Chapter 1

The autumn wind bit at my cheeks, but I didn't feel the cold. I only felt the warmth radiating from my stomach, where my hand rested protectively over the six-month swell of my pregnancy. Ten years. It had taken Luca and me ten years of building the Shadow Claw Pack, of fighting side by side as Chosen Mates, to finally be blessed with an heir.

"He's here, Luna!" Stormi, my Gamma and best friend, beamed from the bottom of the porch steps.

A ripple of excitement went through the gathered pack members. The convoy of black SUVs turned onto the long gravel driveway, kicking up dust that danced in the late afternoon sun. My heart hammered a frantic, joyful rhythm against my ribs. Luca had been gone for two weeks on pack business—the longest we had been apart since we exchanged our vows. I missed his scent. I missed the way his hand would rest over mine on my belly, feeling our pup kick.

The lead car came to a halt in front of the Pack House. I took a breath, smoothing down my maternity dress, preparing to welcome my Alpha home.

The driver’s door opened, and then the back door. Luca stepped out.

My smile wavered.

Usually, his eyes would find mine instantly. Usually, his face would soften, that secret smile reserved only for me tugging at his lips. But today, his jaw was set in a hard line. His eyes, usually a warm, melted chocolate, looked dark. Pitch black. Glazed over, as if he were looking through me rather than at me.

He didn't walk toward me. Instead, he turned and extended a hand into the backseat.

A woman stepped out.

She was petite, with cascading blonde hair and a pouty mouth painted a stark crimson. But it wasn't her appearance that hit me like a physical blow—it was the smell.

It hit the entire porch at once. A thick, cloying scent of vanilla and blooming roses. It was intense, suffocatingly sweet, and laced with a biological power that made the hair on my arms stand up. It smelled like a Mate Bond, but amplified a thousand times over. It smelled... wrong. Like flowers left too long in a vase, bordering on rot.

"Luca?" I whispered, stepping down the first stair. "Who is—"

He turned to me. The look on his face wasn't love. It was disgust.

"Luca, you're back," I tried again, my voice trembling. I reached for him, needing to touch him, to ground the sudden panic spiraling in my chest.

*"Back off!"*

The growl ripped from his throat, vibrating with such Alpha intensity that my knees buckled. I hit the gravel hard, gasping as the impact jarred my spine. My hands instinctively flew to my stomach to cushion the baby.

The pack fell into a dead silence. No Alpha growled at his Luna. Never.

"Luca?" I choked out, looking up at him through tear-filled eyes. "What is happening?"

He didn't help me up. He wrapped an arm around the blonde woman's waist, pulling her flush against his side. He buried his nose in her neck, inhaling that sickly sweet scent deeply, his eyes rolling back in his head as if he were drugged.

"Listen to me!" Luca’s voice boomed, infused with the Alpha Tone that commanded absolute submission. Every wolf in the yard lowered their head, trembling. "For ten years, I thought I had made the right choice. I thought I could defy fate with a Chosen Mate."

He looked down at me, kneeling in the dirt, pregnant with his child, and sneered.

"I was wrong. The Moon Goddess has finally blessed me. She has corrected my mistake."

He raised the woman's hand. "This is Kara Morgan. My *true* Fated Mate."

The world stopped. The buzzing in my ears drowned out the gasps of the pack. Fated? But we were happy. We were perfect.

"Luca, please," I begged, struggling to stand, fighting the crushing weight of his aura. "The baby... our heir..."

"There is no heir of mine in that womb," Luca spat, his voice devoid of any warmth. "Only the product of a weak, placeholder bond."

Kara smirked, leaning into him, her eyes gleaming with malice. "Oh, Luca," she purred, her voice like poisoned honey. "It's so sad. She really thinks she still matters."

Luca's expression hardened. He looked at the pack, then pointed a trembling finger at me. "I, Luca Kennedy, Alpha of the Shadow Claw Pack, hereby strip Anastasia Cruz of her title as Luna."

A scream tore from my throat, raw and agonizing. The metaphysical bond, the golden thread that tied me to the pack's power, snapped. I felt the loss physically, like a limb being torn from my body. I collapsed forward, retching dryly.

"Take her things out of the Alpha suite," Luca commanded, not even looking at me as I sobbed into the gravel. "Burn them. I want no trace of her scent near my Mate."

"Luca, no!" I crawled forward, grabbing the hem of his pants. "You're not yourself! Look at me! It's Ana!"

He kicked his leg out, shaking me off like a stray dog.

"You are no longer Luna," he said, his voice cold as ice. "You are an Omega. You will reside in the servants' quarters in the basement. You will cook, you will clean, and you will serve the pack until you learn your place."

"The basement?" I whispered, horror dawning on me. "Luca, it's full of mold. The dampness... the baby..."

"If the pup is strong, it will survive," he said dismissively, turning his back on me to nuzzle Kara again. "If it dies, it was never meant to be."

Two enforcers, wolves I had fed at my own table, stepped forward, their heads low in shame but unable to disobey an Alpha command. They grabbed my arms.

"Get her out of my sight," Luca growled, leading Kara up the stairs of the house I had made a home.

As they dragged me away, kicking and screaming for the man who promised to love me forever, I saw Kara look back over her shoulder. She didn't look at Luca. She looked right at me, and she winked.