Chapter 1

My mate, Richard Sterling, the Alpha of Frostveil Pack, put a baby in front of me. It was the child of his lost love, Rose Whitmore, who had died in a pack clash.

He got straight to the point. "Either raise Rose's baby or reject the bond. Your choice."

I held his gaze and chose to reject the bond without hesitation.

He thought I was acting out, that I'd come back begging once I cooled down.

Three days later, I left my own three-month-old pup behind and slipped out of Blackwood, our pack territory.

Word later reached me that Richard, the great Pack Alpha, never took another mate or had another pup.

*****

When Richard put the pup in front of me, snow was falling hard outside.

The pup was wrapped in thick silk blankets. All I could see was his small face, pale from the frost. He still smelled of the wilderness, along with blood.

"Rose is dead," Richard said flatly, like he was talking about the weather.

But I knew better. His heart had followed that she-wolf named Rose into the ground.

I tore my eyes away from the pup and looked up at Richard's face, handsome but cold as winter.

He came straight to my door from the territory war, still wearing his frozen battle leathers and looking like he hadn't rested in days.

"This is her pup," he said.

I said nothing and simply looked at him.

We had been mated for three years. He treated me with respect, but there was no warmth in him, none at all.

I had always known that his heart belonged to Rose. She was the one who stayed when he had nothing and fought beside him until he became the most powerful Alpha in Blackwood.

Three years ago, they said she died of a terrible sickness. I actually felt sorry for her back then.

But now it looked like that wasn't true. She had survived long enough to give Richard a pup.

And now she was probably gone for real, torn apart in the clash between packs.

Richard turned to look at me. There was nothing soft in his gaze, nothing that said "mate," just the weight of an Alpha's command.

"Her name's Lily Whitmore," he said.

Her name was also a flower, and it carried a quiet kind of longing. It was a beautiful name, really.

Inside, I had gone cold, but I didn't let it show on my face. "So?" I asked.

The way I stayed calm seemed to get under his skin.

He frowned. For once, those eyes that had sent enemy packs running finally showed something other than cold control, and that was irritation.

"From today on, she's my daughter. You'll raise her as your own," he said.

I looked at the pup wrapped in a blanket embroidered with roses. "And if I refuse?"

A cold tension flooded the space between us, the kind that made wolves lower their heads.

Richard stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

For three years, I had played the gentle and sensible Luna. I had run his household, honored his elders, and managed pack relations for him.

Everyone said I was his perfect mate. But I knew I was only something to fill the space until his true mate came back.

"You don't get to choose." His voice dropped cold. "You raise Lily right, and you keep your place as Luna of this Pack."

He let that sink in before landing the next blow. "Or you reject the bond."

When he finished, he looked down at me, so sure I'd pick the first one.

I had nobody behind me. Without the Luna title, I wasn't anything.

And our pup, Edward Sterling, was only three months old.

Any normal mother would swallow it all for her pup.

I looked at him, and then laughed.

"Fine," I said. "I'll take rejection."

Richard froze, his eyes going wide, like I'd said something insane. "What did you say?"

"I said, I'll take rejection," I repeated, making sure every word came out slow and clear.

I stood up and walked over to him. "It's done, Richard. You made sure of that."

He didn't move. For a long moment, he looked at me like he had no idea who I was.

He probably thought I was acting out, that this was my way of begging for his attention or showing him how jealous I was.

But he couldn't have been more wrong. A woman's heart didn't freeze solid in one night.

Three years of being pushed aside. Three years of being invisible. Three years of sleeping alone in an empty room while my wolf cried out for a mate who wasn't there.

What broke me happened when I was pregnant with Edward, suffering the worst morning sickness. He stayed at the border for an entire month, holed up in his patrol tent, all because Rose sent him a single letter.

That was the moment my wolf and I gave up on him for good.

"Yvonne," he said, and I could hear the Alpha edge creeping into his voice. "Don't push me."

I looked back at him, my eyes calm and steady. "Richard, you've got one thing wrong.

"I'm not fighting with you, and I'm not asking for permission. I'm telling you straight. I'm done being the Luna of this pack."

Then I turned and walked toward my room.

Right on cue, Edward's cry cut through the silence from inside the room.

The wet nurse scooped him up right away and tried to calm him down.

I walked over and took Edward from her arms.

He was so small and soft, and he smelled sweet like milk, like pack, like home.

The moment he was in my arms, he stopped crying and looked up at me with those wide, curious eyes. They were so much like Richard's that it made my chest ache.

Richard followed me into the room.

When he saw me holding Edward, something in his eyes softened for a second.

He probably thought the pup was my weakness, the one thing that would make me give in.

"Yvonne, think about Edward..." he started.

"After the rejection, Edward is yours," I said, cutting him off. My voice wasn't loud, but everyone in the room heard me.

The wet nurse and the other she-wolves gasped in shock.

Richard's face went dark, his wolf rising close to the surface.

He stepped forward and tried to snatch Edward from my arms.

I sidestepped as he reached for the baby, a low growl rising in my throat. "Richard, listen to me." I held Edward close and met his alpha-charged glare. "I don't want this pup anymore."