Chapter 1

On our fifth mating anniversary, my husband came home with his pregnant first love—and ordered me to prepare her Luna coronation.

I stood in the center of the Blackwood Pack hall, surrounded by white roses.

I had filled the Blackwood Pack hall with white roses for Gideon’s homecoming.

Three months.

That was how long he had been away searching for a cure for his Blood Moon curse.

When the heavy oak doors finally opened, the familiar scent of pine and rain swept through the hall.

My heart lurched.

My Alpha was home.

Then I saw the woman holding his hand.

She was small and golden-haired, dressed in a pale traveling cloak. Gideon’s fingers were locked around hers, while his other hand rested possessively against the curve of her lower back.

His scent covered her.

He had marked her with the territorial scent an Alpha reserved for the female he had claimed.

The warmth inside my chest disappeared.

"Aveline," Gideon’s deep voice rumbled. "This is Talia. She saved me during my full moon shift near the border."

Talia Voss.

His first love. The woman who had mysteriously vanished years ago.

Around us, the pack members began to whisper. The room buzzed like a hive of angry hornets.

"Isn’t that Talia?"

"Look how close the Alpha is to her..."

"Where is the Luna’s respect?"

I didn’t lower my head. I kept my chin up, reminding myself that I was still the Luna of this pack.

At least, for now.

Suddenly, Talia gasped. She pressed a pale hand to her mouth and swayed, leaning heavily against Gideon’s solid chest.

"Gideon, I feel sick," she whimpered, looking up at him with wide, teary eyes.

Gideon’s face instantly twisted into panic. All the cold detachment vanished. He scooped her into his arms effortlessly—the great, stoic Alpha of the Blackwood Pack, looking utterly terrified for another woman.

"Someone get the Pack Doctor!" Gideon roared.

Without a second glance at me, he carried her straight to the head of the long table.

To my seat.

White rose petals scattered beneath his boots.

No one spoke while the doctor examined her. The entire pack watched Gideon kneel beside Talia, one hand clasped around hers.

At last, the doctor stood.

A smile spread across Gideon’s face before the man even spoke.

"Talia is healthy," he announced to the hall. "And she is carrying my Alpha heir."

The silence that followed was brutal.

Then every face turned toward me.

Not toward the returning Alpha.

Not toward the woman carrying his child.

Toward the Luna who had failed to give the pack an heir.

For sixty full moons, I had drawn Gideon’s curse into my own body.

He slept peacefully while my bones burned.

His wolf remained strong while mine sank deeper into silence.

The curse had weakened my body so severely that the healers said I might never carry a pup.

I had accepted every loss because I believed I was saving the man I loved.

Now he stood before the pack, smiling proudly over the child another woman had given him.

My vision blurred.

I dug my nails into my palms until the pain cleared it.

I would not cry in front of them.

Gideon crossed the hall and seized my wrist.

"Come with me."

He dragged me into the empty corridor and shut the door behind us.

The mate bond should have sent sparks racing across my skin at his touch.

I felt nothing but pressure from his fingers.

"Aveline, be reasonable," he said. "Talia is carrying my child. The pack needs an heir."

"And the child’s mother needs my seat?"

His jaw tightened.

"Talia will become Luna."

The words landed more cleanly than a blade.

I looked directly into his eyes.

"What happens to me?"

His expression relaxed, as though he had been waiting to explain his generous solution.

"You will stay."

"As what?"

"My second wife."

For a moment, I wondered whether I had heard him correctly.

Gideon continued before I could answer.

"Talia’s body is delicate. She cannot manage the pack house or handle Luna duties. You will continue overseeing the servants, the wounded warriors, and the household accounts."

He spoke calmly, arranging the ruins of my life into a convenient schedule.

"When the child is born, you will help raise it. And during the full moon, you will continue calming my wolf."

I stared at him.

He didn't want to spare my feelings.

He just wanted to keep his medicine and his maid under the same roof.

Before I could speak, Gideon reached into his heavy wool coat. He pulled out the Luna Crown—a breathtaking silver circlet forged in ancient moonlight.

My crown.

He pressed it firmly into my hands.

"Tomorrow night, you will place this on Talia’s head."

His Alpha aura crashed over me.

The command pressed against my weakened wolf, forcing my shoulders down. My knees bent, but I caught the stone wall and remained standing.

Gideon’s eyes narrowed.

"You will tell the pack that giving her the title was your willing choice," he added. "There will be no scene."

He released me and returned to the hall.

Through the closed door, I heard Talia laugh softly.

I looked down at the crown in my hands.

It felt heavy as iron, mocking every single one of the 1,825 days I had spent loving him.

My fingers tightened around the cold silver.

Then I walked back into the hall.

The pack steward hurried toward me. He looked nervous, as though he expected me to collapse.

"Luna, shall I prepare the coronation here?"

"No."

I placed the crown inside its ceremonial case and closed the lid.

"Move the ceremony to the Moon Goddess Temple."

It was the oldest sacred ground in Blackwood territory.

Every vow spoken before its altar became binding.

Even an Alpha could not command the Goddess to ignore a Luna’s words.

Gideon had ordered me to prepare Talia’s coronation.

So I would.

Tomorrow night, the entire pack would gather before the Moon Goddess.

They expected to watch me surrender my crown.

They had no idea they were about to witness the end of something far more important.