Skye Winters never wanted to be Luna.

But when the mate bond snapped into place at her eighteenth birthday, binding her to Alpha Jaxon Vale, it should have been a dream come true. She'd loved him from afar for years. But Jaxon didn't want her—he accused her of trapping him, forcing the bond, married her only because the pack demanded it, and has spent three years making her feel like an obligation he can't escape.

Skye tried to be the perfect Luna, the perfect wife, the woman he might one day choose to love. But when her sister Cassandra returns with a son she claims is Jaxon's, everything shatters.

Jaxon moves them into the Alpha house. He names the boy his heir. And chooses her sister first at every opportunity.

When Skye nearly dies because of Jaxon's choices, something inside her dies first—the desperate hope that kept her chained to a man who will never see her as more than a burden.

Now Skye is done begging. Done compromising. Done watching her husband build a family with her sister while she stands in the shadows.

She wants a divorce. But breaking a fated mate bond isn't simple—especially when she's carrying a secret that could trap her forever. As pack politics, family pressure, and her own broken heart collide, Skye must find the strength to walk away from everything she thought she wanted.

The only question is: will Jaxon let her go?

Or will he finally realize what he's losing when it's already too late?

Skye

Of all the futures I imagined for myself, I never dreamed one day I would have to choose between my husband and my unborn child.

My hand trembles as I smooth down the front of my dress—a soft blue one that Jaxon once said he liked. I've spent an hour on my appearance, wanting to look my best when I tell him about the baby. Wanting him to remember why he married me in the first place.

He might not want to, but I owe it to the little life in me to try.

I touch my stomach briefly, gathering courage. "Your father is going to want us," I whisper. "I know he will."

He wants a divorce. I’m sure of it. Actually, I think that’s what he wants to talk about today. He called a meeting of the elders, and he told me to make myself presentable today. I can’t imagine anything else the almighty Alpha could be so nervous about.

Unbonding with one’s fated mate is not easy. Not for an Alpha.

I’ve been bracing myself for today, and I would have accepted my fate, if it weren’t for the unexpected result of this morning’s check-up. Jaxon made me see the doctor because I haven’t been at my best on the training ground lately. Turns out it wasn’t sickness, but the best thing that could ever happen to us.

So I came early.

He needs to know all the information before he announces his decision.

Taking a deep breath, I head for Jaxon's office. But when I round the corner, I stop short.

The conference room doors are open, and I can see inside.

My heart stutters.

Because he’s not alone. He’s with her. Cassandra. My sister.

And she's in his arms.

The world tilts sideways. I grip the doorframe to steady myself, my carefully rehearsed words dissolving on my tongue. Jaxon's broad shoulders are bent toward her, his hand at the small of her back, and for a moment—one horrible, crystallizing moment—I'm seventeen again, watching them together at pack gatherings, convinced they belonged to each other.

The sound of my sharp intake of breath cuts through the room.

Jaxon's head snaps up. His steel-gray eyes meet mine, and whatever I see there—surprise? guilt?—makes my stomach drop. He releases Cassandra immediately, stepping back as if burned.

"Skye." His voice is carefully neutral. "I didn't expect you yet."

Cassandra turns, and I'm struck by how perfect she looks. She always does. Honey-blonde hair falling in perfect waves, amber eyes wide with what might be concern if I didn't know better. She's wearing a cream-colored dress that probably costs more than my entire wardrobe, and even her surprise seems elegant.

"Skye," she breathes, pressing a hand to her chest. "I'm so sorry. That probably looked—I was just upset, and Jaxon was comforting me. You know how he is."

Do I? I want to ask. Because I'm not sure I know my husband at all.

"What are you doing here?" The words come out smaller than I intended. "You left. You've been gone for years."

"I came back." Cassandra's smile doesn't quite reach her eyes. "Didn't Jaxon tell you?"

My gaze swings to my husband. His jaw is tight, that familiar furrow between his brows deeper than usual. The scent of cedarwood and amber surrounds him, and even now, even with my heart cracking in my chest, my wolf responds to it. She always does.

"When?" I manage.

"A month ago."

A month.

The room spins. I've been living in the same house as him for a month, sharing the same bed, and he never once mentioned that my sister—his ex-girlfriend, the woman I've spent three years convinced he still loves—was back in the pack.

