Chapter 1

I was on my way to my husband Damon’s office, clutching the pregnancy test the pack healer had placed in my hands that morning. Two clear lines stared back at me, filling my heart with a joy I had been longing to share with him. In my other hand, I carried the keys to the mansion I had secretly prepared for him, intending to give him both gifts when I told him he was going to be a father.

Throughout the journey, I had rehearsed how I would surprise him. Perhaps I would place the pregnancy test in his palm and watch his face light up, or perhaps I would wait until we shared our evening meal beneath the moonlight and reveal the news then.

But all my carefully imagined plans vanished when I reached his office.

I had just raised my hand to knock when I heard voices coming from within.

“Elara does not need to know, Larry,” Damon said. “It belongs to the past, and there is nothing more to be done about it.”

My hand remained suspended in the air, and a strange uneasiness settled over me. What could they possibly be discussing that I was not meant to know?

Then Larry spoke, and his words struck me with such force that I nearly lost my balance.

“You used her mother’s organ to save Selene Ravenwood’s sister. You lied to Elara, and her mother died because of it. What do you think she will do when she learns the truth?”

The blood drained from my face.

Selene Ravenwood.

Even hearing her name was enough to make my stomach twist.

Selene, Damon’s first love. Selene, the woman Adrian Ashford, my former fiancé and once-promised mate, had abandoned me for. Selene, the woman Damon had never truly stopped loving.

I pressed myself against the wall beside the door, my heart pounding so violently that I feared the men inside might hear it through the wood.

“I did what I had to do,” Damon replied coldly. “Selene needed me, and her sister needed that organ. Elara’s mother was already dying.”

“So you let her die?” Larry demanded.

“I saved Selene’s sister,” Damon corrected, without the slightest trace of remorse. “And I married Elara. Is that not enough?”

“You have spent five years lying to her, Damon. Five years pretending to be the husband she deserved. The poor girl loves you.”

“Elara means nothing to me,” Damon said flatly. “I have repaid whatever I owed her by fulfilling my duty as her husband. But if she discovers the truth, then so be it. I will cast her from my life if necessary. As long as Selene is happy, nothing else matters.”

The pregnancy test slipped from my trembling fingers and fell silently to the floor.

For a moment, I could not breathe.

All these years, I had believed Damon loved me. I had believed every gentle touch, every reassuring word, every time he had wrapped his arms around me and made me feel like the most precious female in his world.

I had been a fool.

My mother had died so that Selene’s sister could live, and the male I had loved had known the truth all along.

I bent down, picked up the test, and stared at those two lines through the tears gathering in my eyes. A child. Our child. A future I had been so happy to give him.

Now, it felt like another cruel joke.

I turned away before either male could discover me, leaving the mansion keys beside the corridor before I hurried from the room.

I did not know where I was going. I only knew that I needed to get away from him before the pain inside my chest consumed me.

I barely remembered reaching the pack’s main road before tears blurred my vision. Every word I had overheard repeated itself in my mind, each one cutting deeper than the last. My mother had died because Damon had chosen Selene’s sister over her, and for five years he had looked me in the eyes while keeping that truth from me.

My hands trembled against the reins as I tried to steady myself, but grief had already robbed me of reason.

Then a sharp cry from my wolf sounded through the bond.

Elara, watch—

The warning came too late.

A violent impact threw me from my horse, and the world disappeared beneath a wave of darkness.

When I opened my eyes again, the bitter scent of healing herbs filled my nose. Pain throbbed through my skull, while every part of my body seemed to ache from the fall.

I blinked several times until the dim shapes around me became clear.

Then I saw him.

“Elara.”

Damon sat beside my bed, his hand wrapped tightly around mine. His eyes were bloodshot, and his usually composed face was pale with what appeared to be fear.

“What happened?” he demanded, his voice trembling. “Why did you leave the pack grounds alone? You could have been killed.”

I stared at him without answering.

He brought my hand to his lips and pressed a trembling kiss against my knuckles before lowering his forehead to them.

“Do not ever frighten me like that again,” he whispered. “I cannot lose you.”

His eyes held such convincing anguish that, once upon a time, I would have believed every word.

He looked at me as though I were his entire world.

He played the part beautifully.

I forced a faint smile and swallowed the bitterness rising in my throat.

“I am fine,” I murmured.

Relief softened his features. He leaned closer, kissed my forehead, and whispered that he loved me, that I was precious to him, that he could never bear the thought of living without me.

I listened quietly, allowing him to believe that I was still the trusting mate he had deceived for five years.

I did not tell him that I had heard everything.

I did not tell him that I knew what he had done to my mother, nor that I knew his heart still belonged to Selene.

For now, I would let him believe his secret remained safe.

Because Damon Whitecastle had taken my mother from me, stolen five years of my life, and made a fool of my love.

He had no idea that the female lying quietly in his arms was no longer the woman he thought he knew.

And when the time came, I would make certain he lost everything he had sacrificed my life to protect.