and this is what happened.”

I stared at him, my breath turning shallow.

The seafood.

The meal he had ordered me to prepare in the middle of the day.

The meal I had nearly died trying to deliver.

The meal that had cost me my pup.

It had all been for Calista.

“How...” My lips trembled. “Why did you not answer me? Why did you ignore me through the bond when I reached for you?”

Evander looked almost insulted by the question.

“When you refuse to do as I say, why should I listen to you?” he said coldly.

“Evander, let her be,” Calista said softly at last. “I am sure Aveline was only delayed.”

“Delayed?” Evander gave a harsh scoff and looked back at me. “Apologize to Calista. Now.”

“Apologize?” I repeated, too stunned to believe what I was hearing.

Calista lowered her lashes, all softness and false grace. “That is not necessary, Aveline. But... why are you here in the healer’s den?”

For one brief second, I was grateful for the question.

“I had an—”

“It hurts, Evander,” Calista whimpered suddenly, clutching her side. “Ah—”

At once, Evander turned back to her and gathered her closer, all his attention returning to her as if I had ceased to exist.

I stood frozen by the doorway, pale from blood loss, shaking from grief, and he did not even ask why I was there.

Over his shoulder, Calista lifted her eyes to mine.

There was something smug in them. Quick. Sharp. Ugly enough to make my stomach twist.

Then I understood.

She had asked that question on purpose.

Only to show me that no matter what I said, Evander would choose her.

I staggered back to my room with that truth clawing through me.

The rest of the day passed in a blur, but my mind kept circling all the small changes in Evander I had ignored these past months.

It had begun seven months ago, on our third mating anniversary.

We were meant to dine alone, just the two of us, but he left in the middle of it to fetch a friend arriving from the London pack. Later that same night, he returned with Calista at his side and casually invited her to sit with us, as though there had been nothing strange in it at all.

At the time, I had thought little of it.

But now, lying awake and replaying the last seven months, I realized how blind I had been.

His late returns to the packhouse.

The private mindlinks he would cut off the moment I entered the room.

The unfamiliar scent clinging to his cloaks.

Still, scent and suspicion were not proof.

Perhaps he only cared too much because Calista had fled a brutal marriage when she came back to our territory. A few weeks later, word spread that she was carrying a child. Perhaps Evander’s protectiveness came from pity. From loyalty. From an old promise.

Perhaps it truly was all in my head.

I clung to that thought as I drifted into an uneasy sleep.

The next day, the pack healer discharged me with strict orders to avoid strain and rest as much as possible.

Before leaving, I asked after Calista, but the young attendants only sighed dreamily and told me she had already gone.

“She was carried out in her husband’s arms,” one of them gushed. “Like something from an old mating tale.”

I said nothing.

I pulled my cloak tighter around myself and took a hired carriage back to the packhouse.

When I arrived, I stopped at once.

There were two pairs of shoes outside the door.

One belonged to my mate.

The other was a woman’s.

A cold feeling slid down my spine.

Then I heard voices drifting from the kitchen.

Calista’s voice.

“Evander, are you certain about this?” she asked softly. “I do not want your mate to be upset, and I do not wish to intrude. Perhaps you should speak to her first... tell her that I will be living here from now on.”

Aveline’s POV

My breath hitched, and before I knew it, I was already striding toward the kitchen with my wolf clawing beneath my skin.

“You’ll be what?” I snapped.

Evander turned at the sound of my voice, and his face darkened at once.

“Lower your voice,” he said sharply. “You’ll upset her.”

I gave a harsh, unbelieving laugh. “Upset her? Since when do you make decisions in our packhouse without speaking to me first?”

“I’m sorry, Aveline,” Calista said softly, her eyes already shining with tears. “There was a firestone leak in my cottage this morning, and Evander thought it would be safer if I stayed here, especially while I’m carrying a pup. Please don’t be angry. I’ll leave right now.”

I almost laughed in her face.

Her act was so thin, so pitiful, it was insulting.

Still, she pushed herself up from her chair like some frail little thing, swaying just enough to look weak. Before she could so much as stumble, Evander was already at her side, one arm around her waist as though she were precious.

“Sit down, Calista,” he said, his voice gentling in a way I had not heard in months. “Eat. I’ll talk to Aveline.”

Calista nodded and lowered herself back into the chair. Then she reached for the plate in front of her.

My chest tightened the moment I saw it.

Honey cakes.

Evander had made them himself.

I knew because of the little smile he had drawn over the top in honey. It had always been his foolish habit.

The last time he made them for me was seven months ago. He had called them our special dish.

Now he was making them for her.

