Chapter 1
The morning sun filtered through the kitchen window as I prepared Mother's herbal tea, my hands trembling slightly as they had been for weeks now. The anxiety that had been plaguing me as Luna seemed to seep into every aspect of my life, making even simple tasks feel overwhelming. I steadied my breathing, focusing on the familiar ritual of steeping the chamomile—anything to quiet the constant flutter in my chest.
A sharp cry from the garden shattered the morning calm.
I dropped the teacup, porcelain fragments scattering across the floor as I rushed outside. The sight that greeted me made my blood turn to ice. Mother lay crumpled among her beloved moonflowers, their white petals now stained crimson with the blood that trickled from the corner of her mouth. Her chest rose and fell in shallow, labored gasps.
"Mother!" I dropped to my knees beside her, my Luna training kicking in even as panic threatened to consume me. Her skin was ashen, almost translucent in the morning light, and I realized with crushing clarity that she had been hiding this from me—hiding how sick she truly was.
*Pack Healer Morrison, emergency at the Luna residence,* I mind-linked frantically, gathering Mother's frail body in my arms. She felt so light, as if she might slip away entirely if I didn't hold tight enough. *Catherine Watson has collapsed. Blood loss. Hurry.*
Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused and glassy. "Eleanor," she whispered, her voice barely audible. "The moonflowers... they need water."
"Don't worry about the flowers," I choked out, lifting her as gently as possible. "We're getting you help."
The pack house blurred past as I carried her inside, my anxiety spiking with each step. Pack members stopped and stared—their Luna, disheveled and covered in her mother's blood, barely maintaining composure. I could feel their eyes on me, judging, wondering if this was another sign of my weakness as their leader. My hands shook so violently I nearly dropped her twice.
Healer Morrison arrived within minutes, his face grim as he examined Mother's condition. "We need to get her to the healing center immediately," he said, his professional calm doing nothing to ease the terror clawing at my insides.
The ride to the healing center passed in a haze of sirens and medical equipment. I held Mother's hand, watching the monitors that tracked her fading life force, my own breathing becoming more erratic with each beep. This was my fault somehow—I should have noticed, should have been stronger, should have been the Luna she needed me to be instead of drowning in my own anxiety.
At the healing center, they wheeled her away behind doors I couldn't follow through. I stood in the waiting area, blood still staining my dress, my hands cut from the broken teacup and shaking uncontrollably. The fluorescent lights felt too bright, the antiseptic smell too sharp, everything overwhelming my already frayed senses.
I needed air. I needed space to breathe.
Pushing through the glass doors leading to the healing center's side garden, I didn't see them clearly at first—my vision was still blurred with tears and panic. But then I heard a familiar laugh, low and intimate, and my world tilted on its axis.
Bryson stood beneath the ancient oak tree, his strong arms wrapped around a young she-wolf I didn't recognize. Her distinctive purple-tinted fur caught the dappled sunlight as she pressed against him, her face tilted up toward his with obvious adoration. His hands tangled in her hair the same way they once had in mine, his mouth moving against her neck with the same tender reverence that had once made me feel like the most precious thing in his world.
Time stopped.
My mate—my fated mate, blessed by the Moon Goddess herself—was betraying our sacred bond. While my mother lay dying inside, while I was falling apart with anxiety and grief, he was here, giving another woman the love that belonged to me.
The she-wolf's scent reached me on the breeze—sweet vanilla and wildflowers, nothing like my own lavender and rain. She was young, confident, everything I felt I wasn't anymore. When Bryson nuzzled deeper into her neck, she giggled and whispered something that made him smile—really smile, in a way I hadn't seen in months.
I stood frozen behind the glass doors, my reflection ghostlike in the surface, watching my entire world crumble. The mate bond that had once felt like golden warmth in my chest now burned like acid, the connection twisted into something painful and wrong.
Bryson's head turned slightly, and for a terrifying moment I thought he might see me. But his attention was completely absorbed by the purple-haired she-wolf in his arms, his Alpha aura relaxed and content in a way it never was with me anymore.
My knees nearly buckled as the full weight of betrayal crashed over me. While I had been struggling to be the Luna our pack needed, fighting anxiety and watching my mother waste away, my mate had found someone else—someone who didn't shake during pack meetings or disappoint him with weakness.
The glass doors felt cold against my back as I pressed against them, trapped between my dying mother and my faithless mate, my whole world shattering like the teacup I'd dropped what felt like a lifetime ago.