"You've been here a month," I repeat, hating how my voice shakes. "And no one thought to tell me?"

Jaxon's expression hardens. "It wasn't relevant to you."

The casual cruelty of those words steals my breath. Not relevant. My own sister's return isn't relevant to me.

"I see." My hand instinctively moves to my stomach, then drops. Not yet. I can't tell him about the baby. Not like this. Not when Cassandra is standing there looking at me with something that might be pity.

Because suddenly, everything makes terrible sense. I'd convinced myself Jaxon wanted a divorce because I couldn't give him an heir. The pack doctor had been so careful with his words last month, explaining that stress and the incomplete mate bond could affect fertility, that it might take time. I'd seen the disappointment in Jaxon's eyes, the way he'd withdrawn even further.

But it was never about me being barren.

It was about her.

"How long have you two been meeting?" I ask quietly.

"Skye, it's not what you think—" Cassandra starts.

"How. Long."

Jaxon's nostrils flare. "Cassandra needed help adjusting back into pack life. As Alpha, it's my responsibility—"

"Your responsibility," I echo. "Right. And me? What's your responsibility to me?"

His silence is answer enough.

I look at my sister—beautiful, confident Cassandra, who never doubted her place in the world. Who left this pack and Jaxon behind like it meant nothing, while I stayed and tried to build a life from the ruins of that night.

"I can't compete with you," I tell Cassandra, and I hate that it's true. "I never could."

Something flickers across her face. "Skye, that's not—"

"I need to speak with Jaxon. Alone." The words scrape out of my throat. "Please."

Cassandra glances at Jaxon, and I don't miss the silent communication that passes between them. She knows him well enough to read his moods, his silences. After a month of secret meetings, maybe she knows him better than I do.

"Of course." She moves toward the door, her jasmine and oak scent trailing after her. It's pretty. Sophisticated. Nothing like my wild honeysuckle and rain. "I'll just—"

The door bursts open before she can finish.

A small boy—maybe four years old—barrels into the room. He has blond hair that falls across his forehead and a strong jawline that makes my heart stutter. Because I know that jawline. I see it every morning across the breakfast table.

The boy's eyes, wide and bright, land on Jaxon.

"Daddy!" he shouts, launching himself forward. "Daddy, you have to come see what I found!"

The world stops.

The air leaves my lungs in a rush, and I can't draw another breath. Can't think. Can't process what I'm seeing as Jaxon's expression shifts—surprise, then something softer, almost tender—and he catches the boy before he collides with his legs.

"Daddy?" The word falls from my lips, barely a whisper.

But loud enough that three pairs of eyes turn to me.

Loud enough that my entire world shatters.

Skye

I can't breathe.

The boy—this child who just called my husband daddy—is looking up at Jaxon with complete adoration. And Jaxon... Jaxon isn't denying it. Isn't pushing him away. He's just standing there with his hand on the boy's shoulder, watching me with those cold gray eyes like he's waiting for me to catch up to a joke everyone else already understands.

"I don't..." My voice cracks. "I don't understand."

Cassandra moves then, sweeping forward to place herself between me and the boy. Protective. Maternal. Everything I've apparently failed to be.

"Skye, I'm so sorry." Her voice is soft, pained. "I never wanted you to find out like this. Jaxon was supposed to tell you before the meeting today."

"Tell me what?" The words are barely audible. "Tell me what, Cassandra?"

She exchanges another look with Jaxon—and god, I hate that. Hate how easily they communicate. Hate how I'm always on the outside looking in at my own life.

"This is Liam," she says gently, resting a hand on the boy's head. "He's... he's Jaxon's son."

The floor drops out from under me. I grab the edge of the desk, my knuckles going white.

"That's not possible." But even as I say it, I'm looking at the boy's face. That jawline. Those eyes—steel-gray, just like his father's. "That's not—you left four years ago. You were already gone when we—"

"Before that," Cassandra interrupts. "Before Jaxon found out you were his mate. We were together, Skye. Surely you remember."

I did remember. I remembered watching them at pack functions, convinced they were perfect for each other. Remembered the night of my eighteenth birthday when Jaxon's scent had hit me like a physical blow, and I'd realized with devastating clarity that the Alpha heir I'd crushed on for years was mine. My fated mate.

And that he'd been sleeping with my sister.

