My best friend, Diana, always said my seven-year-long unrequited love was a complete waste of my life.

So on the night my wolf first answered Jaxson Vance's, Diana slipped a moonpetal herb into my drink and pushed me into his bed.

He claimed me with a frenzied possession, our bodies tangled together until dawn.

Afterward, Jaxson coldly agreed to a bonding ceremony. But as soon as it was over, he vanished from my life, citing the need to expand the Vance Group's European operations.

He was gone for four years.

I gave birth to and raised our son, Desmond, all alone, waiting for him to return.

Until, on Desmond's birthday, a breaking news headline caught my eye.

The news was flooded with intimate photos of him, his ex-girlfriend Selene Sterling, and her son, Ashford, vacationing in Europe. They looked like a perfect family of three.

My heart shattered.

I submitted an application to the Alpha Council to sever our mate bond. I took my son and erased our names from the Vance pack's official records.

I left that place of heartbreak behind for good.

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1

Suddenly, the pup training center collapsed.

The housekeeper's call came through, her voice distorted with panic.

"The building collapsed! Desmond is still inside!"

My heart stopped. Desmond was in there for his preliminary empathy training.

When I rushed to the scene, all I found was a wreckage of twisted metal and shattered concrete.

Desmond was curled up under a broken steel beam, a twisted shard of silver-laced rebar piercing his calf, dark blood seeping from the wound.

"Mom..." He stumbled into my arms, tears mixing with dust to streak down his pale cheeks.

"Father really doesn't love me, does he?" His voice was broken by sobs.

His words shredded my heart.

"When the building collapsed, Father was the first one to arrive. I thought... I thought he came to save me."

Desmond's small body trembled in my arms.

"I called out to him for help, begged him to save me. But he... he just ran right past me."

"He ran straight to Ashford, picked him up, and left me alone under the rubble."

"When the rescue team asked, he told everyone he was Ashford's father. He didn't even glance at me..."

I held my trembling, bleeding son tightly to my chest, unshed tears burning my eyes.

I wanted to say something to comfort him, but the thought of Jaxson's chilling indifference over the years made the words catch in my throat.

A wave of painful regret washed over me.

My mate, Jaxson, had finally returned—four years after abandoning me the day of our bonding ceremony.

I had thought that after four years, he might have finally changed his mind about us.

But I was wrong. Terribly wrong.

He came back only because Selene wanted to return to the Vance pack.

He arranged everything for them, even enrolling Ashford in the most elite pup training program.

I looked down at my son's wound. The silver's poison was eating away at his flesh, suppressing his natural healing. With a trembling hand, I channeled my empathetic abilities, trying to soothe the agony radiating from his mind.

This physical trauma might leave a permanent scar, but the wound to his spirit would take much longer to heal.

"Dad..." Desmond whimpered in pain as I tried to stabilize the silver shard in his leg.

"Why doesn't Father want me?"

I bit my lip until I tasted blood.

On the day of Jaxson's return, Desmond had spent a month learning to bake his father's favorite welcome cookies.

He had dressed in his best little suit and asked me nervously, "Mom, will Father like the cookies I made?"

I had nodded. "You're his only son. Of course, he'll love them."

But when we arrived at the private airstrip, brimming with hope, we saw Jaxson holding Selene's hand, with five-year-old Ashford nestled in his arms.

Desmond and I froze.

Ashford ran over and knocked the cookie box from Desmond's trembling hands. The cookies Desmond had spent a month perfecting shattered across the tarmac.

Jaxson barely glanced at the mess. "Sorry, I don't like sweets. You two should head back first."

"I need to help Selene and Ashford get settled."

He didn't spare a single glance for Desmond, but his eyes were full of warmth when he looked at Ashford.

My gaze fell to the scattered cookies on the ground, and I squeezed my eyes shut in despair.

"I'm sorry, Desmond. It's all my fault. Next time you're in trouble, you call for me. I will always come for you."

That night, Desmond woke up from a nightmare, screaming out "rubble" and "help me."

My heart fractured.

If it weren't for that forced bond four years ago, Desmond wouldn't be suffering like this.

My unrequited love for Jaxson had been a seven-year-long agony, and my best friend, Diana, couldn't stand to watch it anymore.

On the night of the full moon when we turned eighteen, she slipped an ancient moonpetal herb into my drink and locked me inside Jaxson's penthouse at the Vance Group headquarters.

I pounded on the door, my voice shaking. "Diana, what on earth are you doing?"

Diana leaned against the door, a sly smile on her face. "I've known for a while that Jaxson feels it too. He reacts to your scent. He's just too proud to admit it. When he shifted last full moon, I heard him howling your name."

I tried to fight it, but the scent of Jaxson—a potent mix of expensive cologne and raw musk—set my body on fire.

Diana's laughter echoed from outside the door. "Enjoy your night, darling." Then I heard the decisive click of the electronic lock.

That night, Jaxson possessed me like a man bewitched. The way he touched me, held me, marked me—that frantic possessiveness made me believe he had always wanted me too.

When we woke the next morning, Jaxson's voice was ice. "I'll take responsibility. We'll have the bonding ceremony next week."

I thought it was just his gruff way of showing his feelings. I thought our happy life was finally about to begin.

But at the celebration after the ceremony, I overheard a call between him and a friend.

"Jaxson, you're being too hard on yourself. She's a talented healer, she's gorgeous, and she clearly loves you. Besides, you're fated mates. Why not just accept it?"

Jaxson took a sip of champagne and laughed bitterly. From the shadows, I watched him pull out a sanitizing wipe and meticulously clean his hands—the same hands that had just held mine during the ceremony.

