Chapter Two

Abigail’s POV

It was deep into the night when I finally decided.

I was leaving.

The pack had already taken my crown, my place, my dignity. But they weren’t taking James. They couldn’t. He loved me — I knew he did — and if I could just get to him, if I could just look him in the eyes, we could run. I told myself he’d give up everything to be with me. That we’d start fresh somewhere far from here. Maybe a small town where no one whispered about wolves or bloodlines. Maybe we could build a family without the crushing weight of tradition pressing down on us.

I clung to that thought like a lifeline as I slipped from my room. The hallways were silent, the walls heavy with shadows. My boots barely made a sound against the polished wood, but inside, my heart was a thunderstorm. Every beat echoed in my ears, quick and uneven.

As I crossed the silent grounds toward the warriors’ quarters, an ache started in my chest. It wasn’t the familiar dull throb of heartbreak lingering from earlier. This was… different. Wrong. Our mate bond felt twisted, fraying at the edges, like a thread being tugged apart. Each step made my pulse race faster, my breath shorter.

Please, let him be okay. Please, let this bond hold.

I pushed open his door — and the world caved in.

James was in bed. Naked. Moving hard and fast against a woman who wasn’t me. The bed groaned with every thrust, the sheets tangled, the air thick with the smell of sweat and sex. His body glistened under the dim lamplight, every muscle straining, every groan spilling from his lips in a way that once belonged only to me.

And the woman beneath him… was Jedidiah.

The air punched out of me. My back hit the wall, and I slid down, hands scrambling for balance that wasn’t there. My vision swam, and my lungs forgot how to work. It was like drowning in plain air, like being stabbed in the chest over and over with invisible blades.

“James,” I choked, my voice cracking into something between a sob and a scream. “What the hell is going on?”

His head snapped toward me — not with guilt, not with fear, but with irritation. His eyes narrowed like I’d interrupted something trivial.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” he barked.

Jedidiah didn’t even flinch. She pulled the sheets lazily over her chest, her mouth curving in a smug little smile. Her eyes locked on me, sparkling with victory, like she’d just stolen a prize she’d wanted for years.

James swung out of bed, his bare feet slapping the floor, and reached for my arm. I wrenched away, heat burning my cheeks, bile rising in my throat.

“Tell me I’m imagining this,” I begged, my voice breaking. “Tell me I didn’t just walk in on my mate—” the word cracked like glass, “—with my sister!”

But he didn’t even blink. No shame. No hesitation. Just a cold, steady stare.

“I’m sorry you had to find out this way,” he said flatly, his tone devoid of the man who used to whisper I love you against my skin, “but we’re not mates, Abigail. Jedidiah is my true mate. You need to stop pretending we ever had a chance. Without your wolf, you’ll die mateless.”

The words hit like shards of glass, each syllable slicing deeper until I had to grip the doorframe to stay upright. My knees shook under me, threatening to give out.

“This is because of what happened today, isn’t it?” My whisper cracked like a child’s plea. “James, you can’t be serious. You love me. We can still—” My hand lifted on instinct, trembling, reaching for his face, desperate to find even a flicker of the man I knew.

What I found instead was disgust.

“I can’t keep pretending to love you when I love someone else,” he said. His eyes didn’t soften. His jaw didn’t waver. He had already cut me loose. “This is over.”

Jedidiah’s voice slithered in from the bed, rich with mockery. “Ugh, just reject her already before she floods the floor.”

James didn’t hesitate. Not even for a heartbeat.

“I, James Dahl of Lionheart Pack, reject you, Abigail Aaro, as my mate.”

The bond snapped like a taut string breaking inside my chest. I gasped, clutching at the empty space where he’d once been a part of me. It was as though my soul had been ripped from my body, leaving a hollow, echoing cavern behind.

And then, as if I were already nothing, he climbed back into bed with her. I watched his lips crash against hers, watched her arms snake around his neck, pulling him closer as their bodies tangled again. He never once broke eye contact with me, as though daring me to watch, daring me to shatter.

I turned away before my knees gave out. I wasn’t staying. Not for him, not for my father, not for anyone.

Back in my room, I packed with shaking hands. My fingers fumbled over every buckle and strap, clumsy with grief. I shoved clothes into a bag without caring what they were, tears splattering the fabric. I had no one left in this pack. No one I could trust. Not a father, not a mate, not even a sister. The word family tasted poisonous now.

A knock sounded, sharp and deliberate. I froze, clutching my bag to my chest. For a moment, I thought James had followed me. Or worse — Jedidiah. But then an Omega’s voice slipped through the door, low and deferential.

“Your father requests your presence.”

Every instinct screamed to ignore it. To keep packing, to run, to disappear before they could take anything else from me. But curiosity, cruel and gnawing, won.

I forced myself to the study, each step heavier than the last. The door creaked open, and the smell of smoke and old leather filled my nose. My father sat behind his great oak desk, Luna Jessica perched elegantly at his side, her painted lips curving faintly upward. Around them, the council of elders stood like stone statues, their faces hard and unreadable.

Their conversation died the second I entered. Every head turned. Every pair of eyes cut into me, cold and assessing, as though I were already an outsider standing in someone else’s home.

They all stared at me like I didn’t belong.

And maybe I never had.