Chapter 1

On the eve of my promotion to Chief Healer, my Alpha, Leander, secretly submitted a medical deployment application to the Northern War Zone in my name.

When I confronted him, he brushed it off. "Celeste used my computer yesterday and accidentally submitted it for you. It was just a little joke."

"Isn’t there a second confirmation? You could have rejected it."

Leander knew perfectly well that if I failed to respond within twenty-four hours, the application would be automatically confirmed.

Once it went through, I would have to spend three years in the Northern War Zone, where whether I lived or died would be anyone's guess.

Not only had he kept it from me beforehand, but he had also called it a joke, as though I would be vicious for holding Celeste accountable.

Seven years together, and in the end, they meant less than a pretty intern who had been hovering around him for three months.

My heart went cold. I said nothing more and confirmed the deployment myself.

I never expected him to regret it.

...

APPLICATION SUBMITTED. If not actively withdrawn within twenty-four hours, deployment to the Northern War Zone will be automatically confirmed for a three-year assignment.

When I received the email from the Moonbound Healers Alliance about the Northern War Zone medical deployment, I froze for a second. Then anger surged through me.

The documents I had asked Leander to submit yesterday were clearly for my promotion to Senior Healer. What came back instead was a deployment application.

My phone buzzed. A colleague from the Alliance's Human Resources Office had messaged me.

Dr. Hart, did you submit the wrong form? High-risk territory deployment applications have a twenty-four-hour cooling-off period. You can still withdraw it.

Leander and I had been together for seven years. As an Alpha, there was no way he did not know how dangerous the North was. He had almost died on the border himself.

And now I was learning that he had filled out an application sending me there.

Our Mate Bond ceremony was supposed to take place next year.

I took a deep breath and called Leander with trembling hands.

"I received a deployment confirmation for the Northern front. Why?"

His careless voice came through the line. "Oh, that. Celeste came to my office yesterday to discuss the data and saw me organizing your materials. She said the Northern War Zone needed complex-trauma specialists like you the most, so she jokingly submitted the application for you."

He paused, his tone as light as if we were discussing what to have for lunch.

"She just graduated from the Wolf Medical Academy. She's passionate and impulsive. She was only joking with you. There is a twenty-four-hour cooling-off period, isn't there? Just withdraw it."

Celeste. Again.

She was the new trainee healer Leander had brought into the pack this year, and after I was promoted to Chief trauma Healer, she was the person most likely to take over my position on the project.

Young. Pretty. And every time she looked at Leander, the worship in her eyes was impossible to miss.

He knew that if the application was not actively withdrawn within twenty-four hours, it would automatically enter the review process.

And once a Northern War Zone medical deployment was approved, it meant at least two years away. Yet he described it as a little joke.

"If I hadn't checked my email in time, that order would have gone into effect. Do you understand how serious this is?" My voice tightened.

I could not understand why he had not told me earlier.

Leander sighed into the receiver, the impatience in his voice obvious. "Elowen, when did you become so uptight?"

"It was a joke. Celeste was going to remind you today anyway. Even if you had really missed the email, she would have told you tomorrow at the latest."

"If you want to report her, go ahead and report me too. I was the one who gave her access."

Then he hung up.

I stood before the tall window of the Blackridge Pack Medical Center, looking out at the empty streets before dawn. For the first time, I felt as if I had never truly known the person beside me for the past seven years.

Withdrawing the application would take only one email.

But at that moment, I no longer wanted to withdraw it.

I opened the border medical station database and began downloading epidemiological data, combat-trauma protocols for werewolf patients, and maps of local armed factions.

A colleague knocked on the duty-room door. "Dr. Hart, someone is looking for you downstairs."

Celeste was standing in the medical center lobby with two coffees in her hands.

When she saw me, she hurried over, her smile bright.

"Dr. Hart." She handed me one of the coffees. "I just spoke to Alpha Leander. He is taking the team to the Northern territories this weekend for a medical outreach program, and he invited me to be his assistant. Do you think it would be appropriate for me to go?"

Her eyes were clear, her tone sincere, as though she truly wanted my opinion.

It had been three months. Ever since this top student from Stanford Wolf Medical School had joined Leander's project team, she had been doing the most provocative things with the most innocent expression.

I took the coffee but did not drink it. "What do you think? You two have already made up your minds. What do you need my blessing for?"

Celeste tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Alpha Leander said this medical outreach is important. But I was worried you might misunderstand. After all, you used to be the one who partnered with him..."

"Then don't go."

She froze.

"Weren't you asking for my opinion?" I set the coffee down on the reception desk. "That is my opinion. Don't go."

Celeste's expression shifted. Before she could speak, the elevator doors opened.

Almost at the same moment, tears welled in her eyes.

Leander frowned when he saw her. "Celeste, what happened? Did someone upset you?"

"Alpha, no one upset me. I only came to ask Dr. Hart for her opinion... I was afraid she would be unhappy." Celeste lowered her head, tears falling at exactly the right moment. "I just didn't expect her to say she didn't want me to go."

Leander patted her shoulder and comforted her. "It doesn't matter whether she agrees or not. Since when do I need someone else's approval to choose my assistant?"

Then he turned to me, his eyes full of impatience. "Look how much Celeste cares about your feelings. And you? You're still making things hard for her over the Northern application?"

"She cares about my feelings? For three months, she has been bringing you breakfast and leaving caring notes right in front of me. She fights to sit beside you in meetings, posts ambiguous photos of the two of you on Instagram, and now she wants to act innocent? Who is she performing for?"

"I am your partner. But everywhere she goes, she acts as though she is the one who belongs beside you. She has no sense of boundaries at all. She is trying to take my place right in front of me. Calling you 'Alpha' every other sentence--doesn't it make you sick?"

"She calls me Dr. Hart to my face, but behind my back she probably wishes I would disappear."

Celeste went pale. She even forgot to cry.

Leander stared at me as if he were looking at a stranger.

"Are you done? When did you become this cruel?"

"Celeste is on my project team. It is my responsibility to mentor her. Why do you always have to make everything so ugly? It's a normal professional relationship, and you're twisting it into something dirty."

"Celeste is generous enough not to argue with you. Apologize to her, and this ends here."

I laughed from sheer anger. "Are you insane? You want me to apologize to the person who submitted a Northern deployment application for me? Impossible."

Leander pressed his lips into a thin line. "Elowen, if you insist on refusing to apologize, then the Mate Bond ceremony we planned for next year can be canceled too."

Looking at the man before me, I felt more and more as if he were a stranger.

The way he protected Celeste made my anger seem like a joke.

I lowered my eyes and said softly, "Fine. Then let's do as you said. Cancel the ceremony. End whatever bond is left between us."

Shock flashed through Leander's eyes.

Celeste immediately looked as though she wanted to mediate. "Alpha, Dr. Hart must only be saying that because she is angry. Please don't argue because of something so small involving me."

Leander came back to himself and gave a cold laugh. "Fine. Canceled, then. Don't come crying to me in the middle of the night, begging to get back together."

He left with Celeste. Before they were gone, I heard him speak to her in a gentle voice.

"Don't worry. We have been together for so many years. She always comes around."

"I have spoiled her too much all these years. This time, she needs to learn a lesson."