Chapter 1
“Open wider,” she said, laughing softly. “You’ve earned it.”
From the hallway, I watched through the thin crack in the office door as my mate parted his lips—for her. Emma leaned in with a smile too familiar for someone who'd been in our pack less than a season, holding a strawberry between her manicured fingers like it was a lover’s offering.
He didn’t just take the fruit. He closed his mouth around her fingertip, sucking gently. She giggled. That sound—the same laugh she’d used at last week’s pack gathering when she’d complimented my earrings—stabbed into my chest.
My breath caught. The basket in my hand trembled.
I had walked here with a skip in my step, sunlight at my back, my hair braided just how he liked, my lips rehearsing the smile I always wore for him. I had even left a note—Thinking of you always. Your Luna, H.—tucked beneath the sandwich I made just the way he preferred it.
Thin roast beef slices. Sharp cheddar. Toasted rye.
Now that note felt like a mockery in my fingers.
“I—” The sound escaped before I could swallow it.
The door creaked as I stepped in. They both turned. Emma didn’t flinch. Theodore did—but not with guilt. His eyes flashed with annoyance, not shame.
“Hailey.” No warmth. Just my name, sharp and sterile.
He didn’t rise. Didn’t reach for me. Just sat behind his desk like I was a courier who had walked in on a meeting. Emma slowly slid off the desk and made a show of straightening her skirt, which had hiked halfway up her thighs.
“I brought you lunch,” I said. My voice felt wrong, like it belonged to someone else. “Your favorite.”
He gestured lazily to the half-empty platter between them. Champagne. Imported cheeses. Chocolate-dipped strawberries.
“We’re already eating,” he said flatly.
We.
Emma turned to me with the kind of smile women use when they already know they’ve won. “The Alpha has been pushing himself so hard. I just wanted to help him unwind.”
“Theodore,” I said, fighting for the last thread of composure, “can we speak in private?”
He leaned back, folding his arms. “If you have something to say, say it. Emma is part of my senior team now.”
The humiliation burned. I could feel the heat creeping up my neck, setting fire to my cheeks. “This doesn’t look like work.”
His expression hardened. “What exactly are you implying?”
“I’m not implying, I’m saying—it looks intimate. This is inappropriate.”
Emma clutched her pearls—literally. “Luna Hailey, I would never disrespect you. I only meant to support the Alpha emotionally. Everyone copes differently with stress.”
His eyes flashed. “And you think I’m coping by cheating on you?”
The word hung in the air like poison. He hadn’t denied it. Just deflected.
“I think you’re forgetting what it means to be mated,” I whispered.
“And you,” he snapped, standing abruptly, his Alpha energy rippling through the room, “are forgetting what it means to support your mate. I don’t have time for your petty jealousy. The pack needs a Luna who stands by her Alpha, not one who questions him in front of others.”
Others. Like I was no longer his equal.
Years of devotion. Of building a home, tending to the pack, sacrificing my own dreams to be the Luna he needed. And now, he stood there with another woman’s scent on his shirt, daring to call me petty.
“I’ll leave you to your... support,” I said, setting the basket down on the nearest chair. I turned, spine straight, vision blurry.
Behind me, Emma laughed again. Soft and smug.
Theodore didn’t stop her.
The walk back to the Alpha den was torture. The whispers of the pack, the stares—they all blurred together into white noise.
I felt broke.
But then, before I had the time to calm myself down, the front door creaked open and there stood Mia, our healer.
Her face lit up when she saw me, like I was still the Luna they all respected.
“Luna Hailey! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” She clutched a manila folder to her chest. “You might want to sit down.”
I didn’t.
Not noticing my numb expression, Mia opened the file and beamed.
“Congratulations. You’re pregnant—with the Alpha’s heir.”