Chapter 3

Ashley drops me off at the end of our long, private driveway several hours later. The crisp evening wind bites at my cheeks as I walk up the paved path toward the stone estate I’ve called home for five years. The moment I push the heavy front doors open, a feminine scent hits my nose.

I step into the grand foyer. The house is quiet. I walk down the tiled hallway and stop dead at the entrance to the living room.

Maya is sitting on our velvet sofa.

She is wearing one of Silas’s crisp, white button-down shirts, the oversized one I ironed for him three days ago, with the top three buttons undone and her bare legs tucked beneath her. In her hands, she clutches my favorite ceramic mug, slowly sipping coffee. She looks completely relaxed, leaning back against the embroidered cushions like a queen in her domain.

The sight should send a wave of rage through my blood. It should make my wolf claw at my ribs, desperate to tear the throat out of the intruder sitting in our home.

Instead, an eerie calm settles into my lungs. My wolf doesn’t even stir.

Maya looks up as my shadow hits the entryway. A slow, triumphant smile spreads across her face, her eyes sparkling with malice.

“Oh, Cora,” she purrs, setting my mug down on the glass coffee table. “You’re back. I was wondering when you’d show up.”

I stay right where I am, my hands resting in the pockets of my jeans. “What are you doing in my house, Maya?”

“Honestly, I should thank you for being so pathetic,” she says, leaning back and running a hand casually through her hair. “When Silas told me he ditched you on the side of the highway just to rush over to my house, I almost felt bad for you. Almost. But then, it just proves where his priorities really are, doesn’t it?”

She lets out a soft laugh, watching my face for any sign of a crack.

“He’s just so exhausted, Cora,” she continues, her tone dropping into a mocking softness. “He talks to me, you know. He tells me how hard it is to come home to a wife who is always brooding, always complaining, always demanding more than he can give. You should really just accept that you were never built to be an Alpha’s Luna. It would save everyone so much trouble if you just stopped pretending.”

In the past, those words would have cut me deeply. They would have sent me hiding in the bathroom, sobbing into a towel so Silas wouldn’t hear me.

Today, I just look at her. I look at her fake innocence and the desperate way she wears my husband’s clothes to feel important. A genuine laugh slips past my lips.

“You know what? Feel free to stay, Maya,” I say breezily. “Make yourself at home. You look very natural sitting in someone else’s scraps.”

Maya’s face darkens, anger flashing in her eyes as the insult lands. As heavy footsteps echo down the hardwood stairs behind me, her expression transforms in a split second. Her eyes go wide, instantly filling with tears as her lips start to tremble.

She abruptly stumbles backward, gasping dramatically as if I had just shoved her with all my strength. Then she lets out a sharp, pathetic cry as she collapses back onto the sofa.

“Cora, please! I didn’t mean to upset you!” she sobs softly, shrinking away like a terrified child. “I was just trying to drink some coffee. You didn’t have to attack me—”

Silas walks into the living room. He has changed out of his charcoal suit into a dark sweater, his dark hair still damp from a shower. I wait for him to decipher Maya’s deceit or apologize to me for bringing another woman into our private living space.

He doesn’t.

Instead, as he sees Maya cowering on the sofa, clutching herself, he marches across the room and steps directly between us. He turns his broad back to Maya, positioning himself like a physical shield to protect her from me.

“Cora, stop it!” Silas barks, pointing a finger directly in my face, his voice booming with absolute accusation. “Why would you attack her? She hasn’t been around you for five minutes, and you’re already trying to lay a hand on her right in front of me?”

I stare at him, a bitter chuckle rising in my chest. “I didn’t touch her, Silas.”

“You think I’d believe you?” he yells right in my face. “You’ve always had it out for her! You really are spoiled rotten!”

Behind Silas’s shoulder, Maya’s tearful expression slips for just a second, letting a smug, victorious grin flash at me before she hides her face back in her hands.

The absurd performance brings a buried memory rushing straight to the front of my mind.

It was three years ago, on our second anniversary. I didn’t have any money, so I spent forty hours hand-crafting a leather and silver charm bracelet for him. I braided it with silver thread and pressed wolfsbane blossoms, placing it carefully on his desk at the Thorne Holdings office with a small card.

An hour later, Maya walked into his office, found the bracelet, and openly mocked it in front of the staff. She called it cheap and ugly before casually tossing it into the trash.

When I found out, I lost my mind. I marched up to her and slapped her straight across the face right in front of Corin, Silas’s executive assistant.

Maya had instantly exploded into hysterical tears, whimpering that I had attacked her for no reason. And Corin, loyal to Maya and eager to please the Alpha’s favorite, lied straight to Silas’s face, backing up her story.

Silas didn’t ask for my side. He screamed at me in front of the entire floor, telling me I was unstable, pathetic, and lacked the dignity to ever represent the pack. He banned me from Thorne Holdings on the spot, ordering Corin to physically escort me off the property like a common criminal.

I remembered crying on my knees in the rain outside his office building back then, begging him to believe me, begging him not to shut me out.

Looking at him now, the little remorseful act he played earlier makes me almost laugh.

It was never about the missed anniversary trip. It was always this. Five years of Silas dragging me down into the dirt, stepping over my body, just so he could play hero for another woman.

“You’re right. Maybe I should leave,” I say softly.

He turns to look at me. “What?”

“I said I’m leaving,” I repeat, firmer this time.

Silas shakes his head, a bitter sneer appearing on his face. “Don’t be dramatic, Cora. You threaten to walk out every single time I upset you. You honestly think I’m going to fall for these empty threats? There is only so much drama I am willing to put up with.”

“It’s not a threat,” I say, my voice completely steady. “Since you like Maya so much, maybe I should just step aside and let you two be together.”

“There is nothing going on between me and Maya! You just love making up crap in your head!” He explodes. “Besides, where are you going to go? Who is going to take care of you if you walk out that door? You have no job, no money of your own, and no standing without my name attached to yours.”

“I don’t need your name. Not anymore.”

“I am your Alpha,” he roars, his voice dropping into that dark tone laced with the command meant to force every wolf in the territory to their knees. “You will respect me, and you will stop making things difficult!”

The command vibrates through the floorboards. It hits my chest like a physical blow, demanding that I lower my head, bare my neck, and whisper an apology to keep the pack order intact. For five years, a single low growl from him would send me bowing in submission.

I stand my ground.

I don’t bow my head, flinch, or drop my gaze.

My fractured mate bond sits dead in my chest, completely immune to his power. I meet his dark, furious eyes head-on, standing straight.

Silas’s breath catches in his throat as he waits for me to break. A flicker of shock flashes across his features before it reverts back to the nonchalance he always spares for me.

“I will let you go unpunished this time and pretend you didn’t just threaten to leave me. But there’s only so much grace I can offer. Don’t ever pull a stunt like this again.”

He marches over to the entry console and grabs his car keys.

“Take some time to cool off,” he barks over his shoulder. “I know you’re mad, but I advise you to think twice about what you’re doing. Where are you going to go if you actually leave?”

He storms out into the sunset, slamming the door so hard the glass panes rattle in their frames.

Maya’s fake tears vanish instantly. She remains frozen on the sofa for a few seconds before scrambling to her feet. She grabs her coat from the armchair and hurries out the door to chase after him.

I head towards the staircase, taking them two at a time.

I will prove him wrong.

I will leave him, his mistress, and the empty shell of a marriage I’ve been living in for five years.