I had heard that the moon goddess laid curses upon some wolves before, but never had I ever thought that I just happened to be one of the wolves she had cursed.

Alpha Jaxon and I were never meant to be mates, yet the moon goddess had decided to play a cruel joke on both of us by making us fated mates.

For the first time in years, Alpha Jaxon, my son, Enzo, and I were going to leave the house together but now that I look at things again, I have come to see how I might have been too hopeful. Alpha Jaxon hardly spared his son and me so much as a smile or even a look of encouragement.

The silence was becoming too much to bear already, so, I cleared my throat. “Alpha Jaxon, it’s your only son’s shifting ceremony today. Don’t you have any words of encouragement to say to him by any chance? He is your heir and the next destined alpha of this pack.”

Immediately the words left my mouth, I began to regret them. Alpha Jaxon halted in his steps and pinched the bridge of his nose before he let out a frustrated sigh. He offered our son, Enzo a look, before he even bothered to look at me. “You know what, Catherine? You can handle this all on your own. Something came up and it’s extremely important, so I need to leave. Immediately.”

“But-”

Alpha Jaxon placed a hand in the air, making me pause as he turned to look at Enzo. “You’re my son. You have my blood. Just try to remember that and whatever you do, don’t mess this up for me,” he scolded his eighteen-year-old son in a clipped tone before turning to walk away.

My initial instinct was to stop him and beg him to at least stay for a few moments longer, but I knew that it wouldn’t change anything.

It never worked in the past.

Ever since Alpha Jaxon had left us at home earlier, Enzo had gone quiet. All that could be heard between us was the weight of Jaxon’s absence and the low tune of the music that the driver played in the car. Playing with the hems of my dress, I looked up at the boy with sandy blonde hair sitting in front of me. “Enzo, you know that your father loves you, right?”

Enzo scoffed, his blue eyes becoming slightly darker as he did so.

“He doesn’t love me or you! He only loves that slut, Julia! And I’m sure that he’s with her, right now,” he spat, each word coming off icier than the last.

I wished that I could say something to counter Enzo’s argument, but even I knew that Enzo was a hundred percent correct. The only person that Jaxon loved in this world was some dumb brunette named Julia and as much as I wanted to ignore it, I could never. Jaxon made it almost impossible for either his son or I to forget how much Julia mattered to him.

The man didn’t love us.

Swallowing a thick lump down my throat, I tried to change the topic, but before I could utter a single word, the car came to a halt. The sudden stop in movement shocked us all and our driver stepped out first to see what had happened. When minutes had gone by without our driver returning, a sense of foreboding grew in my chest.

Terrified and confused all at once, my son and I stepped out of the car and the moment we did, I began to regret my actions almost immediately.

Outside the car were three shirtless men with blood-covered hands and our lifeless driver lying close to them.

“Rogues!” my wolf, Starla, yelled in my head and I nodded.

I was ready to bargain. Fight. Do anything that could possibly free us from the situation we were in. However, before I could do so much as make a move, Enzo stepped forward. “What do you want?!” He yelled at them and from the way they all looked at him, I could tell that my son had just aggravated them even more.

Without a thought in the world, I shifted into my wolf form, charging at the rogues, knowing that the most important thing was to protect my son. I fought with all my strength but even in my rage, it seemed as though I had forgotten about all possible outcomes that could play out in a fight like this.

One of the rogues had managed to escape me and when I least expected it, he dug his sharp claws right through my son’s chest. A toe-curling scream interrupted my fight with the other two and that was when I saw the damage that had been done to my son.

With my rage taking a new dimension, I used the last bit of energy in me to kill off the rogues before making my way back to my son. His eyes remained wide and his clothes soaked with blood. The last thing I heard him say was “I love you mum” before I shifted quickly and rushed to drive him to the pack hospital.

The constant howling of my wolf in my head made it hard for me to focus, yet I was able to take Enzo to the pack hospital quickly.

Pacing around the hallways of the hospital, I tried to mind-link Alpha Jaxon as many times as I possibly could, but each time I did, I failed to receive a reply. So, I resorted to doing things the old-fashioned way and called him.

Luckily for me, he picked on the first ring, but the voice that came through the phone had me wondering if I was truly cursed by the moon goddess at birth. “Luna Catherine, what do you want?! Alpha Jaxon is busy!” Julia’s shrill voice greeted me.

“Surely, he can’t be too busy for his only child and heir to everything he has managed to build! Our son has been terribly injured and is in the hospital. I need to talk to Alpha Jaxon now!” I snapped, getting more irritated by the second.

Julia’s cackling echoed in my ears, making the pain I felt in my chest fester. “Stop being such a clingy Luna! You know, the last thing I would ever do is to make up lies about my own child for some attention, now goodbye Luna Catherine!”

Frustrated, I shoved my phone back into my pocket before I did something stupid like breaking it. Again and again, I tried to mind link Alpha Jaxon and it was only on my fifth try that I realized that the man had blocked me. The man had really blocked his own wife and mother to his only child!

With my fists clenched by sides, I stalked over to the ward my son, Enzo was in and the sight almost broke me. Never had I seen my son so pale before. He had bandages strapped all over him, yet that did little to reassure me.

I could feel the tears threatening to spill already, but the healer’s voice was quick to pull me back into reality where I knew I had to put up a strong front. “Luna Catherine,” he started, taking a few steps forward with a notepad in his hands. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news but there is nothing I can do much for you boy. At this point, only an advanced healer can help him.”

