Chapter 1

In the seventh year of our mating, my Alpha, Jaxson, cheated on me. Emotionally.

He didn't even try to hide it, his voice filled with a fervor I'd never heard before. "Aurora, I've fallen in love with her. I'm hopelessly in love with her."

"I won't break our mated bond, and I won't touch her. I just hope you can allow me to keep a place for her in my heart."

I didn't scream like a madwoman. I just looked at my Alpha calmly and said, "It's her or me."

That night, Jaxson, who never touched hard liquor, drank whiskey until the sun came up.

Finally, he conceded. "I'll arrange a plane ticket to Europe for her. You pick the destination. I won't ask."

In the month before she was supposed to leave, he cherished every moment with Chloe.

He canceled all the pack meetings and business, taking her hiking and camping in the national parks around Seattle, often not coming home at all.

"Don't worry," he'd say through our mind-link, "nothing happened between us. I just want to spend a little more time with her."

That month held my birthday, our mating anniversary, and the anniversary of my mother's death.

No matter how many times I called out to him through our mind-link, I couldn't bring him back.

But Jaxson, you didn't know. That ticket wasn't for her. It was for me.

On my birthday in previous years, Jaxson would personally go to that famous bakery downtown to order me a strawberry cream cake.

He'd bring it home with a large bouquet of red roses, always arriving at eight o'clock sharp.

Now, it was past ten at night, and the front door was silent.

I posted a birthday story on Instagram, threw out all the cold food on the table, turned off the lights, and went to bed.

At eleven, there was a knock on the door.

A moment later, a text from Jaxson came through.

"It's Chloe's birthday tomorrow. Her last wish is to spend the stroke of midnight with me."

"Next year, I promise I'll make it up to you."

Jaxson wasn't like other cheating husbands, all secretive and sneaky.

He was brutally honest.

So honest that he peeled back every layer of his obsession with Chloe and laid it bare before me.

When Chloe's pack business report had errors, he'd sit with her, editing it word by word. "She's new. You have to be patient."

When Chloe felt sick, he'd go to her place to make her ginger tea, warming her stomach with his warm, Alpha hands. "Chloe came to Seattle all alone to make it. If I don't take care of her, who will?"

When Chloe successfully closed a deal, he bought her the Tiffany necklace she'd been dreaming of as a celebratory gift. "Chloe's wanted this for so long. The girl has too much pride to accept a gift for no reason."

Love, at its most intense, is about restraint.

I would have preferred it if he'd just been horny, drawn to a pretty young body for a meaningless fling.

But this? This was different. He was restraining his primal male instincts, not even sleeping with her—which only proved how deep his emotional investment was.

Before midnight even struck, Chloe posted on Instagram.

Under the giant Ferris wheel at the theme park on the outskirts of Seattle, two silhouettes, one tall and one short, clung to each other. "The birthday wish came true before the day even started. Thank you, Mr. J."

Staring at that glittering Ferris wheel in the photo, I couldn't force myself to be calm any longer.

I shot Jaxson a text immediately: "Come home right now, or we sever the bond!"

In the seven years we'd been mated, Jaxson had been so busy with pack business that he'd rarely taken me anywhere outside of Seattle.

When we were eighteen, still in high school, he took me to a carnival just outside the city. We stood beneath that same Ferris wheel, looking up.

Back then, a single ticket for the ride was a fortune to him.

His eyes flickered with a hint of embarrassment, but they were filled with determination. "Aurora, one day, when I'm powerful, I'll bring you here. I'll make your wish come true."

But Jaxson, you're powerful enough now. And you've forgotten the Aurora you loved so deeply when you were eighteen.

In the end, Jaxson couldn't let go of our ten years together.

The moment my text went out, he was in his car, speeding home.

Jaxson returned with a chill in the air and fury on his face.

But when he saw the slightly melted mango mousse cake on the table, it suddenly dawned on him.

"Chloe loves mango," he muttered, "the bakery must have made a mistake."

A bitter smile touched my lips. "What are you trying to prove, Jaxson?"

Are you trying to show off how your love for her is so deep it has become a part of you, so sharp it could make you forget I was deathly allergic to mangoes?

Jaxson's brow furrowed, a rare note of annoyance in his voice.

"Didn't I already promise you I'd send Chloe away at the end of the month?"

"It's just a cake. I'll have them make another one."

Those words, "just a cake," shattered the image of the man I loved.

The Alpha I loved would never have called anything that mattered to me "just a thing."

Jaxson hadn't come back alone that night. Chloe was in his passenger seat.

"You should get some sleep. I still have to take Chloe to the city square to see the New Year's fireworks."

With that, he left without a second glance.

It was cold outside. As Jaxson walked to his car, Chloe was waiting, leaning against the window.

He frowned and said something to her, his tone scolding, but his eyes were full of pity as he took off his own scarf and wrapped it around her neck.

Seeing the way Jaxson looked at Chloe with my own eyes, I finally understood. When he said he was hopelessly in love, he meant it.

It was the same look he gave me when he was eighteen, the star of the football field, the moment his eyes first landed on me.

Ten years later, I was seeing that same mesmerized expression in his eyes again, but this time, it was for a young, new girl in his pack.

Chloe was young and beautiful. When she first joined the pack, she was full of ambition, boldly declaring she'd be in the core management within a year.

With her high ponytail, she was the picture of youthful, vibrant energy, just like I had been as the captain of the high school cheerleading squad.

And seeing Jaxson cherish her so tenderly, I knew. It was over. We were completely and utterly over.