Maya

Mason went completely still on top of me.

The room felt like all the oxygen had been sucked out of it. I could feel his heartbeat against my chest... fast, confused, angry.

"What..." His voice came out rough. "What did you just say?"

I pulled the sheets up to cover myself, suddenly very aware of how naked and vulnerable I was. "I said we should-"

A sharp knock at the door cut me off.

"Alpha!" Blackburn's voice came through, urgent and breathless. Blackburn was Mason's beta-his right hand, his best friend since childhood. He never interrupted unless it was serious. "You have a visitor. She says it's urgent."

She.

My stomach dropped.

Mason's jaw clenched. "Are you kidding me right now, Blackburn? I'm with my wife. Tell whoever it is to come back tomorrow."

"She insists it can't wait," Blackburn said, and I could hear the strain in his voice. "She says you'll want to hear what she has to say."

The air between Mason and me had turned to ice.

"It's fine," I heard myself saying. "Go deal with your guest, Alpha. We can... we can talk later."

Mason stared down at me for a long moment, his blue eyes unreadable. Then he climbed off the bed and grabbed his robe from the chair, yanking it on with sharp, angry movements.

He paused at the door and looked back at me.

"There's nothing to talk about, Maya," he said, his voice like steel. "We're not getting a divorce."

Then he was gone, the door slamming behind him hard enough to rattle the frame.

I sat there in the sudden silence, my heart pounding so hard I thought it might crack my ribs.

What the hell just happened?

Why was he angry? Why did he care? His first love was back, the woman he'd actually chosen, the woman he'd begged to stay. He should be thrilled that I was giving him an easy out.

So why did he look at me like I'd just stabbed him?

I pressed my hands to my face, trying to think through the chaos in my head.

The baby. I have to think about the baby.

The contract said I was supposed to hand over the child once it was born. Just give up my baby and walk away like none of this ever happened.

But I couldn't do that. Not now. Not ever.

The thought of Mason raising my child with her, with Seraphina playing stepmother, probably erasing every trace of me from the baby's life, made me want to throw up.

No. Absolutely not.

A plan started forming in my mind, desperate and half-formed but better than nothing.

I wouldn't tell Mason about the pregnancy. I'd wait until things settled down, then I'd leave. Disappear. Start over somewhere far away where the Southern Pack's influence couldn't reach me.

I'd raise my baby alone. It would be hard, maybe impossible, but at least my child would be mine.

Decision made, I got dressed and slipped out of Mason's room.

I'd been waiting for almost two hours, but he never came back. Whatever his "urgent visitor" wanted, it was taking a long time.

Or maybe he's just avoiding me, I thought bitterly.

I needed to get out of here. Back to my own room where I could think, where I could breathe.

I headed for the staircase that led down from the Alpha's wing, my mind spinning with plans and contingencies and-

I walked straight into someone at the top of the stairs.

"Oh!" I stumbled backward, catching myself on the railing.

Then I looked up only to see Seraphina standing in front of me, blocking my path.

She looked... different. Fuller than I remembered, curves that definitely hadn't been there a year ago. Her dress was red and tight and left almost nothing to the imagination, the kind of outfit you wore when you wanted someone's attention.

When you wanted someone to remember what they'd been missing.

For a second, she just stared at me. Then something ugly flickered across her face, something that looked a lot like hate. It was gone so fast I almost thought I'd imagined it.

"Good evening, Luna," Seraphina said, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. She even gave me a little bow. "It's been quite some time."

I blinked at her, caught completely off guard by the sudden politeness.

She laughed... sharp and brittle. "Why do you look so confused? Are you not used to being called 'Luna' yet?" Her smile turned sharp. "Or maybe it's guilt. Maybe deep down you know that title doesn't really belong to you."

The words hit like a slap, but I kept my face neutral. I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of seeing me flinch.

Seraphina moved closer, invading my space until I could smell her perfume, something expensive and cloying. She was taller than me, more graceful, more everything.

She'd make a perfect Luna, a small, cruel voice in my head whispered.

Then I noticed it, her lipstick was smudged. Just slightly, at the corner of her mouth, like someone had kissed her hard enough to mess it up.

My eyes locked on that smudge. I couldn't look away.

Seraphina noticed where I was staring. She reached up and touched her lips, a satisfied smile spreading across her face.

"This?" she said, like we were girlfriends sharing gossip. "Someone got a little... enthusiastic when he saw me. Couldn't keep his hands to himself. Kept saying how much he missed me, how empty everything's been without me."

She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.

"I'm sure you can guess who I'm talking about, Luna." She drew out the title like an insult. "Or should I say... soon-to-be ex-Luna?"

Something inside me snapped.

"Hello, Miss Seraphina," I said, my voice artificially bright. I stuck out my hand. "Since this is our first official meeting, I suppose I should say... nice to meet you?"