“And so get the advanced healer then!” I yelled, not caring about keeping up appearances any longer.

Visibly caught off guard by my outburst, the healer adjusted his glasses and swallowed. “The only healer I know that can possibly help is Marcel and she… she was called by Alpha Jaxon hours ago to attend to… to… to Miss Julia, Luna.”

Julia.

It was always Julia.

Sometimes, I could swear that I was indeed cursed by the moon goddess and that Julia happened to be a manifestation of that curse. Every bad thing in my life could be linked to her and one of the most embarrassing things just happened to be the fact that almost everyone in the pack just happened to know of her importance to my husband.

So of course, the best healer in the pack was attending to Julia at the one time I needed her the most.

“I will get Marcel. Just do what you can to keep my son alive… please,” I begged the healer before me in a voice of resignation. As much as I hated to admit it, I could feel the fight in me dwindling by the second.

As fast as I could, I went back, knowing that Julia would be with my husband in his office. The woman was always there. So much so that some of the staff in our home began to treat her like the woman of the house.

Pushing the door open, I found the brunette who my husband claimed was his childhood sweetheart, Julia, lying comfortably on my husband’s lap while the popular healer, Marcel, tended to a small cut on her leg. I could hardly smell any blood, yet the woman kept wincing like she had been run over.

Irked, I stepped forward. “Marcel, you can leave the woman now. My son is on the verge of death and he needs your attention immediately.”

Almost immediately, Marcel stood up, but I should have known that it couldn’t be that easy. “No, stay!” Alpha Jaxon ordered, making Marcel halt in all her movements.

My eyes turned to my husband and those tears I had been trying to keep at bay for so long finally began to spill. “Can you be good to me for once, Alpha Jaxon? Just once. Your only child… our son… your heir is dying, and yet you want the healer that can save Enzo to waste her time tending to a minor cut?”

Alpha Jaxon scoffed. “Julia told me that you were lying about our son’s life just to get my attention and I didn’t want to believe her, but now, you have come in front of me just to show me how petty you can truly be, Catherine. Have you no shame? Couldn’t you handle something as small as a shifting ceremony yourself? Didn’t me blocking you tell you something, Catherine?” Each one of his words dripped with disdain, breaking my heart into a million pieces.

“No, please… our son-”

“Guards, throw this woman out and make sure that I do not see her until the day is over!” he interrupted me.

All the alarms in my head were ticking off and my desperation was beginning to take a new dimension, so before any of the guards could lay a hand on me, I rushed forward, grabbing Marcel’s arm.

“I am not going to leave without the only woman who I know can save our son!” I almost screamed, trying to pull the woman away from Julia and her stupid cut, but before I could get Marcel to make even the smallest movement, Alpha Jaxon stood up and in a few moments, he was only centimeters away from me.

The next few moments felt surreal because, in one fluid moment, Alpha Jaxon's huge hand was pressed against my cheek, introducing a pain that was almost as sharp as the fear of losing my son.

My eyes went wide and the hand that had been pulling Marcel freed her instantly.

Tears blurred my vision, and I felt the tiny shred of dignity I still had in me earlier leave as I fell to my knees. “Alpha Jaxon you should know by now that I would never go this far for a lie. Your son… my son… our son needs Marcel’s attention immediately or he could die,” I begged him once more in a shaky voice, staring at him with teary eyes, hoping that he would consider my pleas.

Just as I felt like Alpha Jaxon was about to start considering my pleas, Julia cut in. “Alpha Jaxon… I don't want to get in the way of you and your son… I really don’t, but I’m just scared because I’ve lost a lot of blood and there are no other healers here.

If Luna Catherine wasn’t known for all her lies then maybe I would have sacrificed myself for her, but I don’t want to end up sacrificing my life for some lie, Alpha Jaxon. It… it just hurts so much and I need you here, with me. I don’t know how I can get through this without you, my love,” she whined and for extra effect, her eyes began to tear up as well.

Soon, she was full-on crying like a toddler that had been denied her sweets, and seeing Alpha Jaxon rush to comfort her somehow hurt a lot more than the slap he had been so kind to gift me with.

I felt like I could puke and suddenly, I didn’t have the energy to cry so much anymore.

Holding Julia close, Alpha Jaxon turned to face me, a mask of worry on his face, but I was certain that it was all for Julia. “Look, if Enzo is really in critical condition as you say, then all the healers in the pack hospital can join heads to heal him. I think it would be best if you left now, Catherine. I’m busy.”

“But Alpha Jaxon-”

“You just never listen, do you!” He yelled, cutting me off before he turned to face his guards. “Guards, throw this mad woman out, and don’t allow her to show her face to me again until she learns to stop being so hysterical.”

I was ready to beg a million times more, but Alpha Jaxon’s men were fast. As I pleaded for Alpha Jaxon to listen to me and begged Marcel to see my son even if it was for only a few minutes, his guards carried me and threw me out of the home that was supposed to belong to Jaxon and me.

Outside our mansion, I contemplated what to do next and that was when I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. With a troubled mind, I rushed to take the phone out and that was when I heard the words that practically ended me.

“Luna Catherine, your son is dying and there is nothing else we can do for him now. All he wants is to see you one last time. Please come as fast as you can.”