Chapter 2 The Fall

Maya

Mason went completely still on top of me.

The room felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of it. I could feel his heartbeat against my chest... fast, confused, angry.

"What..." His voice came out rough. "What did you just say?"

I pulled the sheets up to cover myself, suddenly very aware of how naked and vulnerable I was. "I said we should-"

A sharp knock at the door cut me off.

"Alpha!" Blackburn's voice came through, urgent and breathless. Blackburn was Mason's beta-his right hand, his best friend since childhood. He never interrupted unless it was serious. "You have a visitor. She says it's urgent."

She.

My stomach dropped.

Mason's jaw clenched. "Are you kidding me right now, Blackburn? I'm with my wife. Tell whoever it is to come back tomorrow."

"She insists it can't wait," Blackburn said, and I could hear the strain in his voice. "She says you'll want to hear what she has to say."

The air between Mason and me had turned to ice.

"It's fine," I heard myself saying. "Go deal with your guest, Alpha. We can... we can talk later."

Mason stared down at me for a long moment, his blue eyes unreadable. Then he climbed off the bed and grabbed his robe from the chair, yanking it on with sharp, angry movements.

He paused at the door and looked back at me.

"There's nothing to talk about, Maya," he said, his voice like steel. "We're not getting a divorce."

Then he was gone, the door slamming behind him hard enough to rattle the frame.

I sat there in the sudden silence, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might crack my ribs.

What the hell just happened?

Why was he angry? Why did he care? His first love was back, the woman he'd actually chosen, the woman he'd begged to stay. He should be thrilled that I was giving him an easy out.

So why did he look at me like I'd just stabbed him?

I pressed my hands to my face, trying to think through the chaos in my head.

The baby. I have to think about the baby.

The contract said I was supposed to hand over the child once it was born. Just give up my baby and walk away like none of this ever happened.

But I couldn't do that. Not now. Not ever.

The thought of Mason raising my child with her, with Seraphina playing stepmother, probably erasing every trace of me from the baby's life, made me want to throw up.

No. Absolutely not.

A plan started forming in my mind, desperate and half-formed but better than nothing.

I wouldn't tell Mason about the pregnancy. I'd wait until things settled down, then I'd leave. Disappear. Start over somewhere far away where the Southern Pack's influence couldn't reach me.

I'd raise my baby alone. It would be hard, maybe impossible, but at least my child would be mine.

Decision made, I got dressed and slipped out of Mason's room.

I'd been waiting for almost two hours, but he never came back. Whatever his "urgent visitor" wanted, it was taking a long time.

Or maybe he's just avoiding me, I thought bitterly.

I needed to get out of here. Back to my own room where I could think, where I could breathe.

I headed for the staircase that led down from the Alpha's wing, my mind spinning with plans and contingencies and-

I walked straight into someone at the top of the stairs.

"Oh!" I stumbled backward, catching myself on the railing.

Then I looked up only to see Seraphina standing in front of me, blocking my path.

She looked... different. Fuller than I remembered, curves that definitely hadn't been there a year ago. Her dress was red and tight and left almost nothing to the imagination, the kind of outfit you wore when you wanted someone's attention.

When you wanted someone to remember what they'd been missing.

For a second, she just stared at me. Then something ugly flickered across her face, something that looked a lot like hate. It was gone so fast I almost thought I'd imagined it.

"Good evening, Luna," Seraphina said, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. She even gave me a little bow. "It's been quite some time."

I blinked at her, caught completely off guard by the sudden politeness.

She laughed... sharp and brittle. "Why do you look so confused? Are you not used to being called 'Luna' yet?" Her smile turned sharp. "Or maybe it's guilt. Maybe deep down you know that title doesn't really belong to you."

The words hit like a slap, but I kept my face neutral. I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of seeing me flinch.

Seraphina moved closer, invading my space until I could smell her perfume, something expensive and cloying. She was taller than me, more graceful, more everything.

She'd make a perfect Luna, a small, cruel voice in my head whispered.

Then I noticed it, her lipstick was smudged. Just slightly, at the corner of her mouth, like someone had kissed her hard enough to mess it up.

