Khloe Harper POV:

I didn't sleep.

The morning sun streamed through the windows, but it brought no warmth. Barron never came home.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My face was pale, and my blue eyes were shot through with red veins. A bitter, self-mocking smile touched my lips.

I couldn't stay in this cold cage any longer.

I changed into a simple pair of jeans and a t-shirt. I was going back to the Sunstone Pack.

I didn't tell anyone, not even my parents. I just wanted to escape, even if it was just to breathe familiar air for a little while.

I drove my car out of the underground garage, leaving Barron's territory behind. As my car crossed the Pack border, the invisible pressure on my shoulders lessened slightly.

After a few hours, I arrived at the Sunstone Pack's territory. The air was filled with the familiar scent of pine and earth, but my heart remained heavy.

I parked in front of the Harper main house, the house I grew up in.

The moment I got out of the car, I saw her.

Katharine.

She was standing on the porch steps, as if she had been waiting for me.

She had changed. She was no longer the sister I remembered, always in elegant dresses. She wore a sleek, black combat suit, her dark brown curls pulled back in a high ponytail. Her eyes were sharp, like a hawk's.

Her scent had changed, too. It wasn't just her usual Alpha scent anymore. It was mixed with something else... a foreign, hard power that made me deeply uncomfortable.

"You're back, little sister," she said. Her voice was calm, but there was no warmth in her brown eyes.

"I just... came back for a visit." I found my voice was dry. In front of her powerful aura, my Omega instincts felt suppressed.

Her gaze swept over me, as if assessing an object. "You've lost weight," she said flatly. "It seems the Alpha King's castle isn't as nourishing as the legends say."

Her words were a gentle knife, sliding precisely into my wound. I clenched my fists, my nails digging into my palms.

"That's none of your business," I retorted coldly.

She let out a soft laugh and slowly walked down the steps, closing the distance between us.

"How is it not my business? You're a Luna now. You represent the face of our Sunstone Pack. If you look too... pathetic, what will others think of us?"

Her words infuriated me. "It's not your place to lecture me, Katharine!"

She stopped right in front of me, her height advantage allowing her to look down at me. "Not my place?" She tilted her head. "Khloe, have you forgotten? If it weren't for your Mate-bond with Barron, I might be the one standing in his territory, lecturing you."

Her words hit me like lightning. It was my deepest fear, and the Pack's most well-known "regret."

I saw my mother, Kristine, walk out of the house. Her face wore its usual worried expression. "You two, why are you arguing the moment you see each other?"

Katharine immediately shed her aggressive demeanor, turning to our mother with a gentle smile. "It's nothing, Mom. I was just showing Khloe some concern."

I watched her change faces so quickly, a chill running down my spine. This was the real her, always able to play the perfect daughter in front of our parents.

My mother's gaze fell on me, laced with a hint of disapproval. "Khloe, why did you come back alone? Where's Barron? As a Luna, how could you leave the Alpha King's territory without permission?"

There it was again. She was always concerned with my title, my duties, never with me as a person.

I didn't want to explain. I just said tiredly, "I'm tired. I want to rest in my room."

I walked past them and headed into the main house.

In the instant I brushed past Katharine, I smelled it. On top of her own scent, there was another faint, but achingly familiar, aroma.

Cedar and mint.

Barron's scent.

My feet froze. All the blood in my body rushed to my head.

I whipped around, staring at Katharine, my voice trembling with rage. "You... you've seen him?"

A flicker of surprise crossed Katharine's face before she regained her composure. She lifted her sleeve to her nose, feigning innocence. "Oh? Have I? Perhaps I brushed against someone in a public place."

She was lying. The scent was faint, but it clung to her combat suit. It was not something you could get from "brushing against someone."

My mind went blank, filled with one horrifying thought: while I was desperately waiting for him to come home, he was with my sister.

Khloe Harper POV:

I locked myself in my room. My mind replayed Katharine's innocent expression and the scent of Barron on her clothes, over and over.

Rage and a sense of betrayal coiled around my heart like a poisonous vine, squeezing until I couldn't breathe.

I needed an explanation, an answer. But I knew that asking either Barron or Katharine would only result in lies or more humiliation.

Just then, my mind-link chimed with a call from Aimee. She was my best friend in the Sunstone Pack, a gentle Beta and the only person I could confide in.

I accepted the link, trying to keep my voice steady. "Aimee?"

"Khloe! You're back? I heard! Are you okay? I was so worried about you!" Aimee's voice was full of concern, a welcome warmth in my cold world.

I couldn't hold it in anymore. The dam of my emotions broke. I told her everything—Barron's coldness last night, and the scent I'd just found on Katharine.

The other end of the link went silent for a moment. That was unusual. Aimee would normally have immediately agreed with me, cursing Barron as an "Alpha-hole."

"Aimee? What is it?" I pressed.

"Khloe..." Aimee's voice was hesitant, as if she were struggling with a secret. "I... I don't know if I should tell you something."

Her hesitation only made the sense of dread in my gut grow stronger. "Tell me, Aimee! Whatever it is, I want to know!"

"Okay..." Aimee took a deep breath. "Well... yesterday, a friend of mine, Stacy White, she was at the Moonlight Hotel in the neutral zone for some business, and she... she saw something."

The Moonlight Hotel was the most luxurious hotel at the junction of the three major Pack territories, famous for its absolute privacy. It was a place where powerful people held secret meetings.

My heart started to pound against my ribs. "What did she see?"

"She saw... Alpha King Barron and Katharine... going into the penthouse suite together."

Aimee's words were a lightning bolt that struck me right in the head.

I lost the ability to think. A loud ringing filled my ears.

Hotel... penthouse suite... Barron... Katharine...

The words combined to form the filthiest picture I could imagine.

"Khloe? Are you still there? Khloe!" Aimee's voice called out, laced with panic.

I snapped back to reality, my voice hoarse and unrecognizable. "How long... were they together?"

"Stacy said she saw them go in during the afternoon, and they hadn't come out by the time she left late at night... Khloe, you know Katharine has always had a thing for the Alpha King, and... honestly, besides not having the Mate-bond, she's a better fit to be Luna in every way than... than you."

Aimee's words were like salt rubbed into my open wound. Yes, I was just an Omega, a substitute who had landed this position because of some cruel joke by the Moon Goddess.

So, Barron's "busy with Pack affairs" meant holing up in a hotel room with my sister?

So, the scent on Katharine wasn't from "brushing against someone," but proof that they had spent the entire night tangled together in bed?

A wave of unprecedented fury washed over me, threatening to burn away my sanity.

Betrayal! This was a blatant betrayal! A violation of the most sacred bond decreed by the Moon Goddess herself!

Every werewolf knows that if a Mate is unfaithful, the pain can be enough to tear a soul apart, even causing the betrayed to lose their inner wolf, or die.

My body began to shake uncontrollably, not from fear, but from pure, unadulterated rage.

"I'm going to kill him..." I squeezed the words through my clenched teeth.

"Khloe, calm down! He's the Alpha King!" Aimee exclaimed through the link.

Calm down? How could I be calm? My husband and my sister had betrayed me!

I shot to my feet, my mind consumed by a single thought: find Barron, confront him, and then...

Then perform the Rejection.

I would reject him. I, Khloe, would personally tear apart this disgusting bond.

I cut the link with Aimee and stormed out of my room.

I had to get back to Barron's territory immediately. I couldn't wait another second.