Chapter 1

NORA

I stared at my reflection in the wedding dress, suffocatingly happy.

Kyle approached without a sound.

His chest was warm against my spine, his arms looping around my waist. His fingers idly mapped the line of my collarbone. His breath heated my ear, drawing a shiver from my body.

Face burning, I met his eyes in the glass. "Do you like it?" I asked softly.

He pressed a kiss to my earlobe. And with the gentlest tone he’d ever used, he destroyed me.

"Babe, I cheated on you. While you were trying this on, I was having sex with her in the next room."

Betrayed. Again.

I froze. The pain hit so hard I couldn't make a sound.

Kyle exhaled slowly, looking entirely too satisfied. "I finally understand Ethan. Ivy just has so much more fire in bed than you do."

Ethan was my ex-husband. My first mate.

Ivy had been my best friend for ten years.

Five years ago, I caught them in bed together.

When I was at rock bottom, it was Kyle who saved me.

And now he'd betrayed me—with the very same woman.

…

It felt like an invisible hand was wrapped around my throat.

It took me a long time to find my voice. When I did, it shook. "Why?"

Why cheat on me and then come help me pick out a wedding dress?

Why wait until the happiest moment of my life, when I finally believed I was marrying for love, to tear it all down?

Kyle blinked, caught off guard.

Then his eyes flicked to something behind me, and he burst out laughing.

"You win, Ivy."

I stood there, rigid and lost.

A second later, the door to the next fitting room creaked open. Ivy strolled out, running her fingers through her messy blonde waves like she had all the time in the world.

She hadn't even bothered to fix the strap of her off-the-shoulder dress. Her collarbone was covered in angry red marks.

"Told you," she said. "Same as five years ago. All she does is cry and ask why."

My eyes went wide. Every drop of blood in my body turned to ice.

Kyle arched a brow, his tone easy, almost bored. "Ivy and I had a bet on how you'd react when you found out. I said you'd go for my throat. She said you'd just stand there and ask why."

"If I won, she'd wear the black stockings for me tonight. If she won…" He smiled. "Well. You saw."

Ivy sauntered over and perched on the arm of the sofa beside him, all honeyed smiles.

"Five years, Nora, and you're still the same pushover I always knew. But I'll give you this—you've got great taste in men. I like this one too."

Their laughter needled through me until my arms and legs went numb.

And just like that, I was back in that night five years ago.

I'd cut a business trip short to surprise Ethan for his birthday.

I walked in and found him and Ivy against the floor-to-ceiling window.

Ethan panicked the second he saw me. He didn't know what to do with his hands.

Ivy just lit a cigarette, smug as anything. "Sorry, Nora. I was lonely between boyfriends, so I borrowed your husband for a bit."

I was exactly like this back then.

Crying. Asking Ivy, asking Ethan, "Why?"

Their mouths moved, but my ears felt stuffed with cotton. I couldn't hear a single word.

Not until their faces went white and they both started shouting.

A cramp ripped through my stomach, so sharp I doubled over.

I looked down. There was blood everywhere.

That day, I lost the three most important people in my life.

My best friend of ten years. My husband of one year. And the baby I'd been carrying for three months.

Ethan severed our mate bond that same week. The shock of it sent my wolf so deep inside me that she never came back. Five years, and not one stir. My senses had dulled to almost human. Any other shifter would have smelled Ivy on Kyle the moment he walked up behind me.

I hadn't smelled a thing.

"Okay, okay, I know you're crazy about me. See you tonight. Let me take Nora home first."

Kyle's voice dragged me out of the memory.

Ivy leaned down, kissed him, and clicked out of the VIP suite in her heels.

The huge, empty room went quiet except for the sound of the two of us breathing.

After a moment, Kyle spoke first. "Go get changed. I'll grab you one of those lemon tarts you love, then drive you home."

He sounded so gentle.

Like nothing insane had just happened.

Which made me—red-eyed and shaking—look like the joke.

"Kyle, why would you do this?"

"You promised you'd cherish me for the rest of your life."

My voice came out raw. The tears spilled over before I could stop them.

But this time, Kyle didn't wipe them away like he always used to.

He leaned back into the sofa with a half-smile. "Nora, if you'd picked me the first time, I probably would have cherished you forever. But you're secondhand now. Ethan's leftovers. Why should I keep myself pure for you?"

Then he held out a tissue, like he was doing me a favor.

I stumbled back and stared at him like he was a monster.

We'd all gone to college together.

Years ago, Kyle and Ethan had both asked me out within weeks of each other.

I chose Ethan.

Kyle had been gracious about it. He wished us well. After the wedding, I kept a careful distance from him.

Until Ethan cheated.

When I couldn't take it anymore, when I was so close to the edge I almost didn't come back, Kyle showed up.

He healed me. He pulled me out of hell.

Thinking of everything he'd done for me, I asked, hopeless, "If it bothered you that much, why did you even chase me? Why be with me at all?"