Chapter 3

Aurelia POV

Graves stared at me, the silence in the Luna's chambers stretching so tight I thought it might snap and take my head off. The mocking amusement vanished from his face, replaced by a terrifying, glacial fury. His Lycan blood and Alpha pride were bleeding, insulted that a wolfless weakling was the one demanding to sever our sacred bond.

I could feel his Inner Wolf thrashing beneath his skin, howling in an agony he clearly misinterpreted as pure rage.

"Fine," his voice dropped to a lethal, vibrating whisper. "You want the Rejection? You'll have it."

He stepped closer, and the sheer force of his Alpha aura-a suffocating, heavy wave of impending storm and rich leather-crushed the air from my lungs. I pressed my back hard against the headboard, refusing to look away.

"But know this, Aurelia," he sneered, his eyes entirely devoid of the man I once thought I loved. "When this is done, and you are out there with nothing, do not expect my mercy. You will regret this. And when you come crawling back to my territory, begging for scraps like a banished Omega, I will step right over you."

He didn't wait for my response. He turned on his heel and strode out of the freezing bedroom. The heavy oak door slammed shut behind him with a deafening crack that rattled the floorboards.

The moment his scent began to fade, the last of my strength evaporated. I collapsed onto the cold silk sheets, pulling my knees to my chest as violent sobs tore through my throat. The mate-bond was already fracturing, bleeding out into the dark. I pressed a trembling hand to my flat stomach. *He will never know,* I promised the tiny life blooming inside me. *I will protect you from him.*

The next morning, the atmosphere at WorldLink Group's headquarters was suffocating.

Graves's grand welcome for Davina Stewart had already spread through the Pack's Mind-Link like wildfire. As I sat at my desk outside the Alpha's office, acting as his "personal assistant," I was completely shut out of their telepathic chatter. But I didn't need a wolf to understand the smirks and the blatant disrespect.

A group of female Pack members clustered near the water cooler, their cheap perfumes mixing into a nauseating cloud.

"Is it true he's moving Davina into the east wing?" one of them asked, her eyes darting toward me with malicious curiosity. "You must know something, Aurelia. You're right outside his door."

I kept my eyes on my monitor, the sting of their exclusion burning my chest. "I don't know."

"Oh, please," another scoffed, leaning against my desk. "Stop acting so high and mighty. We all know who the real Luna is."

I slowly looked up, meeting her gaze with a cold, detached authority I didn't know I possessed. "Your job is to work, not to gossip about the Alpha's affairs."

They recoiled, momentarily stunned by my tone. But as they scattered back to their cubicles, their hushed whispers reached my ears. *Useless wolfless bitch. Once Davina is officially Luna, she'll be tossed out like garbage. She'll be a Rogue by the end of the week.*

I clenched my fists under the desk, swallowing the bitter pill of my reality.

By the time evening fell, the sprawling office had emptied out. I stood alone by the floor-to-ceiling windows, watching the city lights flicker to life. My human cell phone buzzed in my hand.

It was Blake Giles, my fiercely loyal best friend and the daughter of the Silver Creek Pack's Beta.

"Aurelia," Blake's voice crackled through the speaker, tight with anxiety. "My brother just told me about the Black Moon Pack's little welcome party. Tell me it's a lie."

"It's true," I said softly, leaning my forehead against the cool glass. "But it doesn't matter anymore, Blake. I asked him for the Rejection last night."

Blake gasped. "Are you insane? Where will you go? What about..." She paused, lowering her voice. "What about the baby?"

"He doesn't know, and he never will," I replied, my voice steadying. "I'm leaving him, Blake. I'm resigning tomorrow. And I'm bringing her back."

Silence hung on the line for a long second before Blake let out a breathless laugh. "You mean..."

"Yes," I said, a spark of genuine fire igniting in my chest for the first time in three years. "I gave up my entire life, my design empire, to be a good little wolfless wife. No more. Sloane Todd is returning."

"Hell yes," Blake cheered fiercely. "I'll get my contacts ready. We're going to take the fashion world by storm again, Aurelia. You won't need him."

"Thank you, Blake."

I lowered the phone, a fragile sense of hope finally taking root in my heart. I turned around to head back to my desk, but my breath hitched in my throat.

A massive shadow filled the doorway of my office, blocking out the hallway light. The suffocating, intoxicating scent of impending storm and rich leather instantly flooded the room.