Chapter 1
"If you strip away your mate imprint, your inner wolf goes with it. You won't make it past three months," the pack doctor warned, his voice cold.
I stared at the deep scar on my neck in the mirror, then nodded without hesitation.
Outside the operating room, my husband, the pack's legendary Alpha warrior, was pacing frantically. Not for me, but for his "savior," that lying bitch who stole my necklace and used mind-altering pheromones to steal my life.
To clear her path to become his Luna, he had driven a silver blade into the back of my neck, forcing our bond to shatter.
"You don't deserve my imprint," he'd told me. "Letting you live is the greatest mercy I can offer."
He had no idea that stripping away the imprint would take my inner wolf with it.
Three months later, the bitch's fake pregnancy was exposed.
He kicked open my door like a madman, only to rush in and cradle nothing but a cold, shriveled wolf corpse.
*****
"Move it! Alpha Kael will be back any second," the head maid barked, her whip cracking against the soapy stone washing slab, sending dirty water splattering across my face.
I wiped it away with the back of my hand and kept scrubbing, my fingers working in a frantic blur to get the dried blood out of Kael Blackwood's shirt.
Three days ago, he'd led a raid on a rebel camp and caught a silver-laced bullet.
The poison blinded him, leaving him clawing at death's door.
While everyone else escaped, I ran into the chaos to find him.
I dragged him into an abandoned cave and fed him my own blood for three agonizing days and nights until my wolf blood purified the silver in his veins.
We had formed our initial mate imprint.
But when I finally passed out from exhaustion and woke up, I was dumped in the laundry room with the lowest-ranking servants.
And the man I'd nearly died saving already had another woman in his arms.
It was Lina Blake, his ex.
Dangling from her neck was my mother's wolf-fang pendant, the only keepsake I had left.
Kael had buckled it around my neck himself with his shaking hands before I blacked out.
Now, that very necklace was Lina's "proof" that she was his savior.
"What are you staring at, you pathetic Omega?" Lina sneered, stepping closer. "Alpha Kael is mine. He's always been mine."
She ground her heel right into my hand, twisting her weight down.
Searing pain shot straight to my heart, but I clamped my jaw shut.
"What, no screaming? You were loud enough in that cave, weren't you?" she mocked, leaning in with a cruel, smug grin. "Just so you know, Alpha Kael said your scent makes him sick to his stomach.
"He told me he regrets ever imprinting you."
It was like a cold blade twisting in my chest.
When Kael was blind and helpless, he'd clung to me like a lifeline.
He buried his face in my neck, breathing in my moonflower scent over and over, whispering that it was the only thing keeping him sane.
He promised that once he could see again, he'd throw the grandest ceremony the pack had ever seen and crown me his Luna.
It was all a lie.
"You smell like blood." Kael's voice cut through the air. He didn't even break his stride as he walked past me, his brow furrowed in disgust.
Lina immediately melted into his chest, playing the fragile victim. "Oh, Kael, I'm so scared. The way she was looking at me, I thought she was going to kill me."
"Don't be afraid. I'm here," he murmured, wrapping his arms around her with a soft tenderness I'd never seen from him.
"Guards. Drag this trash to the dungeons. Don't let her out until I say so," he ordered.