My eyes locked on that smudge. I couldn't look away.

Seraphina noticed where I was staring. She reached up and touched her lips, a satisfied smile spreading across her face.

"This?" she said, like we were girlfriends sharing gossip. "Someone got a little... enthusiastic when he saw me. Couldn't keep his hands to himself. Kept saying how much he missed me, how empty everything's been without me."

She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.

"I'm sure you can guess who I'm talking about, Luna." She drew out the title like an insult. "Or should I say... soon-to-be ex-Luna?"

Something inside me snapped.

"Hello, Miss Seraphina," I said, my voice artificially bright. I stuck out my hand. "Since this is our first official meeting, I suppose I should say... nice to meet you?"

She looked at my outstretched hand like it was a dead fish.

"Is it, though?" she said. "Nice to meet me? Let's not pretend, Maya. We both hate this. We both hate each other. So why bother with the fake pleasantries?"

"I don't hate you," I said, and I was surprised to realize it was true.

Seraphina laughed. "Maybe you don't. But I certainly hate you." Her eyes flashed with genuine venom. "You've spent a whole year playing house with a man who doesn't belong to you. You sleep next to him every night knowing you destroyed what we had. Tell me, dear Luna...how does that feel? Do you sleep well at night?"

I rolled my eyes before I could stop myself. My patience was officially gone.

"We're mates, Miss Seraphina," I retorted, my voice tinged with frustration. "It's not a choice I made or desired. Fate bound us together, it is not my fault that fate did not choose you. If you have grievances, perhaps they're better directed at the moon goddess herself, wouldn't you agree?"

I saw the rage flare in Seraphina's eyes before she could hide it.

"Oh, how convenient," she hissed. "Blame everything on fate. Pretend you're just an innocent victim in all this. You're bolder than I thought, Maya."

"There doesn't have to be animosity between us," I said tiredly. "It's nobody's fault. We're bound by a mate bond. That's just reality."

Seraphina's smile turned predatory.

"You know," she said slowly, "you talk about this mate bond so much. Like it's this sacred, unbreakable thing." She tilted her head, studying me. "It makes me wonder... is it really as strong as you think?"

My chest tightened. "What are you talking about?"

"An experiment," Seraphina said, her eyes glittering with malice. "Let's test this mate bond of yours. If it's really so powerful, if it really means Mason is bound to you..." She paused dramatically. "Then he'd choose you over me, wouldn't he? His mate over the love of his life?"

Before I could process what she was saying, before I could even move-

Seraphina threw herself backward down the stairs.

Everything happened in slow motion. Seraphina's body tumbling down the staircase, her limbs flailing, her scream echoing off the walls. The sickening series of thuds as she hit each step.

Then she was at the bottom, crumpled and still.

I stood frozen at the top of the stairs, my hand still outstretched like I could somehow have caught her.

What just happened? Did she just-did she really just-

Suddenly the packhouse exploded with noise.

Maids came running. Pack members emerged from doorways. And Mason came sprinting down the hallway, his face white with panic.

He dropped to his knees beside Seraphina's body.

That's when I saw it.

The baby.

Mason was holding a baby. A tiny infant, maybe six months old, cradled against his chest like he'd been carrying it the whole time.

My brain couldn't make sense of it. Where had the baby come from? Why did Mason have it? What-

"Luna!"

Seraphina's voice cut through my spiraling thoughts.

She was sitting up now, one hand pressed to her head, the other reaching toward the crowd that had gathered around her. She looked fragile and hurt and innocent.

Her eyes found mine. And in them, just for a split second, I saw triumph.

"Luna, I don't understand," Seraphina said, her voice trembling. "Why would you assume I'm here to steal the Alpha from you?"

She pressed her hand to her chest, tears gathering in her eyes.

"I greeted you with nothing but respect," Seraphina continued, her voice breaking beautifully. "Yes, I came unexpectedly but do I really deserve to be assaulted by you?"

Her words rang perfectly, a performance worthy of an Oscar award but since I was the pawn in this, the only question in my head was, what game was Seraphina playing?