She looked at my outstretched hand like it was a dead fish.

"Is it, though?" she said. "Nice to meet me? Let's not pretend, Maya. We both hate this. We both hate each other. So why bother with the fake pleasantries?"

"I don't hate you," I said, and I was surprised to realize it was true.

Seraphina laughed. "Maybe you don't. But I certainly hate you." Her eyes flashed with genuine venom. "You've spent a whole year playing house with a man who doesn't belong to you. You sleep next to him every night knowing you destroyed what we had. Tell me, dear Luna...how does that feel? Do you sleep well at night?"

I rolled my eyes before I could stop myself. My patience was officially gone.

"We're mates, Miss Seraphina," I retorted, my voice tinged with frustration. "It's not a choice I made or desired. Fate bound us together, it is not my fault that fate did not choose you. If you have grievances, perhaps they're better directed at the moon goddess herself, wouldn't you agree?"

I saw the rage flare in Seraphina's eyes before she could hide it.

"Oh, how convenient," she hissed. "Blame everything on fate. Pretend you're just an innocent victim in all this. You're bolder than I thought, Maya."

"There doesn't have to be animosity between us," I said tiredly. "It's nobody's fault. We're bound by a mate bond. That's just reality."

Seraphina's smile turned predatory.

"You know," she said slowly, "you talk about this mate bond so much. Like it's this sacred, unbreakable thing." She tilted her head, studying me. "It makes me wonder... is it really as strong as you think?"

My chest tightened. "What are you talking about?"

"An experiment," Seraphina said, her eyes glittering with malice. "Let's test this mate bond of yours. If it's really so powerful, if it really means Mason is bound to you..." She paused dramatically. "Then he'd choose you over me, wouldn't he? His mate over the love of his life?"

Before I could process what she was saying, before I could even move-

Seraphina threw herself backward down the stairs. 

Everything happened in slow motion. Seraphina's body tumbling down the staircase, her limbs flailing, her scream echoing off the walls. The sickening series of thuds as she hit each step.

Then she was at the bottom, crumpled and still.

I stood frozen at the top of the stairs, my hand still outstretched like I could somehow have caught her.

What just happened? Did she just-did she really just-

Suddenly the packhouse exploded with noise.

Maids came running. Pack members emerged from doorways. And Mason came sprinting down the hallway, his face white with panic.

He dropped to his knees beside Seraphina's body.

That's when I saw it.

The baby.

Mason was holding a baby. A tiny infant, maybe six months old, cradled against his chest like he'd been carrying it the whole time.

My brain couldn't make sense of it. Where had the baby come from? Why did Mason have it? What-

"Luna!"

Seraphina's voice cut through my spiraling thoughts.

She was sitting up now, one hand pressed to her head, the other reaching toward the crowd that had gathered around her. She looked fragile and hurt and innocent.

Her eyes found mine. And in them, just for a split second, I saw triumph.

"Luna, I don't understand," Seraphina said, her voice trembling. "Why would you assume I'm here to steal the Alpha from you?"

She pressed her hand to her chest, tears gathering in her eyes.

"I greeted you with nothing but respect," Seraphina continued, her voice breaking beautifully. "Yes, I came unexpectedly but do I really deserve to be assaulted by you?"

Her words rang perfectly, a performance worthy of an Oscar award but since I was the pawn in this, the only question in my head was, what game was Seraphina playing?

Maya

The whispers started immediately.

"Did you see that?"

"The Luna pushed her!"

"I always knew there was something off about her..."

"Poor Miss Seraphina, and with a baby too..."

I stood at the top of the stairs, frozen like a statue while the crowd below buzzed with gossip. Their voices merged into one awful accusation: jealous Luna attacks Alpha's ex-lover.

My brain couldn't process what had just happened.

One second, Seraphina was talking about testing the mate bond. The next, she was throwing herself backward down the stairs like some kind of stunt performer. And then Mason appeared out of nowhere, holding a baby that looked exactly like him, and Seraphina was crying about being a new mother and I was the villain in a story I didn't even know I was part of.

None of it made sense.

Mason's eyes met mine across the chaos. The disappointment in them felt like a physical blow, knocking the air from my lungs.

But that wasn't the worst part.

The worst part was watching him hand the baby to a maid and rush to Seraphina's side. Watching her throw her arms around his neck like some damsel in a cheap romance novel. Watching him hold her like she was made of glass.

"Why, Maya?" Mason's voice cut through the noise. "Why would you do something so cruel?"

Seraphina's lips curved into the tiniest smile over his shoulder. A smile meant only for me.

"I... I..." My mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. What could I possibly say that would make any difference?

"Collins!" Mason barked at his beta. "Get a doctor here now. Set up a guest room for Seraphina and assign two maids to help with the baby."

