Chapter 1

At my daughter's eighth birthday party, my Alpha husband publicly accused her of not being his own child.

Before I could even get a word out in defense, my adoptive parents slapped me across the face.

Meanwhile Liane—the girl my adoptive parents had just claimed as their long-lost biological daughter—was curled up in my husband's arms, her eyes as innocent as if she'd been the one wronged beyond measure.

"I'm so sorry, Willa. I only mentioned in passing that Mia doesn't look much like Elias. I never imagined he'd actually go to the werewolf clinic for a bloodline verification…"

"And I never imagined Mia really was the pup you'd conceived with some other wolf."

Once the news spread, the entire pack was calling me a whore. Even my daughter, Mia, was branded a mongrel.

Only later did I discover that the bloodline test had been forged. All of it was a play Elias had staged in collusion with my adoptive parents—simply because they believed I, the adopted lone wolf, had stolen the affection meant for Liane, and deserved to pay for it.

I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I calmly dissolved the mate bond with Elias.

But what they didn't know was that the moment I turned my back on him, I signed a mate bond with the Lycan King.

…

Now I stood outside the door, listening to the conversation between Elias and his closest friend inside.

"You forged the bloodline report through a doctor just to vent Liane's grievances? Publicly branded your mate a cheater, denounced your own pup as a mongrel… Aren't you afraid mother and daughter will leave you for good?"

Elias didn't sound the least bit remorseful.

"What's there to be afraid of? Willa's adoptive parents knew all about the forgery from the start. They even helped me set it up."

"That outsider adopted stray took up twenty-plus years of pack resources and affection that should've been Liane's. Once Liane's resentment settles, I'll just re-sign the mate bond with Willa. Problem solved."

"Willa is soft and docile by nature. She's used to leaning on my Alpha aura. Even with the bond severed, she'll just sit obediently and wait for me to come back."

I clenched my fists until my whole body trembled with rage.

Then I heard Elias give a quiet laugh.

"Fine. I'll just play dumb."

"If anyone finds out the bloodline report was faked, I'll say the doctor made a mistake. Willa won't make a scene—guaranteed."

I braced myself against the wall as a spasm of pain twisted through my chest.

A few hours earlier, Mia had come sobbing home from the pup academy. The uniform she normally treasured was smeared with mud, and one of her knees was scraped raw, weeping blood.

I'd called her teacher at once, but the woman's voice was cold and cutting. She flatly ordered us to file transfer papers.

"Ma'am, do I really need to spell it out? The rumors about your affair with an outsider have spread through the entire werewolf community. Even the pups at school are calling Mia a mongrel. It's affecting the atmosphere of the academy!"

"The other pups' parents have jointly petitioned the elders. We simply cannot keep her here any longer."

When I hung up, I held my trembling daughter close, my chest aching so violently I could barely bear it.

Mia lifted her tear-streaked little face and asked me:

"Mommy… if I really was Daddy's, would he… love me again? Would everyone accept me?"

It was that quiet, humble hope of hers that had made me swallow every last shred of pride and come to Elias, begging him to go with me to the clinic for a retest.

I had never dreamed I'd hear this vicious, self-serving scheme through the door.

To him, forging a public bloodline report and destroying my reputation—and my child's—was nothing more than a trivial affair.

Every insult and humiliation Mia and I had endured was just part of a performance he'd staged to please another she-wolf.

Even the adoptive parents who had raised me for twenty years had willingly become accomplices in that performance.

I closed my eyes in anguish.

The sound of the two men chatting and laughing inside was unbearable.

Elias's friend still couldn't bring himself to let it go. He murmured his concerns:

"But Mia… I saw a bunch of pups crowding around her and calling her a mongrel with my own eyes. She ran out of the school gate crying the whole way. Can you really stand to let her suffer like this?"

"What if she finds out the truth when she grows up and refuses to acknowledge you as her father?"

Elias's voice was thick with certainty and arrogance.

"Pups have short memories. A little grievance is nothing."

"Besides, she's my flesh and blood. Werewolf bloodline bonds can't be severed. She won't disown me entirely."

I dug my nails into my palm until they broke skin, but I felt no pain.

The old me would have thrown open the door and confronted him.

But this time, I simply turned around, calm. This mate bond—I would end it. No matter what.