"You knew?" I turn to Jaxon, and my voice is rising now, hysteria creeping in at the edges. "You knew about him this whole time?"

"No." His answer is clipped. "Cassandra only told me when she came back. A month ago."

A month ago.

That phrase keeps echoing in my head, each repetition driving the knife deeper.

"I'm so sorry," Cassandra says again, and if I didn't know her better, I might believe the tears gathering in her eyes. "I never wanted to interfere with your marriage. I left because I knew Jaxon had found his true mate, and I didn't want to stand in the way of that. I raised Liam alone, tried to build a life for us away from here."

"Then why come back?" The question tears out of me.

"Liam was sick." Her voice breaks convincingly. "He needed treatment that only Jaxon’s connections could provide. Our bloodline... you know how complicated wolf genetics can be. I didn't have a choice."

I look at Jaxon, desperate for him to contradict her. To tell me this is all some horrible misunderstanding. But he just stands there, stone-faced, and I realize with sickening clarity that he believes her. Every word.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I ask him. "I'm your wife. Your mate. Why didn't you—"

"Because today's meeting with the elders is to announce it," he cuts in, his tone maddeningly calm. "I needed to handle the political aspects first. The pack needs to know that despite this complication, you'll remain as Luna."

"Remain as Luna," I repeat numbly. "How generous of you."

His jaw tightens. "Don't be dramatic, Skye. This doesn't change anything between us."

A laugh bubbles up in my throat, sharp and painful. "It doesn't change anything? You have a son with my sister, and you think that doesn't change anything?"

"I have a responsibility to him." For the first time, there's heat in Jaxon's voice. "He's my firstborn. My heir. I won't turn my back on him just because the timing is inconvenient."

His heir.

The words hit me like a slap. I press my hand to my stomach, feeling the secret life growing there. The baby I was so excited to tell him about. The baby I thought would finally make us a real family.

But he already has an heir.

"You still care about her." It's not a question. I can see it in the way he positions himself, angled slightly toward Cassandra even as he argues with me. Can smell it in the way his scent shifts when she's near—less hostile, more... something. "All this time, you've been in love with my sister."

"This isn't about love," Jaxon snaps. "This is about doing what's right for the pack. For my son."

"What about what's right for me?" My voice breaks. "I'm your mate, Jaxon. Your fated mate. Doesn't that count for anything?"

His silence is devastating.

Cassandra makes a small sound, drawing Liam closer. "Skye, I know this is hard to hear, but Jaxon and I... we're just trying to figure out what's best for Liam. We're not trying to hurt you."

"You've been back for a month." I'm shaking now, rage and heartbreak warring inside me. "A month of secret meetings. A month of decisions made behind my back. A month of you two playing happy family while I trained myself into exhaustion trying to be the Luna he needed, not knowing I was already replaced."

"No one is replacing you," Jaxon says, but there's no warmth in it. No reassurance. Just that same cold authority he uses with pack members who challenge him.

"You slept with my sister." The words taste like poison. "You had a child with her, and you never told me. Not when we got married. Not during any of these three years. You let me believe—"

I can't finish. Can't voice the pathetic hope I'd been carrying around like a talisman. That maybe someday he'd love me. That maybe I could be enough.

"I didn't know about Liam," Jaxon says through gritted teeth. "I'm not keeping secrets to hurt you, Skye. I'm trying to handle a complicated situation with as much dignity as possible."

"Dignity." I taste blood where I've bitten my lip. "Is that what we're calling this? You want me to stand beside you at this meeting, smile prettily while you announce your son with my sister, and just accept that I'll always be second choice?"

"You're being unreasonable."

"I'm being unreasonable?" My voice rises to a near-shout. "You're planning some twisted arrangement where I play Luna while you and Cassandra raise your son together, and I'm the unreasonable one?"

"Skye—" Cassandra starts.

"No." I hold up a hand, something hardening in my chest. Something that feels almost like strength. "No, I'm done. I'm done being the understanding wife. The accommodating mate. The Luna who doesn't make waves."

I look at Jaxon, really look at him, and try to find any trace of the man I fell in love with all those years ago. But all I see is the Alpha who married me out of obligation. Who's been in love with my sister this entire time.

"I want a divorce."

Skye

The words drop into the silence like stones into still water.

