If he wanted to warm another woman's body, he could have her. I was done.
When morning came, I wiped the dried tears from my face and made two calls on the communicator.
The first was to the Healing Hall. "I need to schedule a procedure. As soon as possible."
The second was to my mother. "Mom, Theron cheated on me. I'm dissolving the bond and coming home. Father's been wanting to hand the pack leadership over to me, right? I'll be there soon."
Lady Elara's voice didn't waver. "I told you from the start. You two come from different bloodlines. Mating with him was never going to end well. Come home. As for the pup, if you want to keep it, keep it. The Silvercrest line could use an heir."
I hung up and tore the writ in my hands clean in half.
Fifty billion gold moons. My father had transferred it to me. It was supposed to fund Theron's territorial expansion into the northern borderlands.
He would never see a single moon of it now.
I dug out our mating contract and was about to call the Pack Council's bond-dissolution office when my communicator buzzed twice. A message appeared in the spirit network group that Theron's inner circle had created to welcome me into their fold years ago.
Congrats, sister! The big day's finally here!
Congrats, congrats! It's been a long road! We're heading to the Healing Hall right now to celebrate with you and Theron.
I frowned, about to ask if they'd sent this to the wrong thread, when a third message appeared.
You idiot, wrong group! This is the FIRST mate's group. The little Luna is in the other one! Delete it, quick!
All three messages vanished in seconds.
My fingers tightened around the communicator until my knuckles went white.
A dull ache spread through my chest. Then a sharper one twisted low in my belly, and somewhere beneath my ribs my wolf stirred, pressing outward against my skin with a slow, grinding pressure, like something trying to surface through stone.
It had never occurred to me that there was another group. A second one. One I wasn't in.
Every time Theron's pack brothers saw me, they smiled and called me their Alpha's mate. Warm. Respectful. Familiar. They lowered their gazes in deference. They tilted their heads when they greeted me.
And the whole time, behind my back, they'd already given Corvina a title of her own.
How ironic.