"I might have had feelings for her, yes. But now? After finding out she's the type to stoop to drugging herself with a moonpetal herb?"

He shook his head in disgust. "Every time I think about how she threw herself at me that night, how she used a drug to force a bond... it makes my skin crawl."

"An Omega who would stoop that low doesn't deserve to be a mate in the Vance family. Let alone mine."

Before I could explain anything about Diana's scheme, Jaxson left for Europe. He was gone for four years.

I gave birth to our pup alone. For four long years, I raised Desmond by myself, waiting every single day for the mate who had abandoned us to return.

Four years later, he finally came back, but with his ex-girlfriend and her son in tow.

The empty villa felt vast and silent. I tried to reach Jaxson through our mate bond, only to find a solid wall blocking me.

Then, out of the blue, he was there, striding into our home as if he'd never left.

I suppressed my fury, choosing my words carefully. "Desmond needs to go to the medical center tomorrow morning for follow-up treatment for the silver poisoning. Can you take him?"

Jaxson barely looked at me. "No. I'm taking Ashford to an important elite pup assessment tomorrow morning."

He then added coldly, "If you insist on taking Desmond, go in the afternoon. I don't want Ashford to see Desmond calling me Father."

The anger I had been suppressing finally erupted. "How dare you? You left our son to die in a pile of rubble yesterday!"

Fire flashed in Jaxson's eyes. "Selene's mate died protecting the Vance family. She couldn't go in to save Ashford alone. It's a blood debt I owe her!"

"You should have saved your own son first!" My voice was raw with pain.

"Making you my mate four years ago hurt Selene deeply," Jaxson roared. "You have no right to stop me from making it up to her and Ashford now."

His words struck me like physical blows, each one tearing me apart more than the last.

The mate bond between us went cold, a shard of ice in my chest.

I had been alone while pregnant with Desmond, alone while raising him for four years, all while waiting for a man who had been playing father to another woman's child.

Now Desmond lay in his bed, a wound that refused to heal marring his leg, still whimpering for the father who had chosen another pup over him.

The half-written application to sever our mate bond sat on my desk.

If it were just about me, I would have submitted it long ago. My wolf howled in agony every time Jaxson rejected our bond.

But whenever I saw the longing in my son's eyes as he watched other pups play with their fathers in the park, I found myself wanting to try just one more time.

The next morning, Desmond developed a raging fever from the silver poisoning. His wound was burning to the touch.

I rushed him to the pack's exclusive medical center, my heart pounding with dread.

Just as we arrived, we ran into Jaxson. He was holding Ashford's hand, with Selene smiling at his side.

Despite his dizziness, Desmond's eyes lit up when he saw Jaxson.

He broke free from my grasp and staggered towards his father.

"Dad!" Desmond reached out with trembling hands, his voice weak but full of hope. "Did you come to see the healer with me? I forgive you for yesterday..."

Jaxson took an involuntary step back, pulling Ashford protectively closer.

His face twisted into a scowl. "Didn't I tell you not to come this morning? Why did your mother bring you here?"

Ashford suddenly gave Desmond a malicious shove from the top of the stairs. "Don't call him Dad! He's my dad!"

Desmond, already unsteady, tumbled backward. His injured leg slammed hard against the stone steps.

His scream of pure agony echoed through the lobby.

As Desmond lay on the ground, Ashford moved to kick him again.

"Stop!" I shrieked, yanking Ashford away from my son.

I gathered Desmond into my arms, his small body burning with fever. "Ashford, apologize to Desmond. Now."

Anger blazed in Jaxson's eyes. "How dare you yell at an orphan who lost his father?"

He shielded Ashford behind him. "I warned you not to come this morning. You deliberately brought Desmond here to upset Ashford."

"He didn't mean to hurt him. You brought this on yourself by not listening."

I clutched my whimpering son tighter, his tears soaking through my shirt.

"My fault?" My voice trembled with rage. "Your son's leg is severely injured because you abandoned him in the rubble. He has a fever of 104 degrees. Where else was I supposed to take him?"

But Jaxson had already turned his back, gently checking if Ashford was unharmed.

Selene stepped forward, her smile perfectly practiced.

"Yvette, I'm so sorry. Ashford has always been a strong boy. He barely touched Desmond—we just didn't expect a little wolf to inherit his Omega mother's weak constitution and be so fragile."

Her words made Ashford puff out his chest with pride.

"That's right! He's just an Omega's bastard. So weak, and he still dares to try and steal my dad!"

I clenched my fists, my gaze locking onto Jaxson.

Until now, I had endured everything. His four-year absence. His indifference as Ashford smashed Desmond’s cookies. His blatant rejection of our family.

But I would never, ever tolerate someone harming my son.

"Jaxson," my voice was pure ice. "Are you really going to stand there and let them humiliate your own son?"

Jaxson's lips curled in disgust. "It's his own fault for being weak. He's a disgrace to the Vance name."

The last flicker of warmth from our mate bond died, leaving only ice in my chest.

Jaxson turned, draping a casual arm over Selene's shoulders.

"Let's go, Ashford. Time to get that reward I promised you. You did an excellent job on your assessment."

"Can I have that training dagger, Dad? The one you showed me yesterday?"

"Of course, champ."

I looked down at my son's tear-streaked face, the raw, silver-burned skin on his leg a glaring wound.

In that moment, something inside me shattered irrevocably.

As they walked away, leaving Desmond trembling in my arms, I finally spoke, my voice clear and steady.

"Jaxson, let's sever our mate bond."