The crowd scattered without being told. Nobody wanted to stick around and watch their Alpha lose his temper.

Seraphina caught my eye one last time before the maids helped her away. That mischievous glint was still there, barely hidden under her performance of pain and injury.

She planned this. All of it.

"As for you, Maya." Mason's hand clamped around my arm. "My room. Now."

I tried to pull away. "Mason, I can explain-"

"Now!" He practically dragged me down the hallway.

The second we were inside his room, he slammed the door and whirled on me.

"What the hell was that?" His voice shook with barely controlled rage. "Why would you push Seraphina down the stairs? Have you always been this cruel and I just never noticed? Because I never thought you were capable of something like this, Maya. Not in a million years!"

He ran his hands through his hair, pacing like a caged animal.

"Do you understand what you've done? This will spread through the entire pack in less than an hour. Everyone's going to think their Luna is some kind of monster."

Something inside me snapped.

"Now what?" I shot back. "Now I'll be the villain because someone showed up and put on a good show?" My voice rose with each word. "You took her side immediately. You didn't even ask me what happened!"

The unfairness of it all crashed over me like a wave. Seraphina was right. He'd chosen her. Just like she said he would.

That's when I saw it. A tiny smudge of red lipstick at the corner of Mason's mouth. So faint I almost missed it.

But it was there.

Proof that Seraphina had been telling the truth about him kissing her.

Fresh rage flooded through my veins.

"Are you seriously suggesting Seraphina made this up?" Mason's tone softened slightly, like he was considering the possibility that I might be innocent.

But I knew better. He wasn't really considering anything. He was just going through the motions.

"What's the point, Mason?" Exhaustion hit me like a truck. "Whether she fell, jumped, or I pushed her... what does it matter? You've already decided who to believe. So why pretend to care about my side of the story?"

"Are you kidding me right now?" Mason's eyes flashed. "Instead of taking responsibility, you're playing the victim?"

"Victim?" I laughed, sharp and bitter. "How about you being a hypocrite?"

Mason's head snapped back like I'd slapped him.

"You drag me in here to interrogate me, but you won't address the real issues! When are you going to explain Seraphina's sudden return? Or that lipstick smudge on your lips? What about the baby you were holding-obviously hers, obviously yours?"

My voice cracked but I pushed forward.

"You're so focused on blaming me that you won't acknowledge your own actions. Do you have any idea how small you've made me feel tonight? How humiliated? Or is that my fault too?"

Silence fell between us, thick and suffocating.

When Mason finally spoke, his words knocked the wind out of me.

"I don't care about any of that. You need to apologize to Seraphina. Right now. If you want to fix this, that's what needs to happen."

I stared at him, genuinely shocked.

"Apologize?" I scoffed. "To her? I'd rather swim in a swamp. Heck, I'd rather eat dirt. I will never apologize for something I didn't do."

Mason looked stunned. I'd never defied him like this before. Never raised my voice or refused a direct request.

But I wasn't done. "And you know what? I meant what I said earlier." My hands were shaking but my voice stayed steady. "I want a divorce, Mason. You have a son now, don't you?"

His guilty expression told me everything.

"I don't need to be a genius to figure that out," I continued. "So let's end this. I want a divorce, and I want it as soon as possible."

The silence that followed was deafening.

Then Mason's face went cold. Colder than I'd ever seen it.

"You're right," he said, his voice like ice. "It's time to end this. I've honored my father's wishes long enough. Now that he's gone and I'm Alpha, what's the point of pretending this marriage means anything?"

Each word felt like a knife between my ribs.

"Mates or not, this is exactly why I don't believe in that bond. We've been together a whole year, and instead of falling in love, look where we are."

He wasn't finished. He moved to his desk and grabbed some papers.

"You want to know what I really married you for? A pure-blood heir. That's what my father believed only mates could produce. And after an entire year, your womb is still empty. So what's the point?"

The papers hit my chest. I caught them reflexively.

"Here. The divorce papers. Sign them and we can both move on with our lives. I'm tired of this too."

Then he stormed out.

It was almost funny. An hour ago, he'd said we weren't getting divorced. Now he was shoving the papers at me himself.

The first tear slid down my cheek before I could stop it.

My hand moved to my stomach, pressing against the flat surface where our baby was growing. The baby he'd just said didn't exist.

The baby I would never, ever tell him about now.

"Heartless bastard," I whispered to the empty room. "Complete and total hypocrite."

Mason

I couldn't stop pacing.

Maya had asked for a divorce. Twice. During intimate moments, no less, like she'd been waiting for the perfect time to humiliate me.

Had she been this miserable the whole time? Was she just waiting for an excuse to escape?

The questions circled my brain like vultures.

