Chapter 1

My fiancé Damon Warwick's "bestie" played a little too hard at a full-moon rager and paid the price.

Drugged and pregnant with some random wolf's pup, she didn't know who the father was.

Right in the middle of our mating ceremony, Damon publicly rejected me in front of the entire pack.

"Sylvia, I have to step up for Elena and her baby," he declared. "She won't survive without me."

I calmly slid off the wolf bone ring he'd given me and accepted his rejection.

In my previous life, I couldn't handle the humiliation. I threw a fit and exposed Elena Blackwood's dirty secret right then and there, telling everyone she was carrying some random guy's bastard.

The pack banished her. Shunned by everyone, she lost her mind and jumped off a cliff.

Damon didn't react when he found out. Instead, he waited. He stripped me naked, locked me in a pitch-black den, and let a gang of rogues he hired torment me.

"If it weren't for you, Elena would still be alive," he'd growled. "You're going to pay back every ounce of her suffering, a hundred times over!"

As those beasts tore me apart limb from limb, I finally realized the sheer depth of his hatred.

But now, I was back. I opened my eyes to the exact moment Damon was rejecting me in front of the crowd.

*****

Moonlight fractured through the enchanted crystals on the mating altar, casting a brilliant glow over the ceremony.

The familiar scent of cedar drifted into my nose, quickly followed by Damon's icy voice.

"Sylvia, I reject you as my fated mate," he said.

My grip tightened around the bouquet of evening primrose until my knuckles turned stark white.

The surrounding air turned to ice. Hundreds of eyes locked onto me, sharp as daggers.

"Have you lost your damn mind?" roared Cedric Warwick, Damon's father, the Alpha of the Warwick Clan. "Put the wolf bone ring on Sylvia's finger right now!"

"Damon." Elena's whimpering voice cut through Cedric's fury. "Don't fight because of me. I'll leave."

"Elena, stay." Damon pulled her against his chest. "I promised I'd take care of you, and I meant it."

The crowd below the altar erupted into chaos.

"Isn't that the half-breed bastard who can't shift?"

"I heard she was brawling with knives at a human spot a few days ago."

"Talk about shameless. How dare she try to steal a pureblood heiress's man?"

Cedric shook with rage. "Guards, get Damon back to the estate!"

"Excuse us, sir," several burly guards muttered, stepping forward to drag Damon away.

"Hold on." I calmly tore off my bridal veil.

With my vision clear, I watched Damon hold Elena close as she clung to him in her white dress.

Elena caught me looking, shot me a glance, and quickly buried her face back into Damon's chest, her shoulders trembling.

Damon looked at me, disgust flaring in his eyes. "Sylvia, don't—"

"Save your breath," I cut him off. "I'm stepping aside. She can have you."

Damon froze, blindsided by my reaction.

Once the shock wore off, a look of pure relief washed over his face.

He pulled out a settlement contract stamped with the Warwick crest, quickly signing over a massive amount of compensation.

"Consider these lands and assets my compensation for you," Damon said, pushing the paper toward me.

His voice was ice cold. "You're a noble pureblood. You'll have no trouble finding another good mate. But Elena is different. Without me..."

"She won't survive?" I snatched the contract and scoffed. "You worry too much. Look at her rosy cheeks and steady breathing. Does she look like she's on death's door to you?"

Elena froze at my words, her face scrunched up, looking all hurt.

"Sylvia, Damon and I are close friends, and he's doing this out of the goodness of his heart," she whimpered. "Please, don't hate us."

She looked up with tear-filled eyes, but deep in her gaze, I caught a flash of smug triumph.

I knew that look. It was burned into my very soul.

In my previous life, that exact look set me off. I lost my temper and screamed her dirty secret to the crowd, exposing her pregnancy.

The pack turned on her, banishing her to the wild, where she eventually lost her mind and jumped off a cliff.

And Damon blamed me for every drop of her blood.

After we became mates, he dragged me straight into hell.

He locked me in a pitch-black den, drugging me with heat-inducing toxins every night, and left me at the mercy of a pack of rogues he hired to tear me apart.

Filthy claws ripped my clothes to shreds. My screams and struggles only earned me brutal kicks and blows.

Damon's monstrous accusations still haunted me, ringing loud in my head. "If it weren't for you, Elena would still be alive. This is what you owe her!"

"Lady Sylvia?" A tentative voice pulled me back from the edge of my trauma.

Taking a slow breath, I folded the settlement contract and slid it into my clutch.

I announced, "Since Damon has made his choice, I won't waste my breath begging. I want everyone here to witness this.

"From this moment on, Damon and I are finished."