Chapter 1

My face went completely pale.

Alpha Clark Calderon stood a few feet away, and his golden eyes were flickering with the primal glow of an Alpha. It was a sign of his wolf stirring beneath the surface.

He stared at me like he hadn’t just destroyed my world, or our mate bond was not fraying like torn flesh.

The light from the chandelier above hit my skin, making me look even more ghost-like. I clenched my fists, and my own wolf was whining in distress.

I was an Omega, the lowest in our pack hierarchy, but even an Omega could sense when a mate bond was breaking.

"You betrayed me," I said. My voice was barely above a whisper. The words burned like wolfsbane on my tongue.

"No, I did not. Please, let’s go home. I’ll explain everything. I swear." His voice was rough. The Alpha command laced his words, but it no longer had power over me, not after this.

I laughed so hard, and my Whoop fitness tracker registered it as a cardiac event, the sound hollow. "All those late-night business trips... You were with her, weren’t you?"

Omega Taylor Spencer stood beside him, and her scent was thick with the musk of an unmated Omega. Her voice was calm but stubborn. "Don’t jump to conclusions. We didn’t betray you. The child was from in-vitro fertilization. I only borrowed Calderon’s sperm."

Omega Taylor stood beside him in a Reformation wrap dress, her Dyson Air wrap-perfect curls bouncing as she explained their "IVF arrangement" like a WeWork contract negotiation.

She looked me over with an expression that made it seem like I was the one being irrational. "As an Omega woman, " she said, tapping her iPhone 15 Pro against her palm, "I have my pride. I’d never stop so low as to be a homewrecker."

It was so righteous and composed.

Alpha Clark watched me. He expected I’d understand that I may forgive him once I knew the truth.

He thought it was not cheating. He’d just granted a competent employee’s wish to have a baby: no intimacy, no strings, just biology.

But all I felt was nausea. Dizziness. The mate bond between us pulsed like an open wound.

Was this the Alpha man I’d bound myself to on my 18th birthday under the full moon? Was this Alpha man the one whose mark still burned faintly on my neck?

"So, you don’t think this is betrayal?" I asked, still clinging to a shred of hope. Some of me still wanted him to say it was a mistake and that he regretted it.

But instead, he gave me that familiar look, the one that said I was being dramatic and overreacting.

"Babe, come on… Please don’t lose your temper. People are watching."

I stood tall, held his gaze one last time, and turned around.

Behind me, I could still hear his soft and coaxing voice. He was not talking to me, but to her.

Omega Taylor Spencer.

I’d met her before. Beautiful. Educated. Polished. When she first joined the pack, she caused a stir.

People warned me—said keeping her around was dangerous.

Clark might not stay loyal forever.

But I didn’t listen. I trusted him.

I believed in him.

That was enough.

But I forgot a cruel fact: Mates can change. Mate Bonds have never been as unbreakable as they claim.

When I got home, I vomited until my head spun. The scent of wolfsbane clung to my clothes, a bitter reminder of the pack’s judgment.

For the first time, I truly understood how emotions could destroy your body and how pain could live in your stomach like a sickness.

I was drained. Done.

After washing up, I tried to lie down. Just rest. But I found the room suddenly was tilted, then my vision went black, and everything slipped away.

The last thing I heard was Alpha Clark s panicked voice, calling my name through our fading mental link.

When I opened my eyes again, the hospital ceiling greeted me—cold and white. The pack’s healer, an elderly healer with silver-streaked hair, stood nearby, her hands glowing faintly with healing energy.

"Babe... are you okay? Is there anywhere that hurts?"Alpha Clark’s voice came from beside me.

I didn’t look at him.

"Severing a mate bond between us," I said, my voice cracked and raw. "I, Sophia Sterling, reject you, Clark Calderon, as my mate."

Words seared the air between us. A formal rejection. It is the first step in severing a bond.

He froze. Then his hands shot out, grabbing mine like he feared I’d vanish if he let go. His eyes were bloodshot. Desperate.

And just like that, I was pulled back to the very beginning.

Back to the first time I met him.

Back to the rooftop.

Back to that Omega girl—me—on the edge of a building, one step away from letting it all go.

My parents had divorced. Neither of them wanted me. They’d built new lives with new families, and I didn’t fit into either. I felt like a ghost even before I decided to end it.

But just as I was about to fall, Alpha Clark showed up.

He grabbed my hand and refused to let go.

"Please," he had begged, his voice hoarse with emotion. "Please don’t give up. Please don’t give up on living."

That was the first time I met him.

And maybe.

That was also the first time I was saved—only to be broken again.