His Replacement, Their Queen

In the room, two naked bodies twisted together in perfect sync.

Delia Spencer lay with her legs spread, stockings still on but uneven, her full breasts rising and falling, eyes half-closed, hands gripping the sheets as soft moans slipped from her lips.

Rupert Churchill pressed down on her, head thrown back, hands kneading her breasts roughly. Her tightness around him pulled a low growl from his throat. "Fuck, you're so tight. After all this time, still this tight."

The muscles across his back and ass flexed and surged as he drove into her like something wild.

Delia wrapped her arms around his neck and arched up to meet him, her lips trailing from his chest to his ear, where she whispered, "I want you to mark me..."

Right at the edge, Rupert pulled out abruptly. His cock was slick with her.

He reached to the headboard and grabbed a white wolf-ear headband, his tone leaving no room for argument. "Put it on. Then get on your knees."

Delia bit her lip and looked up at him with uncertain eyes. "Can't you just finish inside me tonight? I'm safe tonight."

He didn't let her argue. He slipped the headband onto her head himself, then shoved his hand into her hair and guided her mouth to him.

She had no choice but to take him in. The sharp, musky taste flooded her mouth, and her eyes watered.

Rupert looked down at the wolf ears on her head as her soft tongue worked around him. A low groan escaped him, and he pressed deeper into her throat.

Delia gagged again and again as he pushed harder, barely holding herself together each time.

She never understood why he always made her wear those humiliating ears when she did this for him. But he clearly loved it, so she kept giving in, doing everything she could to please him.

He even complimented her, which was rare. "You've gotten better at this."

Then he gripped her head with both hands and thrust hard into her mouth until he shuddered and came, filling her throat.

"Nova..."

Lost in the moment, Rupert called out a name that wasn't hers.

Delia froze. Something inside her went cold.

While Rupert was in the shower, she sat staring at the wolf-ear headband on the bed.

When she was sixteen, the Moon Goddess had chosen her as Rupert's fated mate. She had been over the moon. She'd already been secretly in love with him for years, and now she finally had a reason to be with him openly.

A lot of people in the pack had objected at the time. She couldn't shift, they said. She had no business being the mate of an Alpha.

Even her own parents had been against it. They'd already lined up someone they considered a better match—the head of the Levin family, a wolf even more powerful than Rupert.

But Delia had refused to listen. She insisted on Rupert, and she announced that once she turned twenty-one, they would hold their mating ceremony.

That was less than a month away.

She had always told herself Rupert loved her. Why else would he want her in his bed so often?

But if he knew she couldn't shift, why did he keep making her wear those ears? Was he trying to humiliate her?

And that name he'd called out—who was Nova?

The questions were still circling in her head when his phone buzzed on the nightstand.

She glanced over. The sender's name read: Nova Tudor.

She knew she shouldn't look. But her hand was already reaching for it before she could stop herself.

She opened the message. It was a photo—a woman lying naked on a bed, touching herself, white wolf ears sprouting from her head in her excitement.

White ears. The exact same color.

Below the photo was a message: [I'm so lonely. I miss the feeling of your cock inside me.]

Delia's mind went blank. Her chest tightened, and breathing became hard.

So that was why he made her wear the ears every time. Not to humiliate her. He was imagining her as this woman. As Nova.

She thought she had found real love. Instead, she had just been a stand-in.

She set the phone down quietly. When she looked up again, her face was wet with tears.

Rupert came out of the bathroom then, bare from the waist up, water still on his skin, his shoulders and abs defined and relaxed.

He saw her still sitting on the bed and asked, without much interest, "You're not going to shower?"

Delia wiped her eyes and turned slowly, head down, her voice barely above a whisper. "You said someone else's name while we were together..."

Rupert paused, then shook the water from his hair and brushed it off. "You heard wrong."

She knew he was lying. But the words she needed to say were stuck in her throat.

He picked up his phone when she didn't respond and said flatly, "I'll be in the guest room tonight. Get some rest."

Delia grabbed his arm, eyes glistening. "Can't you stay with me?"

"There's a lot going on with the pack. I still have things to handle." He looked at her expression and his brow tightened slightly. "Our mating ceremony is next month. I'll make it up to you then."

She let him go without another word. She watched him leave.

She knew fighting it was pointless. From the very beginning, there had been no place for her in his heart. And she had been foolish enough to hold on anyway.

She lay awake in bed for hours, unable to sleep. Eventually she went downstairs for a glass of water and heard Rupert's voice in the hallway—he was on the phone.

"She's just filling a physical need. When Nova comes back, I'm ending things with Delia."

His voice was flat and distant.

Delia's hands trembled. She nearly dropped the glass.

"The mating ceremony?" He gave a short, dismissive laugh. "That's just childish games. I never marked her. The Moon Goddess won't punish me for walking away."

"There's only one person worth marking. That's Nova."

Each word cut into her like something sharp and deliberate.

Delia pressed a hand to her chest and stumbled back to her room.

Her fingers were shaking when she finally found the courage to call her mother, Ophelia Brown.

After a long stretch of ringing, her mother's soft voice came through the line. "Delia, sweetheart. Are you doing okay?"

The tears came all at once.

Years ago, Delia had fought with her parents and walked away from them without looking back, all to be with Rupert.

And her mother's first words weren't blame. They were just concern.

Delia felt the ache of everything she had given up, and underneath it, a deep wave of guilt.

She pushed the feelings down, tilted her head back to hold the tears in, and made a quiet decision.

"Mom..."