Three years had passed since that night—the night I'd made the gravest mistake of my life by forgiving Alexander. Three years of watching Madison parade her growing belly through our pack house, of enduring her smug smiles across the dining hall, of feeling Alexander's touch grow increasingly mechanical on the rare occasions he still came to our bed.

And now, he was missing.

"Luna Isabella, he's two days overdue," Marcus reported, his face tight with concern. "The Silver Lake Pack confirmed he left their territory on schedule after the alliance meeting."

I nodded, keeping my expression neutral despite the cold dread pooling in my stomach. "And there's been no communication through the pack link?"

"Nothing," Marcus confirmed. "We've sent scouts along the main routes, but..."

But they'd found nothing. I already knew this. Just as I knew something was terribly wrong. The mate bond between Alexander and me had grown painfully thin over the years, a gossamer thread where once there had been an unbreakable rope. Yet even through that weakened connection, I could feel his life force flickering like a candle in the wind.

"I'm going to find him," I announced, rising from my seat at the council table.

The room erupted in protests.

"Luna, the northern territories are crawling with rogues—"

"It's too dangerous—"

"Let the warriors handle this—"

I silenced them with a raised hand, channeling every ounce of Luna authority I possessed. "I can track him through our bond. Weak as it may be, it's still there."

What I didn't say was that part of me wondered if Alexander had simply chosen not to return. If he'd finally decided to abandon his Luna for his mistress and their pups. The thought made my wolf whimper in pain.

Hours later, I led a small guard party of four trusted warriors into the dense northern forests. The late autumn air bit at my skin, carrying the scent of pine and approaching snow. I closed my eyes, focusing on that tenuous thread connecting me to Alexander. It pulled me northeast, away from the main trails and deeper into rogue territory.

"Luna, these tracks suggest a large rogue party moved through here recently," said Liam, our best tracker, crouching to examine disturbed earth and broken twigs.

My heart clenched. Had Alexander been ambushed? Despite everything, the thought of him injured or worse sent panic coursing through me.

"We continue," I ordered, pressing forward.

The terrain grew treacherous as we followed a narrow path alongside a rushing stream. Moss-covered rocks glistened with moisture in the filtered sunlight. I stepped carefully, but my foot slipped on a patch of slick moss. Pain shot through my leg as it scraped against a jagged edge, and I barely suppressed a cry.

"Luna!" The guards rushed to my side as I clutched my calf, feeling warm blood seep between my fingers.

"It's just a cut," I insisted, though the gash was deep and throbbing. "Bind it quickly. We need to keep moving."

One of the guards, Elena, expertly wrapped my leg with a field bandage. "You should shift," she suggested. "Your wolf would heal this faster."

I shook my head. "I need to stay human to follow the bond."

The truth was more complicated. My wolf had grown increasingly distant since Madison's announcement three years ago. She retreated deeper within me with each passing day of Alexander's betrayal, and I feared that if I called on her now, she might refuse to return to human form. Her pain was too raw, too overwhelming.

We pressed on, my injured leg protesting with each step. The mate bond pulled me forward like a compass needle, growing slightly stronger as the afternoon waned. The forest thickened around us, ancient pines towering overhead. My breath came in ragged gasps as exhaustion and blood loss took their toll.

Finally, as the sun began to set, I collapsed beneath a pair of massive pines, my strength depleted.

"Luna, we must rest," Elena insisted, concern etching her features.

I started to protest when a scent carried on the evening breeze stopped the words in my throat. My nostrils flared, taking in the unmistakable blend of scents—Alexander's woodsy, dominant aroma intertwined with the softer, milky scent of young pups.

Madison's pups.

My wolf howled in agony within me as the final pieces clicked into place. The dread I'd been fighting transformed into a terrible certainty that would forever change my life.

The cabin appeared like a mirage through the dense pines, smoke curling from its chimney into the twilight sky. My injured leg throbbed with each step as I approached alone, having ordered my guards to wait at a safe distance. The mate bond pulled me forward with cruel certainty, growing stronger with each painful step.

I limped closer, my breath clouding in the frigid air. Frost had formed delicate patterns on the cabin's windows, but one pane remained clear enough to see through. My trembling fingers gripped the rough wooden sill as I peered inside.

The scene that greeted me shattered whatever remained of my heart.

Alexander sat in a rocking chair before a crackling fire, cradling two small pups against his broad chest. His face—so often cold and distant with me—was transformed by a tender smile I hadn't seen in years. The pups, perhaps two years old, had his dark hair and strong features. A boy and a girl, both healthy and beautiful.

Across the room, Madison moved with practiced ease, her rounded belly protruding beneath a simple wool dress as she pressed tea leaves into a pot. The cabin was modest but warm, filled with children's toys and the unmistakable scent of family.

A family that wasn't mine.

My wolf howled in anguish, the sound echoing only in my mind as tears froze on my cheeks. This wasn't just an affair. This was a double life—a complete betrayal of everything our mate bond represented.

I must have made some sound, for Alexander's head snapped up, his eyes locking with mine through the window. For a brief moment, shock and something like shame flickered across his features before his expression hardened into the cold mask I'd grown accustomed to.

I stepped back as he rose, passing the pups to Madison before striding to the door. When it swung open, we stood face to face, the Alpha I had sacrificed everything for and the shell of a Luna I had become.

"Isabella." My name fell from his lips like a stone. No apology. No explanation.

"Three years," I whispered, my voice breaking. "You've been living this lie for three years?"

The wind whipped between us, carrying the scent of pine and betrayal. Alexander didn't flinch, didn't look away.

"This isn't a lie," he said flatly. "This is my family."

The words struck me with physical force. I staggered slightly, my injured leg nearly buckling beneath me.

"And what am I?" The question escaped before I could stop it, pathetic in its desperation.

"You're my Luna," he replied, as though stating an obvious fact. "But you couldn't give me what I needed—what the pack needed."

Madison appeared in the doorway behind him, one pup on her hip, the other clinging to her leg. Her eyes gleamed with triumph as she assessed my disheveled appearance, my tear-streaked face.

"The pack deserves strong heirs," she said, her voice honey-sweet with poison. "I've given Alpha Alexander two already, with a third on the way."

I felt hollow, emptied of everything except pain. "You promised to end this," I said to Alexander, the memory of his kneeling form begging forgiveness three years ago rising like bile in my throat.

"Things changed." His voice was cold, dismissive. "You'll need to accept this reality, Isabella. As my Luna, you will share me with Madison. Her pups are the future of Shadowmere."

Share him? The suggestion was so grotesque that a bitter laugh escaped me, surprising us both.

"There's nothing left to share," I whispered.

Three days later, I sat alone in Elara's healing tent at Shadowmere, staring at the parchment in my trembling hands. The healer's elegant script confirmed what my body had been trying to tell me for weeks: after ten years of failure, of pain and treatments and moon ceremonies, I was finally pregnant with Alexander's pup.

A miracle that had come too late.

Tears slid down my cheeks as I rose and approached the small brazier burning in the corner of the tent. With steady hands, I held the parchment over the flames, watching as the edges curled and blackened.