Chapter 1

Samuel North and I were the pack's nightmare couple. Every wolf in our territory knew the story.

He kept a she-wolf on the side to spite me, so I ran him down with my truck and shattered his leg.

He snuck off to howl at his first love's grave, so I smashed her headstone with a silver-tipped baseball bat.

We'd been locked in this blood feud for twenty years. Cursed each other to die rogue deaths more times than I could count.

But when we both got bitten by the same wolfsbane viper, Samuel shoved the last vial of antivenom into my hands. He chose my life over his own.

As his wolf faded, Samuel whispered, "Noemi, I don't owe you anything in this life. Next time, just let me go. Let me be with Maggie, okay?"

Maggie Warren was my sister. The pack's beloved false Luna, the impostor everyone adored.

Turns out, she was the one they'd all wanted from the start.

So when I opened my eyes again, back on that night, the one where the drugged wine was still sweating on the table, I didn't wait for the heat to take me.

I stabbed my own thigh with a fruit knife, the pain screaming through my wolf, just to keep my head clear. Then I turned and walked out.

This time, let's keep our paths apart. No more fated-mate bond.

*****

Samuel died with his eyes wide open, his wolf refusing to let go. He left this world full of regret, all because I wouldn't promise him a second chance with Maggie.

I made sure to piss him off even more. "You think you'll get a second chance with Maggie? Keep dreaming, Alpha.

"You're mine. You always have been. You were my fated mate when you were alive, and even in death, your scent still marks me as yours."

He stared at me, his wolf howling silently inside his chest, refusing to let his eyes close. And with one last, rattling breath, he was gone.

The North pack hated me with a vengeance. They wouldn't let me anywhere near his burial rites. But I showed up anyway.

I wasn't some pampered princess raised by the Warrens. I was a tough she-wolf who clawed her way out of an orphanage. I never let anyone push me around.

I knocked out the guard they stuck on me, then jumped off the balcony. Landed hard, shredded my shoulder on the gravel, and didn't even feel it. My wolf was too busy snarling.

But when I burst into the funeral ground, I saw what they'd done.

They'd dug Samuel's grave right beside Maggie's resting place. Not just beside, but connected. A shared burial plot, the way only true mates were supposed to be buried.

So that was why they kept me away. They wanted Samuel and Maggie to cross the veil together.

And me? His Luna of twenty years? The one who bled for his pack, bore his pup, endured his hatred? Where would they throw my bones when I finally dropped?

My wolf whimpered low in my throat. I shoved the sound down.

My son, Alex, the pup I carried for ten full months, the one I nearly died birthing when a rogue attack tore through the pack house, rushed forward and blocked my path.

He looked at me like I was something feral that needed to be put down. "Mom." His voice dripped with disgust. "You already killed Dad. Now you want to desecrate his resting place too?"

My throat burned. My wolf paced behind my ribs, confused and wounded. "Alex. Your father's last wish was to be buried with another woman. You really expect me to accept that?"

Alex's face twisted with rage. "She's not another woman. She's Maggie. To me, she's a thousand times better than you.

"If I'd known how poisonous you were, I would've begged Dad to reject you and mate her years ago.

"That would've been way better than watching Dad drag himself through twenty years of misery with you."

My mother, Gwen Warren, the she-wolf who lost me for eighteen years and never once came looking, stepped forward, her eyes swollen from crying. "Alex is right. If only we'd let Maggie and Samuel be together from the start.

"You and that feral Alpha from the Thornton pack deserve each other."

My father and brother growled their agreement. "Yeah, we should've just given you to that heartless Alpha from the Thornton pack.

"One stupid decision, and we let you ruin Maggie's life."

I looked at all their faces. Every single one glared at me like I was a rogue who'd killed their pups. And honestly? I laughed. A raw, ugly sound scraped out of my throat.

Because back then, they couldn't stand the North pack not being as powerful as the Thorntons. They never would've let their precious Maggie suffer, so they offered me instead.

It was a marriage swap to save their favorite daughter. Now, suddenly, I was the villain?

I stared at them like they were beneath me, because they were, then shoved Alex aside with my boot. He stumbled. I didn't look back.

Samuel belonged to me. He mated me. He marked me. End of story. If he thought he could share an eternal resting place with another female, he was out of his mind.

Even if it killed me today, I'd tear Maggie's grave apart with my bare hands.

I stepped toward Samuel's grave. Then I stopped.

They'd already changed the headstone. It didn't say Samuel North, Alpha of the North Pack anymore.

It said: [Samuel & Maggie North. True Mates. Finally Together. May they run together under the full moon.]

Right then, something inside me broke. The tears I'd been holding back for twenty years finally spilled down my face.

Turns out, Samuel never loved me. The pack never wanted me. My own pup chose her over me. I'd always been alone in this world, hadn't I?

The grudge I'd been carrying, the rage, the spite, the desperate clawing need to matter, finally faded. My knees hit the dirt. I blacked out.

Samuel, you won. If there were a second chance, I would let you go. I would let you have her.