I left the packhouse and headed to the smaller residential building on the property. I needed space from both Maya and Seraphina. Needed to think without either of them clouding my judgment.

But thinking was impossible.

I lay awake all night, staring at the ceiling, my mind racing through everything that had happened. Seraphina's return. The baby. Maya's accusations. The divorce papers I'd shoved at her like a weapon.

By morning, guilt was eating me alive.

I'd been too harsh. Too quick to judge. Deep down, I knew Maya wasn't capable of pushing someone down the stairs. It didn't match anything I knew about her.

I needed to apologize. To talk this through like adults.

But first, I had to deal with Seraphina.

I found her in the guest room, surrounded by maids fussing over her and the baby. She dismissed them with a wave when she saw me.

"Mason, I'm rather surprised it took you this long to visit your beloved and the mother of your child. But I heard about the quarrel with Maya, so I suppose it's forgivable," she purred, her movements laced with subtle attempts at seduction.

"How are you feeling?" I sat on the couch across from her, deliberately keeping distance between us.

"I'd feel better if you came closer." Her voice dropped, taking on that seductive tone I used to love.

Used to.

Now it just made me uncomfortable.

She moved toward me. I held up a hand to stop her.

"Seraphina, this can't happen. I'm married. Whatever we had before... it's over."

Her face went from sultry to shocked in half a second.

"What are you talking about? That marriage is about to end anyway. Who cares?"

"My marriage isn't ending, Seraphina," I said firmly. "I'm not divorcing Maya. I don't want to and I don't think I ever would either. So, she's still your Luna, and you need to respect that."

Even as I said it, I wasn't sure where the words were coming from. 

Even I couldn't fully understand my own actions. For months, I had entertained thoughts of divorcing Maya, feeling trapped in a marriage forced upon me by my father. Yet, when the opportunity presented itself, I hesitated. 

What was I even doing?

"What? What the fuck are you saying? What about me?" Seraphina's voice rose. "What about our son? Why wouldn't you divorce her now that your father's gone?"

I didn't have a good answer. I didn't even understand my own actions.

Then Seraphina's eyes went wide.

"Oh my God." Her voice dropped to a horrified whisper. "You fell in love with her? You fell in love with Maya."

The accusation hit me like a freight train.

"You... you betrayed me," she continued, her voice shaking. "You betrayed everything we had. How could you fall for that little piece of-"

"Don't." My voice came out sharp as a blade. "Don't you dare disrespect the Luna."

Seraphina looked like I'd struck her.

"Look, Sera." I rubbed my face, suddenly exhausted. "I'll make this right somehow. But you have to accept that Maya is my mate and the rightful Luna. That won't change, nothing you do or say will change it."

"Also, I'll like to apologize for what happened between you two. I'm sure Maya didn't mean to push you. Maybe you just tripped and thought-"

"Are you making excuses for her right now?" Seraphina's laugh was sharp and painful. "For hurting me?"

Guilt twisted in my gut, but I pushed forward.

"I'm sorry for all of this. I'll accept the baby after we do a paternity test, but that's all. We're not getting back together, Sera. I'm sorry if that feels so unfair."

I left her crying.

The relief that washed over me was immediate and overwhelming. I practically ran to my room, ready to fix things with Maya. Ready to apologize for my cruel words and cold treatment over the past months.

Ready to finally start over.

But when I burst through the door, the room was empty.

My heart dropped.

I ran to the Luna's wing. Also empty.

"Flora!" I grabbed Maya's personal maid by the shoulders. "Where's the Luna?"

"She... she left early this morning, Alpha." Flora's voice trembled. "She told me not to follow her. I haven't seen her since, and she's not answering her phone."

No.

No, no, no.

I ran back to my room and rifled through the papers on my desk.

There. The divorce papers I'd thrown at her last night.

Signed. Her signature at the bottom in neat, careful letters.

She'd signed them. She'd actually signed them.

My hands were shaking as I grabbed my phone and dialed Mr. Cooper, Maya's father.

"Is the Luna with you?" The words tumbled out before he could even say hello. "I need to speak with her. It's important."

"Good morning to you too, Alpha." His voice was maddeningly calm. "No, she's not here."

He knew something. I could hear it in his tone.

"Where else would she be?" My voice rose. "If not with her father or her husband-"

"Ex-husband," Cooper corrected. "I think you mean ex-husband, Alpha."

The word hit like a slap and his calm demeanor only fueled my fury.

"Where is Maya, Cooper?" I was shouting now. "Where the hell is my wife?"

A long sigh came through the phone.

"I wish I knew, Alpha. She left the Southern Pack this morning. That's all I can tell you."

The room tilted sideways.

"Left? Why? Is it a vacation? When is she coming back?"

"Never, Alpha." Cooper's voice was heavy. Final. "My daughter isn't coming back to the Southern Pack. She's gone. For good."