Chapter 2

Back then, Chloe had knelt at my feet, swearing to repay me with her life—and she repaid me by climbing into my mate's bed.

And Quinn swore to protect me with his life, yet three years later, without exception, he fell for the exact same ungrateful traitor.

The snow outside was light.

Yet it felt colder than that night years ago.

Wiping the tears from the corners of my eyes, I picked up my phone without sparing them another glance.

I intended to find an ordinary pack quarter to spend the night.

"Wait," Chloe spoke up suddenly. Right in front of me, she wrapped her arms around Quinn's neck.

"Didn't you promise I could stay in the south-facing master bedroom? Making love by the window is so much more thrilling anyway."

Chloe locked eyes with me as she drawled out the last sentence.

Quinn let out a low chuckle, met my gaze, and scooped her up into his arms before carrying her inside.

That room had originally been our master suite. The ceiling had skylights because Quinn had said he wanted to hold me and look at the stars until we fell asleep.

Later, it was remodeled into a nursery. He had told me he wanted our future pups to wake up to the sun every morning.

And now.

Before our pup could even be born, this sanctuary of love was about to become their filthy love nest.

The rug, the sofa, the balcony outside.

Just like Easton before him, Quinn would pin this woman down.

They would pant, they would scream...

I closed my eyes.

The heavy slam of the door was like a blade,

carving my heart wide open.

I leaned against the wall, barely able to keep my balance.

The tears could no longer be held back.

In the dead silence of the hallway, my phone buzzed.

A text arrived from an unknown number: "Yara, don't you want to know why Quinn betrayed you for Chloe?"

"Tomorrow at nine in the morning. I'll be waiting at the Rose Garden Restaurant."

No need to guess.

The sender was my former mate, Easton.

The Rose Garden Restaurant was where we first met.

When the auction for my late mother's final heirloom fell through, my eyes had burned with heartbreak.

The very next day, he knocked on my door holding that exact heirloom.

For the next six months, an endless stream of gifts piled up like a mountain in the Muir living room.

My father wanted to sell me off for a high price.

Seeing that Easton was the wealthy Alpha of the Crimson Pack, he turned down the Ridge Pack and accepted him.

As the daughter of an elite Crimson Pack lineage, I was used to superficiality and greed.

I had never expected much from a mating bond.

Yet he broke through my frozen walls with clumsy, handwritten love letters.

When I fell overboard during a yacht party, he leaped into the dark ocean without a second thought to pull me out.

I was unscathed, but his legs were savaged to the bone by a school of aggressive predators.

When severe cramps made me curl into a ball in bed, he abandoned pack duties and stood by the stove until his fingers were red and blistered, just to brew me herbal tea.

Overjoyed, I thought I had found my true mate.

So I brought the stray rogue I had taken in, Chloe, to San Francisco.

And in return, they turned me into an abandoned female, exiling me into the cold.

Recalling these memories,

the sting was gone.

Just like seeing Easton again brought no lingering sorrow.

He looked the same as ever—dark, brooding eyes, impossibly handsome, just a bit leaner than before.

"There's something I need to tell you."

Seeing me sit down, he slid his phone across the table.

"What is this?"

Easton hesitated for a second, but ultimately swiped the screen open.

A single glance made my entire body tremble violently.

On the screen was a video: Quinn, holding a cigarette between his lips, handing bundles of cash to a group of rogues.

Seeing me frozen in shock,

Easton adjusted his glasses.

"When it comes to cruelty, I can't compete with Quinn. I was the one who exiled you back then, but... the one who hired those rogues to violate you was him."

The world exploded in my ears.

"To possess you, he stopped at nothing. He would rather destroy you..."

As his words echoed,

twisted, grinning faces flashed in my mind.

Taunts, jeers, the tearing pain in my body, the crushed remains of an unborn embryo.

"Shut up!"