Jaxon's eyes narrow. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me." My hands are steady now, even as my heart splinters. "Whatever sick arrangement you and Cassandra have planned, count me out. I won't be part of this."

"You don't mean that." Jaxon takes a step forward, and for a moment something flickers in his eyes—surprise, maybe, or anger. "Skye, you're my mate. You can't just—"

"Watch me."

I turn and walk out before he can see me fall apart. Before Cassandra can offer more poisonous sympathy. Before I do something stupid like tell him about the baby growing inside me—the baby that should have been his heir, but never will be now.

Behind me, I hear Jaxon call my name, sharp and commanding.

I don't stop.

I don't look back.

My hands tremble and my legs shake as I make the climb up the cliff to my secret hideaway, but I keep going until I reach the top. I found this place when I was fourteen, after one of the numerous times Cassandra humiliated me in front of the entire pack and I've been coming here ever since.

It's beautiful up here. Peaceful. Everything my life isn't.

I wrap my arms around my knees and let myself cry—really cry, the kind of gasping, ugly sobs I'd never allow anyone to see. My carefully applied makeup is probably running down my face in dark streaks. The blue dress Jaxon supposedly liked is creased and dirty from the climb up here.

I don't care.

Let it all fall apart. It was an illusion anyway.

"I knew I'd find you here."

I jerk my head up, my wolf surging with alarm before I catch the familiar scent. Warm brown sugar. Safe. Known.

Noah.

He's standing a few feet away, hands in his pockets, his dark hair slightly windswept. Those warm brown eyes that used to crinkle with laughter when we'd sneak away together are filled with concern now.

"Go away," I tell him, my voice raw.

"Can't do that." He moves closer, settling onto the rock beside me with the easy comfort of someone who's done this a hundred times before. "You're upset."

"Brilliant observation." I swipe at my face, hating that he's seeing me like this. "Shouldn't you be with your Alpha? I'm sure he needs his Beta to help manage the fallout from his dramatic wife."

Noah doesn't rise to the bait. He just sits there, solid and steady, the way he always has.

We used to do this all the time back when we were still best friends. I even wondered if we might be fated mates, though I was too busy crushing on Jaxon to give it much thought. Ridiculous, considering he was dating my sister and I’d never been brave enough to do more than admire him from afar.

But that was before everything went wrong. Before the night of my eighteenth birthday when Jaxon's scent hit me and I realized my best friend wasn't my mate after all. Before Noah pulled away from me, leaving me to navigate a loveless marriage and my new role as Luna alone.

"I'm sorry," he says quietly.

"For what? You didn't knock up my sister."

"Skye—"

"He still loves her.” I blurt out, the words spilling over before I can stop them. “Maybe he always has. And he ended up stuck with me. The pathetic girl who'd been crushing on him since she was fifteen, so desperate to be chosen that she'd accept any scraps he threw her way."

"Stop." Noah's voice is firm now, edged with something almost like anger. "Don't talk about yourself like that. You're not pathetic, Skye. You're the best Luna this pack has had in generations."

The praise makes my throat tight. "That won't matter when he divorces me."

"He can't." Noah's hand finds mine, warm and solid. "Even if he wanted to—which I don't think he does, not really—unbonding from a fated mate isn't something easily done. Especially not to replace you with someone who isn't even his true mate."

"He has a son with her." The words feel heavy. Final. "An heir. That changes everything."

"It changes the political landscape," Noah concedes. "But it doesn't change what you are to him. What you've been to this pack. You've been a better Luna than Cassandra could ever be—more compassionate, more dedicated, more—"

"More foolish." I pull my hand away. "I thought loving him would be enough to win his heart eventually. But I've wasted three years trying to make him love me, Noah. Three years of pretending everything was fine when it clearly wasn't. And all that time, he's been pining for my sister."

"You don't know that."

"I saw the way he looked at her today." My voice breaks. "Like she was the answer to a question he'd been asking for years. And I saw the way he looked at that boy. His son. There was... tenderness there. Something I've never seen directed at me."

Noah is quiet for a long moment. When he speaks, his voice is careful. "I was in the meeting room after you left. I saw how crushed you were. Hell, everyone saw it. And for what it's worth, Jaxon looked pretty shaken too."

"Shaken because his dirty secret got exposed."

"Maybe. Or maybe because he realized what he's about to lose."