Chapter 3

Gloria POV:

The guards threw me into my room and locked the door from the outside.

I didn't bang on the door. I didn't cry. I stood in the center of the room, breathing deeply, centering my qi.

I walked to the balcony. We were on the third floor, but for a wolf of my caliber, this was nothing. I vaulted over the railing, landing silently on the grass below.

I caught a scent on the wind.

It was distinct. Darwin's pine mixed with Elyssa's vanilla and the copper tang of her blood from the "injury" I gave her.

They weren't at the Pack hospital. The scent trail led into the woods, toward the private vacation cabin near the lake.

I followed the trail. I moved like a ghost, blending into the shadows of the trees.

Within ten minutes, I was crouching in the bushes outside the cabin. The lights were dim, but the floor-to-ceiling glass windows offered a front-row seat to my nightmare.

Darwin was standing by the fireplace. He was stripping off his tuxedo. His body began to shudder and crack.

The Shift.

Bones rearranged, snapping and lengthening. Fur sprouted from his skin. Within seconds, a massive grey wolf stood where my husband had been.

Elyssa was on the sofa. Her wrist was miraculously healed-she must have used a healing potion, or the break was theater. She was naked.

The grey wolf approached her. He didn't approach her with the reverence of a mate. He approached her with animalistic lust.

I watched as he mounted her.

It wasn't lovemaking. It was breeding. It was primal, violent, and loud.

Through the glass, my wolf hearing picked up every sound.

"Yes, Alpha," Elyssa moaned. "Make me your Luna."

Darwin shifted back into human form mid-act, his skin glistening with sweat. He gripped her hips, driving into her.

"You feel so much better than her," Darwin grunted. "She's so cold. So stiff. You... you are fire."

"She's weak, Darwin," Elyssa panted. "She can't even give you a pup. I will. I'll give you a strong son."

"I know," Darwin whispered against her neck. "I know. The bond... it pulls me to her, but I hate it. I hate being tied to a weakling."

Crack.

A sound echoed in my chest, louder than a gunshot.

It was the Mate Bond.

Until this moment, the bond had been stretched, bruised, ignored. But hearing him reject the very essence of our connection-hearing him choose lust over the sacred gift of the Moon Goddess-shattered it.

I fell to my knees in the dirt.

Pain, blinding and absolute, ripped through me. It felt like someone had reached into my chest and torn my heart in half. I gasped for air, clutching the grass, trying not to scream.

If I screamed, they would hear me.

Let it go, my inner wolf howled in agony. He is poison. Cut him out!

Inside the cabin, Darwin paused. He flinched, rubbing his chest as if he felt a phantom pain.

"What is it?" Elyssa asked.

"Nothing," Darwin muttered, shaking his head. "Just... indigestion."

He ignored the pain of the bond breaking. He ignored the soul-sickness. He went back to kissing his mistress.

I slowly stood up. The pain was still there, a dull, throbbing void where his love used to be. But the sharp, crippling agony was gone.

I looked at my reflection in the darkened glass of the window.

My eyes.

Usually, they were a warm hazel. But now, in the moonlight, they were glowing. Not the yellow of a normal wolf, nor the red of an Alpha.

They were glowing a brilliant, liquid silver.

The White Wolf was waking up.

"Enjoy it while it lasts, Darwin," I whispered, my voice carrying the weight of a curse. "Because when I am done with you, you will wish you had died tonight."

I turned my back on the cabin and vanished into the night.