My mate killed my pup to protect an Omega; now he’s begging for a single glance from the Luna he rejected. I came home to find the packhouse locked. Kaelen wasn't back yet, so I waited outside in the snow. Two hours later his black SUV finally rolled up the drive. He climbed out looking apologetic and unlocked the front door. "One of the pack members was sick. I drove her to the healers' ward first." "Sure. Health comes first." I stepped past his hand and walked inside. There were plenty of shewolves in Kaelen's pack, but only one could make him drop everything and come running. Cynthia. A soft-spoken Omega with doe eyes and a gift for making every Alpha in the room feel like her personal protector. I'd fought with him about her before. Screamed at him. Let Ember, my Wolf, claw to the surface. Nearly got thrown in the dungeon for it. Then came the fight that killed our pup. I'd gone to find him at the pack hall, pregnant and happy, and walked in on Cynthia sobbing into his shoulder. Ember surged forward. My vision went gold. I shoved Cynthia away from him. One push and she went flying. Kaelen's eyes went pitch black. Kruger, his Wolf, exploded out of him. Before I could even flinch, he lunged at me in half-shift and sent me crashing sideways. My belly hit the corner of the stone table. The pup was gone before I hit the ground. After that he seemed to wake up. He knelt at my bedside and swore on the Moon Goddess he'd keep Cynthia away, move her to a room on the far end of the compound with the other Omegas. No more contact. Now he watched me brush snow off my coat. His brows pulled together. "Elena, you're not going to ask which pack member?" I looked at the red creeping into the corners of his eyes. And smiled. "Doesn't matter who." Because I didn't care anymore. … Kaelen stood frozen in the doorway, rubbing his nose. "Cynthia's place doesn't have heat. She came down with a fever, a bad one. Nobody would help her." He sighed. "You know how it is. After you made that scene, the whole pack turned on her. They call her a mate-betrayer behind her back. Even the other Omegas won't sit with her." "Helping her out was me cleaning up your mess." The memory scraped at the old wound in my chest. The aftermath of that fight had been loud. Within days the entire pack knew what happened. Most of them sided with me. Behind closed doors they called Cynthia what she was. The shewolves in her circle froze her out, moved her to the worst room in the compound. I nodded and kept walking toward the bedroom. Kaelen's voice sharpened. "Cynthia's already forgiven you. Can't you just move forward?" My feet stopped. My hand pressed flat against my stomach. "Sure." I looked him dead in the eye. "When the pup comes back." Kaelen went rigid. The light drained from his face. I didn't wait. I walked to the bedroom. Since losing the pup we hadn't shared a room in months. But the moment I pushed open the door, I froze. Dresses tossed across the bed. A bundle of belongings on the floor, piled halfway to my hip. Kaelen caught up and draped his arm across my shoulders, trying to play it casual. "Cynthia's fever is bad. She shouldn't be alone. I told her she could stay here a few days." I stared at the bundle. A few days. And she packed half her life for it. "Besides, we're mates. Sleeping in separate rooms isn't right." He squeezed my shoulder. "You still want a pup, don't you? We can try again. Tonight." I'd already been gutted by this man in every way that mattered. But hearing him dangle a pup like bait to keep his Luna in line still turned my stomach. "Kaelen, how about this. I move into your room, and you pick a different bed each night. Me or her. Whoever you're in the mood for. Sound fair?" His face flushed. "What the hell are you saying?" "Luna, please don't fight with Alpha Kaelen because of me. I'll leave right now." I turned around. Cynthia stood in the doorway, doe-eyed and trembling. Scarf on. Gloves on. Not a snowflake on her. Not a trace of the blizzard outside. It hit me all at once. While I'd been standing in the snow for two hours with my legs going numb, the two of them had been sitting in that heated SUV working out how to handle me. I was done talking. I shouldered past Kaelen, yanked open the closet, and shoved my few worn clothes into a bag. He was at my side in two steps, his hand locked around my wrist. "What are you doing now?" "It's the middle of winter. You have a perfectly good house and you want to leave? The rest of the pack will talk." "Do you have to make everything worse?" I shook his hand off and zipped the bag. "A house?" I said. "I don't have a house. This one is yours and hers." I grabbed the bag and shoved past him toward the front door. Behind me, Cynthia's voice drifted out, soft and shaking, perfectly pitched. "Alpha Kaelen, she's just jealous. I should go. It's only a fever, I can take care of myself." "Let her go. She gets more impossible every day." "You stay right here. I'll make you some soup later." The wind hit my face. The tears that slipped out froze before they reached my jaw. The night I lost the pup, he'd made me soup too. So in his mind, a dead pup and a fever weighed exactly the same.
