Chapter 1

A woman brought a boy into my clinic with my mate's eyes and a genetic disorder exclusive to his Alpha bloodline. She named my mate, Damien, as the father, and through our bond, I felt his love for her as he lied about where he was.

That night at the pack gala, he shoved me to protect that boy, causing me to miscarry the baby I'd just learned I was carrying. As I bled on the floor, he comforted his son over a scraped knee, never once looking back at me.

His mistress later pushed me from a cliff, rejecting me in his name. But I survived, and a week later, I boarded a plane to Switzerland, ready to be reborn from the ashes of the woman he destroyed.

Chapter 1

ELARA POV:

The sterile scent of medicinal herbs filled my office, a fragrance that usually calmed my soul. Today, it felt like a cage. It was my first day as the Chief Healer of the Black Moon Pack, a position I had earned, a position my mate, Alpha Damien Blackwood, had celebrated with me.

But the woman sitting across from me was not a patient seeking comfort. She was a declaration of war.

Her name was Cassia Thorne, an Omega from the lower ranks. Her son, a small boy with Damien's stormy grey eyes, fidgeted on her lap.

"He has these... episodes," Cassia said, her voice a soft purr that grated on my nerves. "The pack doctors are useless. They said only the Chief Healer could diagnose it."

I looked at the boy, Leo. His energy felt erratic, a chaotic hum that was faint but familiar. It was a rare energy imbalance, one I had only read about in ancient texts, a disorder that occurred exclusively in the Black Moon Pack's Alpha bloodline.

My inner wolf stirred, a low growl of unease in the back of my mind.

Then I caught it. A scent clinging to the boy, so faint it was almost lost beneath the smell of his mother's cheap perfume. It was the scent of a storm breaking over a pine forest, of raw earth and crackling lightning. It was Damien's scent. My mate's scent.

My heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic drumbeat of denial.

"And the father's name?" I asked, my voice tight as I pushed a patient intake form across the desk.

Cassia smiled, a slow, deliberate curve of her lips. She picked up the pen and wrote in elegant script: Damien Blackwood.

The name stared up at me, a black stain on the white paper. The world tilted.

"An Alpha's bloodline," Cassia said, her eyes fixed on mine, "needs a complete family to protect it, don't you think, Healer Vance?"

The provocation was as sharp as a silver blade. Before I could answer, her phone buzzed. She answered it, her voice turning saccharine sweet. "Damien, darling..."

Through our mate bond, the sacred link the Moon Goddess forges between two destined souls, I felt a wave of warmth and affection from Damien. It was directed at the woman in front of me. The feeling was a physical blow, stealing the air from my lungs.

I closed my eyes and reached out to him through our Mind-Link, the silent speech of our pack.

"Where are you?" I sent, my thought laced with a desperation I couldn't hide.

His reply came instantly, smooth and practiced. "In a meeting with the Elders, my love. Might be late for dinner."

The lie was a shard of ice in the bond, a cold, sickening thing that twisted in my gut.

Cassia hung up the phone, her smile widening into a triumphant smirk. "Damien is on his way to pick us up."

I stood and walked to the window, my movements stiff. My office overlooked the main plaza. A few minutes later, Damien's black car pulled up. He got out, not with the formal bearing of an Alpha attending to pack business, but with the relaxed ease of a father.

He swept the boy, Leo, into his arms. I watched him talk to Cassia, his head bent close to hers, a picture of domestic bliss. A perfect Alpha family.

A sharp mental chime, the unique signature of my mate's Mind-Link, echoed in my consciousness.

"Meeting ran long," his mental voice said, laced with false regret. "The team decided on dinner out. I won't be home tonight."

But behind his words, another sound bled through the link, a sound he couldn't hide. A child's happy cry.

"Daddy!"

The lie shattered the last of my composure. My world, which had been built around him, crumbled into dust.

My hands were shaking, but my actions were steady. I picked up my desk phone, my fingers dialing a number I had memorized months ago, a number I had never called for his sake.

A calm, accented voice answered on the second ring. "Sanctuary of the Moon, Director Alistair speaking."

"Director," I said, my voice hollow. "This is Elara Vance from the Black Moon Pack. Regarding the six-month research fellowship... is the position still open?"

There was a pause. "Miss Vance. We had almost given up on you. Yes, it is. But the program requires complete isolation. No contact with your home pack for the full term."

"I understand," I said, looking out the window at the man who was my everything, my soul's other half, as he drove away with his other family. "I accept."