“Come with me,” he said, the warmth leaving his voice the instant he looked at me again.

He led me to our bedchamber and shut the door behind us.

“Calista is staying here until she gives birth,” he said without preamble. “I will not risk her being alone in that cottage. And besides, you owe her. She ended up in the healer’s den yesterday because of you.”

A bitter laugh escaped me. “As if she was the only one in the healer’s den.”

Evander exhaled through his nose, already sounding irritated.

“I’m sorry I did not answer when you reached for me through the mindlink, Aveline, but I was angry. Calista is carrying a pup. I’m sure you do not understand what that feels like, since you’ve never been pregnant.”

His words cut straight through me.

We tried everything, but we could not save the pup.

The healer’s voice rang through my mind all over again, crueler now because he did not know.

Because he had never cared enough to ask.

“Aveline,” Evander said, his voice softening as though that could somehow mend what he had just broken, “Calista’s father helped me years ago, before he died. He made me promise I would look after her. I failed him. That is why she returned to our territory broken and bruised from that marriage. Every day I blame myself. If I had stepped in sooner, perhaps she would never have suffered so much. Now we finally have a chance to help her. Don’t you agree? It is only for a few months.”

I blinked hard and turned my face away.

The same excuse.

Always the same excuse.

Calista is carrying a pup, Aveline.

I failed her father, Aveline.

Without him, I would not be the wolf I am, and you would not have the life you have now, Aveline.

She has suffered enough, Aveline. Show some compassion.

“Yeah,” I said sharply. “Whatever.”

At once, his expression eased, as though my surrender pleased him.

He stepped forward, wrapped his arms around me, and kissed my forehead.

“You’re the best,” he murmured.

Then he suddenly paused, his nose wrinkling.

“Why do you smell like healing herbs?”

My entire body went still.

Before I could answer, Calista’s voice floated in from outside.

“Evander!”

Just like that, the faint concern on Evander’s face vanished.

He turned and walked out immediately, drawn to her as though I had never been standing there at all.

I stayed in the room until I heard the sound of his carriage passing beyond the packhouse gates. He was likely on his way to the council hall.

Only a few moments later, the door opened again.

Calista stepped inside with a smug curve to her lips, every trace of frailty gone.

“I love this room, Aveline,” she said, glancing around as though she already owned it. “I think I’ll ask Evander to give it to me when he returns.”

I looked at her coldly. “Whatever you want, Calista.”

She giggled and clapped her hands together. “Good. You’ve finally accepted it. That I’m above you. That I’m the she-wolf your mate truly wants.”

“Keep dreaming.”

She laughed, then tilted her head.

“Oh, and one more thing. Evander never saw any of the moonstone messages you sent yesterday. I made sure of that.”

My anger hit so fast I could barely breathe.

“You monster. I could have died.”

Calista only shrugged. “That would have made things easier for my son. I doubt he’d want to share Evander with anyone.”

I stared at her in horror.

“Wait until I tell Evander the truth. He’ll see what you really are.”

She laughed again, louder this time.

“You still don’t understand, do you? Evander is mine. Perhaps you need a harsher lesson before you finally accept it.”

I brushed past her and left the room before I did something I would regret.

I needed air. Distance. Anything but her scent and that smug little smile.

And if there truly was another mouth to feed beneath this roof now, then I needed to bring in more supplies besides.

But more than that, I could not stay in that house another second while she stood there, smiling, knowing I had lost my pup and saying nothing. If I remained, I might have wrapped my hands around her throat and let my wolf do the rest.

But tonight, I told myself, I would tell Evander everything.

He did not know the truth.

He was being deceived by her.

That was what I still wanted to believe.

After buying what we needed, I wandered into the pack library and sat there for a while, pretending to read while trying to steady my thoughts.

I must have lost track of time.

By the time my moonstone chimed, evening had already fallen.

Frowning, I picked it up and saw Calista’s name glowing across its face.

A chill ran through me.

I touched the stone—and a vision shimmered over its surface.

Evander.

Kissing Calista.

The moonstone slipped from my hand and struck the floor with a sharp crack.

I shook my head at once.

No.

No, that could not be real.

Evander would never—

My breath came faster and faster until I could barely stand. I snatched up my cloak and rushed outside, calling for a hired carriage as panic pounded through me.

All the way home, I told myself Calista was lying. That she had staged it somehow. That she only wanted to break me.

But the moment I saw Evander’s carriage waiting outside the packhouse, my heart dropped.

I ran for the door.

Then I heard it.

Low, breathless moans drifting from my bedchamber.

And in that instant, I knew.