The blizzard was brutal. I fell several times on the way, but I finally made it to the old place I'd stayed before Kaelen and I were mated. The door creaked open and the smell of mold hit me in the face. I pulled the light cord a few times. The bulb flickered once and went dead. I sighed, dragged a stool over, and tried to fix the wiring. A flashlight beam swept in through the doorway. Doctor Julian from next door was standing there, eyes wide. "Luna Elena? Is that really you? I heard noise coming from over here." He took one look at me and seemed to guess I wasn't in the mood to talk. He didn't ask questions. He just pushed the flashlight into my hand. "I've got a spare bulb. Let me put it in for you." He grabbed a wooden chair, climbed up, and started screwing it in, chatting to fill the silence. "Hell of a storm tonight. Have you eaten? I've got fresh soup at my place." "You lost the pup not long ago, and now you've been out in this cold. A warm bowl would do you good." My eyes stung. I almost cried right there. A pack doctor I barely knew remembered what my body had been through. My own mate just thought I wasn't forgiving enough. "No thanks. I already ate." The bulb clicked on. Julian steadied himself on the chair and climbed down. The old wood groaned under him. I rushed forward to hold the chair steady. Then I heard a gasp behind me. "Luna, you left home in such a hurry and it was for him?" Cynthia stood in the doorway with three of the pack's biggest gossips behind her. She pressed a hand over her mouth, looking back and forth between me and Julian. "Alone together with the lights out. In the middle of the night." The three women exchanged looks, muttering just loud enough to hear. "Betraying her Alpha. Right under his nose." "And I thought she was the decent one. Guess not." Julian's face went red. He jumped down from the chair. "Don't twist this. Luna Elena just got here. I saw the lights were out, so I came over to change a bulb. That's it." Cynthia raised her voice even louder. "So the lights were out and you were already in here with her?" "Luna, how could you do this to Alpha Kaelen?" "Bullshit." I grabbed Cynthia's wrist and yanked her to the door. "Look. Door's wide open. Key's still in the lock. Say one more word and I'll slap the taste out of your mouth." Cynthia blinked. Then the tears dropped, right on cue. That two-faced act made Ember snarl inside my skull. I was about to keep going when a massive hand clamped down on my shoulder and wrenched me back. "Elena, so this is why you wanted separate rooms? For this pretty boy?" Julian saw Kaelen and stepped forward immediately. "Alpha Kaelen, it's not what you think." Kaelen turned and glared at him. "Shut your mouth. You're a doctor. You should know better. I haven't even begun dealing with you." He swung back to me, disgust clear on his face. "Elena, you'd throw away your honor just to spite me?" "I thought you were just throwing a tantrum." "But you couldn't even wait one night before running to another wolf." "This isn't just about me. You've disgraced the entire pack." I almost laughed. I stood near another male for two minutes and suddenly I'd betrayed my Alpha and disgraced the pack. But Cynthia could cry on his shoulder for months and that was a misunderstanding. I looked at him, cold and steady, one word at a time. "I have nothing to hide." "The door is open. My bag is still packed. The flashlight is still on." "Ask the gate guard what time I got here and you'll have your answer." Kaelen paused. His eyes drifted to the bag on the floor. Then he looked around the room. The cobwebs. The dust. The bed frame made of stacked bricks. Something in his expression cracked. He was almost swayed. But Cynthia grabbed his sleeve, sniffling. "Alpha Kaelen, after what Luna did to me last time, people still point at me and call me names." More tears, right on the edge of falling. Kaelen looked at me. Then at Cynthia. Something hardened in his jaw. "Call the enforcers." "Lock her in the dungeon. We'll sort this out in the morning." Three enforcers rushed in and surrounded me. My head was spinning. "Kaelen, are you insane? You can see there's nothing between me and Julian." Kaelen sighed. "Elena, I'm doing this for your own good." He waved his hand. The enforcers grabbed me by the arms and dragged me into the dungeon. Four concrete walls. Cold enough to see my breath. I curled up in the corner. The old ache in my belly started up again.
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