When Damian's mother, the former Luna Eleanor Blackwood, heard that Isabella was back and teaching Leo, she immediately rushed over with bags of luxury gifts.

Sitting on the sofa, the elegant woman held Isabella's hand. "Isabella, my dear child, you have suffered so much."

"You know, if you had just mated with Damian from the start, with the Blackwood pack's support, your Vance pack never would have fallen."

Isabella looked alarmed. "Aunt Eleanor, you mustn't say such things. The past is the past. I'm just grateful that the Alpha has given me a job."

"What's there not to say? I feel so much better with you looking after Leo," Eleanor said, patting her hand.

Eleanor leaned in and whispered, "Damian is going to break his mate bond, did you know? He decided the moment you came back. Doesn't that tell you everything?"

"Don't worry, even Leo adores you. You won't be mistreated here. And Damian will help the Vance family get back on its feet."

Eleanor hadn't bothered to let me know she was coming, even though she knew I was home.

I knew my place. I stayed in my room, not wanting to interrupt their reunion.

It wasn't just Damian and Leo who preferred Isabella. Eleanor did, too.

Long before my political marriage to Damian, Eleanor had wanted Isabella, who came from a powerful pack, to be her daughter-in-law. Isabella and Damian were equals, a perfect match for the role of Luna.

Unfortunately, Isabella didn't like Damian back then. She rejected him flatly and went abroad to pursue her music career.

And me? I came from a small, insignificant pack. In Eleanor's eyes, I was a gold-digger who had schemed my way into the Luna position.

I could feel her disdain, her disgust for me, but her high-class upbringing kept her from showing it too obviously.

My phone buzzed. It was a text.

The insurance payout for the car accident had been deposited.

I thought I would slowly forget the horror of that day.

But when I closed my eyes, it was like it happened yesterday.

It was pouring rain. Damian and I were on the freeway.

He got a call. I heard the voice on the other end clearly.

"Alpha, a group of rogue wolves are harassing the Vance territory. It seems they're after Miss Isabella."

Damian glanced at me.

I knew he wasn't asking for my permission. He was telling me he was going to save Isabella.

The Vance territory was in the complete opposite direction.

"Just drop me at the next rest stop," I said softly. "I'll call a car."

The second I stepped out, the rain soaked me, even with my umbrella.

The black Bentley sped away, splashing a wave of muddy water all over me. Our mate bond was already fragile, and now it was caught in a storm.

The taxi I called was old. On the wet highway, it started to skid.

The moment the car spun out of control, the hair on my arms stood up. I fumbled to buckle the seatbelt in the back.

My heart pounded in my chest, my mind went blank.

With a deafening crash, my head slammed against the window.

In that instant, time seemed to slow down.

My life flashed before my eyes, and every single memory was about Damian.

At ten, my family moved to a territory under the Blackwood pack's protection to survive. That's when I met Damian.

My parents told me to please him, to be careful around him, because he would one day be the most powerful Alpha.

At seventeen, I think I fell in love with him, but he hated me.

At eighteen, he fell in love with Isabella. I watched from the shadows as he chased after her, and then I watched his heartbreak when she rejected him.

At twenty-one, Damian got drunk and mistook me for someone else. He kept whispering Isabella's name. But for the future of my family, I didn't push him away.

The old Alpha found out. For ancient wolf packs, bloodlines and heirs are everything. He forced Damian to mark me. I got what I always wanted. I became his Luna.

At twenty-two, I got pregnant. The morning sickness was so severe I could barely hold my wolf form. The birth was even worse. I almost didn't make it. Neither did our son.

...

Memory is a tangled web of pain.

I opened my eyes again in a hospital room.

I was twenty-seven. My son was standing by my bed, calling another woman "Mom" right in front of me. And my Alpha allowed it.

I pretended not to care, but a thousand tiny cuts were bleeding me dry.

The people I couldn't bear to lose were hoping I'd just disappear.

I chose silence. Maybe happiness was never meant for me.

People always cling to what they fell for at first sight. For Damian and Leo, that was Isabella.

And me? From the very beginning, I had stolen the life that should have been hers.

I think this marriage has reached its end.

It was time to return the Alpha and his heir to the person they truly wanted.