“I won’t let you do this!” My son screamed as he rushed down the stairs,unching himself in front of me like a cannonball.

I watched my son with an expressionless face as he nted himself between me and the assembled servants, his amber eyes zing with indignation.

“You can’t destroy our home!” His voice rose to a near-shriek. “Dad designed everything himself! My toys, my training grounds, the swimming pool-” His voice brokepletely.

“And the swing ra made for me in the garden!”

ra. Always ra.

My own son was more concerned about preserving his father’s mistress’s handiwork than respecting his mother’s wishes.

For the first time in his five years of life, I looked at Leo without a trace of warmth.

Without love. Without the maternal softness that had always melted my heart when he smiled.

He must have seen it in my eyes because he stumbled backward, suddenly small and uncertain. “Mom?” His voice was barely a whisper.

“Livy, what’s this about?” Theodore appeared like magic, his voice gentle butmanding as he ced protective hands on Leo’s shoulders.

“Surely you don’t mean to demolish our family home?”

I wanted tough at the irony. Our family home

—the same home where he’d been f***g his mistress in my car just hours ago.

“It’s for Leo’s birthday celebration,” Theodore continued smoothly, shooting me a meaningful look. “We’re going to have a new family member soon, so we need to redesign theyout. Isn’t that right, darling?”

The lie rolled off his tongue so easily. Six years of marriage, and I was still discovering new depths to his deception.

“Hmm.” The sound escaped me like air from a punctured balloon.

Leo’s face immediately brightened, the fear vanishing as if it had never existed. He threw himself at me, wrapping his small arms around my waist.

“Mom, I misunderstood you! You really do love me the most!”

My hands moved automatically to embrace him, muscle memory overriding the hollowness in my chest. But just as my arms were about to close around his small frame, he broke away, skipping to the other side of the dining hall to stuff his mouth with pancakes.

My arms hung suspended in empty air, frozen mid-embrace like a statue of maternal love that no one wanted.

Theodore knelt before me, his warm hands capturing my cold ones. “Why do you really want to destroy the car, Livvy?”

The Porsche. Where I’d watched him take ra like an animal in heat. Where his hands had gripped her throat while she moaned his name.

“I don’t like it anymore,” I said tly. “I don’t want it.”

“Even if you don’t like your belongings,”

Theodore’s voice was carefully controlled, “they shouldn’t be touched by others.”

His words hit me like a p in the face. He knew. He always knew what kind of person I was, that I would never allow anyone to touch what was mine, yet he still betrayed me.

“Where will we live?” Leo piped up through a mouthful of food.

“We’re moving back to the Redgrave Ancestral Hall,” Theodore announced. “To keep Grandma Eleonorapany.”

My escape n crumbled. I’d intended to move to an apartment near the pack tower, somewhere I could slip away easily when Matthew’s people arrived. But I couldn’t protest without arousing suspicion-the old Olivia had always loved staying with Eleonora.

“Yes!” Leo cheered, syrup dripping down his chin. “Grandma gives me candy and tells me stories about the old pack hunts!”

Theodore stepped into the garden to make a phone call, his hand absently touching the swing ra had made. The sight of him caressing something she’d built made bile rise in my throat.

I stood abruptly. “I’m leaving for work.”

My untouched breakfast sat abandoned on the table. Even the sight of food made me nauseous.

Alistair followed me to the car with a single suitcase-all that remained of my possessions after I’d removed everything that reminded me of Theodore and Leo. Six years of marriage, reduced to one small bag.

How pathetic. I’d spent so long amodating them, cing myselfst in every decision, that l’d disappeared entirely.

At the Redgrave Pack Tower, I handed my resignation letter to Gideon, the head of finance. His expression was very tense

“Luna, have we done something wrong? If there’s been an error in the ounts-”

“This is my personal decision,” I cut him off.

“Nothing to do with your work.”

The truth was, I never belonged here. While everyone thought I was studying abroad in Europe, I was actually training with Matthew Kane’s organization.

To be Theodore’s mate, I left the organization and swore never to use the tracking andbat skills they taught me. This led them to believe I was just another pretty Luna, useless for anything but decoration.

That’s why they threw me into a ce like the finance department.

Soon, they’d learn how wrong they were.

“Livy!” Evelyn burst through my office door, tears streaming down her face. This was only the second time I’d seen her cry-the first had been at my mating ceremony, when shed wept with joy.

“That bastard Caleb!” she sobbed, throwing herself into the chair across from my desk.

“He’s been having an affair with that little b***h ra! I want to break off our engagement!”

My heart clenched. Caleb had helped cover up Theodore’s affair, but seeing my best friend’s pain made my own betrayal burn fresh and raw.

“Evie…” I reached across the desk to take her hands.

“He thinks I’m stupid!” Her voice cracked. “He thinks I don’t know about his secret meetings, histe nights, the way he smells like jasmine when hees home!”

Jasmine. ra’s scent.

“Evie, no, Caleb didn’t betray you.”

“Livvy, stop trying to cover for him. I know everything. News of what happened yesterday is all over the ce.” Evelyn’s sobs wereced with anger. “I’m going to break off our engagement.”

Evelyn really liked Caleb. Even though they weren’t fated mates, she was determined to marry him.

I can’t ruin my friend’s rtionship because of US.

“Evie,” I said quietly, “ra isn’t Caleb’s mistress.”

She looked up, confused. “What do you mean?”

I took a shaky breath, feeling the words tear my throat raw. “She’s Theodore’s. Theodore betrayed me.”

The office door mmed open.