Chapter 1

At the bachelor party, the lights burned hot and hazy, the air thick with sweat and alcohol.

And yet Darren—the Alpha with obsessive cleanliness—lifted Paisley’s glass without hesitation, brought it to his lips, and drank.

My breath caught. That single moment slammed into my chest like a hammer.

The instant the rim of her cup touched his mouth, I knew.

He’d fallen for his precious junior.

My wolf, Emily, seethed inside me, her fury crashing like waves. Her voice sliced through my skull:

“Scarlett, he’s betrayed us!”

I soothed her softly, though my nails dug crescents deep into my palms.

“I’ll ask him. I’ll make him choose.”

That night, I confronted him.

Either call off the wedding—

or cut her grades, cut her future, cut her out.

But he never answered.

He disappeared the whole night.

The house was hollow, silent. Only me inside.

And my chest—emptied, gutted, hollowed out like something had been stolen.

Not until dawn did the sound of the lock turning jolt me upright.

He walked in, exhaustion shadowing his face.

And with a dismissive calm that burned worse than fire, he said the words:

“The wedding will go on as planned.”

In that moment, I couldn’t hold back the joy flooding my chest. My eyes burned hot, as if every shadow had finally been shattered.

I thought this would be the most perfect Moon Ceremony of my life.

—But I was wrong.

On the day of the Moon Ceremony, under the gaze of every guest, he looked at me in my wedding gown with nothing but naked disgust.

“The mate I wanted was never you.”

“I regret it. I should never have let her go.”

His voice was cold, cruel, magnified through the speakers until every werewolf noble in attendance heard it.

And just like that—

I became their laughingstock.

Then I saw his post on Instagram.

The photo showed him in the tuxedo I had chosen, his lips crushed to Paisley’s, their mouths locked in a sticky, obscene kiss.

The caption read only one line:

“This time, I choose love.”

The notifications poured in. I opened the comments, each one stabbing into my eyes with names I knew all too well:

“Darren is ruthless. He ground Scarlett’s pride into the dirt.”

“Leaving his mate at the Moon Ceremony, then kissing Paisley in front of everyone? Scarlett is useless—she can’t even hold her fiancé.”

“Scarlett’s a fool if she thought the Fate Mate bond was enough to tie down an Alpha.”

Slowly, my gaze slid from the glowing phone screen to the ring resting on the table.

My heart had already gone numb with pain. Tears spilled unchecked, blurring the letters engraved inside the band—our names.

My wolf, Emily, nearly tore free, her growl reverberating in my skull.

“Throw the ring away. Throw him away. He betrayed us!”

But I whispered back, trembling, “But… he loves me. He told me so. He said the ring had a magnetic seal—that whenever we were close, it would pull us together.”

I didn’t know who I was trying to convince. Only that my cheeks burned hot with tears.

He once told me, “I have severe OCD. But with you, I don’t resist closeness internally.”

And I believed him. I thought the ring was proof of his love.

I was willing to endure anything, as long as he loved me.

But I should have known.

On that bachelor’s night, I saw it with my own eyes—

When he lifted Paisley’s cup—

And without a flicker of hesitation, drank.

And when he caught me staring at the glass, Paisley turned her head, smiling as she explained—

“Scarlett, don’t overthink it. Sometimes when meetings drag on for hours, everyone just shares one glass of water. You don’t mind… do you?”

I hadn’t even spoken before another voice cut in, an arm slipping around mine, dripping with mockery.

“Scarlett wouldn’t be upset over something so small. She’s used to it by now.”

The sneers hit me like slaps, stripping me raw until I wanted to vanish into the floor.

My body trembled with fury, but their voices kept ringing—

“Scarlett is so generous.”

“Scarlett never minds.”

I turned helplessly toward Darren—

Only to see his gaze fixed entirely on Paisley.

In that moment, I froze.

The look in his eyes—I had never seen it before.

A tenderness so deep, so lingering, so soft it burned.

I forced a smile, stiff and broken, staring at him with eyes that laughed and cried all at once.

Because I finally understood.

That tenderness was never mine.

It never had been.